History Series / JAG

* EvilVirtues: From time to time, the heroes will be dealing with a WellIntentionedExtremist (or even a relatively heroic character who is simply serving a different nation at cross-purposes to the USA). Other times even the more petty villains will PetTheDog, such as in "Shadow", where the HollywoodNerd "Techno Pirate" who had hijacked an experimental torpedo is quick to try and comfort Meg Austin when he realizes she is having a full-blown claustrophobia attack in the confines of a submarine.

* HollywoodNerd:
** Subverted in places, particularly less than five minutes in the [[PilotMovie pilot episode]], where one of the aviators and air crew of the USS Seahawk (one of the series fictional Aircraft Carriers) banter about what taking out Klingons and Romulans would mean when painting on kill symbols onto the F-14.
** After getting Harm out of a minefield in Afghanistan (season 7, episode 23 "In Country"), Mac acknowledges that she [[SawItInAMovieOnce only learned how to do it by watching movies]].
** Played almost straight in other places, like with Bud and his various "nerdy" interests.
** And then the straight examples and subversions meet at an intersection when Bud finds common ground with a Taliban prisoner they are trying to interrogate, who turns out to be a huge [[Franchise/StarTrek Trekkie]] (and who ends up [[LooseLips spilling some important details]] when talking about his experiences related to the show.)

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: While only four characters are in the opening credits for 8 seasons, it has a fairly expansive supporting cast.

* PoliticalCorrectnessGoneMad: The very first appearance of Admiral Chegwidden on the show, in "Smoked", has him ranting a lengthy tirade about the state of political correctness imposed on the Navy in the wake of the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tailhook_scandal Tailhook Scandal]].

* AdultFear:
** In episode "Nobody's Child", pregnant Harriet Sims accidentally gets to see crime scene photos of the corpse of a brutally murdered girl and freaks out. A few episodes later in "The Adversaries" she sees the dead girls identical twin sister and gets flashbacks of the photos.
** During the show's last two seasons, Harm became the legal guardian for a teenage girl named Maddie, who was abandoned by her father, who was driving when her mother died in a car accident(it was later revealed that her father was sober behind the wheel at the time). During the show's final season, Maddie was badly injured in a bi-plane crash and faced paralysis. Although Harm was being reassigned to London during the show's finale, he promised that he and Maddie would be together and that he would help her rehabilitate from her injuries.

* AndNowForSomethingCompletelyDifferent: No more than four episodes had stories involving characters other than the main cast, though still played by the main cast.
** Season 5's ChristmasEpisode was a WholeEpisodeFlashback to when Harm's dad was shot down over Vietnam, framed by Harm speaking with a USO performer who'd met his dad shortly before.
** Season 6's "Mutiny" had a dramatization of the RealLife mutiny attempt on the USS Somers and the investigation that followed, framed by Mac preparing to lecture on those events.
** Season 8's "Each Of Us Angels" focused on a group of Navy nurses before and during the Battle of Iwo Jima, and is the only episode where the entire cast appears, [[StandAloneEpisode but where none of them play their usual characters]].
** Season 9's "WhatIf" is an {{Elseworld}} [[AlternateUniverse story]] inspired by a series of identical fortune cookies. [[spoiler: Harm and Mac are married and about to divorce, Chegwidden's retired and married to his current girlfriend, Sturgis is working as manager for his girlfriend, Bud and Harriet aren't married, Coates is helping in a sting operation to catch thieves, and the head of JAG is Rear Admiral (formerly Cmdr.) Alison Krennick, unseen outside of flashbacks since the first season.]]

* ObligatoryWarCrimeScene: The promotion of Rear Admiral Thomas Boone to Vice Admiral is called off in "A Separate Peace" because of credible sources claiming he took part in [[UsefulNotes/TheLawsAndCustomsOfWar war crimes]] during UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar when working closely with UsefulNotes/{{CIA}} officers. [[spoiler: He didn't do it, but witnessed such actions under protest]].

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jag-show_9821.jpg]]

** Even recurring characters such as Thomas Boone (first Commander Air Group- or CAG- aboard aircraft carrier ''Seahawk'', then a Rear Admiral) and Caitlin Pike (first Lt. JG, later a full Commander) get a promotion or three, albeit offscreen. Episode 200, in addition to promoting Petty Officer Jennifer Coates to Petty Officer 1st Class, even showed a what-if scenario where Cmdr. Alison Krennick, unseen since the first year outside of a flashback to a LostEpisode, was Rear Admiral and heading JAG.

* LostEpisode / CutShort: Something of a unique example - the first season was to end with an episode called "Skeleton Crew", which ended with a CliffHanger of Harm being arrested for murder. It wasn't aired by NBC, but did air in reruns on Creator/USANetwork and was included in the DVD release. While the original episode was never used, footage from it was later included in the third season's "Death Watch".

* MakingLoveInAllTheWrongPlaces: In the pilot episode, Lt. Arutti and Lt. Painter has sex in a transport plane parked on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Seahawk.

* MinorCrimeRevealsMajorPlot: In "Brig Break", a handful of prisoners busting out of the brig gradually escalates into a plot [[spoiler: to destroy the base with a nuclear explosion and selling stolen nuclear weapons to UsefulNotes/SaddamHussein.]]

-->-- Season 1, Episode 14, "Smoked"

* MenUseVIolenceWomenUseCommunication: In "Scimitar", the US military's plan has Harm acting to bust Corporal Anderson out of prison, while [[LockedOutOfTheLoop keeping Austin entirely out of the loop]] and believing their primary goal is to get him acquitted at the trial. Meg isn't thrilled when she learns of this. This neatly mirrors the relationship between Lt. Dumai and the male Iraqi officers.

* NotSoDifferent:

*** Similarly, the way Lt. Austin is kept out of the loop on the secret mission to free Corporal Anderson mirrors the dismissive attitude that the male Iraqi officers have towards Lt. Dumai.

** In "In Country", Bud bonds with a suspected terrorist in a unusual example of this trope. [[spoiler: Both are fans of ''Franchise/StarTrek'', and Bud uses this to obtain information about an attack.]]
** In "When the Bough Breaks", while Bud is [[spoiler: recovering from his leg injury]], he befriends the Admiral's current girlfriend, a professor of [[Creator/WilliamShakespeare Shakespeare]], by noting how several episodes of ''Franchise/StarTrek'' borrow from some of Shakespeare's plays.
** In "Fighting Words" a Marine general is on trial for giving slanderous speeches equating Islam with terrorism, while in uniform. During the trial, an Islamic expert and practitioner testifies about the misconceptions the general has, such as the true meaning of "jihad". Then he adds a caveat by noting his own confusion on Christianity, specifically the claim of monotheism but they believe in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He could interpreter that as three gods.

* AlliterativeTitle: Sone episodes:

** In "Scimitar", Harm and Meg along with the freed marine sergeant struggle to get out of Iraq (in 1996) and into Kuwait in an armored limo, chased by an Iraqi gunship helicopter, and assisted by a [[GunshipRescue US Army attack helicopter]]. [[CrazyAwesome It's that kind of show.]]

* SubStory: JAG featured several episodes taking place on submarines, with plots ranging from historica events, espionage to fish-out-of-water stories to the occasional bit of HotSubOnSubAction.
** 12 out of 227 episodes featured sub stories.

*** 7x23 "In Country"

** Another example is in "Dog Rober: Part 1" when Harm goes to Admiral Boone's place to inform him that the [=SecNav=] wants to have him as his troubleshooter.

* RealityEnsues: In "Brig Break", a group of right-wing militiamen armed with automatic rifles encounters a Sea Stallion helicopter equipped with armor protection and machine guns. The fight lasts about two seconds before the militiamen are forced to retreat into the woods.

* CoolShades: On ''JAG'', all Naval Aviators has at least one pair.

* BeeAfraid: In the first season episode "High Ground", after breaking brig and taking to the hills Gunnery Sergeant Ray Crockett is spotting Marines approaching and instead of shooting at them, he shots at a bee's nest above them.

* OnlyLawFirmInTown: Often it makes you wonder why Harm, Mac et.al. at JAG Headquarters gets to act as trial and defense counsel from an wide array of cases from all around the Navy & the Marines and why they're not handled by the command staff judge advocates out in the field.

* NonviolentInitialConfrontation: In "Scimitar", Harm and Meg are officially in UserfulNotes/{{Iraq}} (during the time of the UsefulNotes/SaddamHussein regime) to act as legal counsel for the captured American Marine, so the Iraqis, including the villain, treat them as welcome guests at first.

* ChannelHop: From NBC to CBS.

* PutOnABus: Lt. JG Caitlin Pike was reassigned between the pilot and the first regular episode, while Lt. JG Meg Austin was present for most of the first season, but disappeared with little explanation at the start of the second. Mostly averted with other characters, however. Lt Elizabeth 'Skates' Hawkes did not appear after early Season 7.

* PutOnABus: Lt. JG Caitlin Pike was reassigned between the pilot and the first regular episode, while Lt. JG Meg Austin was present for most of the first season, but disappeared with little explanation at the start of the second. Mostly averted with other characters, however.

* ModestyBedsheet: Seen several times in season nine with Mac and FalseRomanticLead Clayton Webb.

* HonorBeforeReason: In "The Colonel's Wife", the eponymous wife has involuntarily become a drug courier in order to protect her husband's anti-drug program in UsefulNotes/Panama from blackmail. When the facts are about to be revealed, she gets herself killed in order to save her husband's honor.

** 1st season episode "Scimitar", set in UsefulNotes/Iraq (in 1996 during the reign of UsefulNotes/SaddamHussein), has an American Marine convicted for violating their territory. While the first part of the trial seems, if not sympathetic to the prisoner, remotely interested in distributing justice, at one point Harm manages to prove that the Marine was on the Kuwait side of the border. Then, a recess is asked, and when they come back, the witness changes the original distance that would prove the prisoner's innocence, and the records from where he stated the other distance just [[BlatantLies magically vanish]].
** 4th season episode "The Black Jet", set in UsefulNotes/Iran has an American on trial for violating their airspace. While the first part of the trial seems, if not sympathetic to the prisoner, remotely interested in distributing justice, at one point [[spoiler:Rabb manages to prove that the planes were miles outside the country's airspace. Then, a recess is asked, and when they come back, the witness changes the original distance that would prove the prisoner's innocence, and the records from where he stated the other distance just [[BlatantLies magically vanish]].]] Good thing [[spoiler:it was a DecoyTrial and the plan was to break out the prisoner anyway.]]

** Harm and Mac goes to UsefulNotes/Panama in "The Colonel's Wife".

* PublicSecretMessage: In "The Black Jet", Jack Keeter has downed in UsefulNotes/Iran with a secret airplane and is detained by the authorities. When first meeting Harm and Mac, accompanied by an Iranian official in prison, he says No Martin Baker's several times over. Harm later decodes the message: Martin Baker is the manufacturer of ejection seats, and thus Keeter didn't eject but landed the plane and was captured elsewhere.

* AndStarring: David James Elliott (Harmon Rabb) had the "starring" for all ten seasons, "and John M. Jackson as Admiral Chegwidden" at the end for the eight seasons (2-9) in which he appeared in the opening titles.

* ScaryBlackMan: In "Brig Break", Petty Officer Quinn, [[spoiler:who turns out to be a ReverseMole]].

* TapOnTheHead: In "Scimitar", the ReverseMole refuses to go with them to UsefulNotes/{{Kuwait}}, and intends to stay behind to [[LaResistance help fix the problems in]] UsefulNotes/{{Iraq}}, and insists on this to make it look like the heroes took them prisoner before leaving them behind. Harm balks at this, so [[ActionGirl Meg does it instead.]]

** In "Brig Break", [[spoiler: Gunnery Sergeant Gentry]].

* ReverseMole:
** In "Brig Break", [[spoiler: Petty Officer Quinn, who turns out to be an agent from Naval Intelligence working undercover.]]
** Happens in "Scimitar". One complication though is that Harm and Austin do not know who the ReverseMole with codename scimitar is, and they must find out without revealing themselves. Scimitar's [[UndercoverCopReveal identity is finally revealed]] when she arrives at Harm's room and [[spoiler: turns on the shower so they can talk in private.]]