And I got to see some bootcamp training and I was even drilled by a drill [instructor] while I took apart and put back together an M-16. It was tough!" Mac was described by Bell in 1999 as "tough and feisty and a lawyer and an action hero all rolled in one". Bell continued to co-star in JAG as Sarah MacKenzie until the cancellation of the show in April 2005. A possible spin-off/reformat of an 11th season of JAG, centering on Mac's assignment in San Diego was pitched to CBS, but the network passed on the spin-off idea. Former JAG screenwriter and current NCIS: Los Angeles showrunner R. Scott Gemmill said in a statement when it was revealed in April 2019 that the character of Mac would make guest appearance comeback on NCIS: Los Angeles: "Catherine’s Mac was a strong, smart woman who held her own, and then some, in a male-dominated world. Her character paved the way for other strong female leads" and that "Not only is it great to be working together again as friends, but to be able to write for Catherine and have her same character interact with our NCIS: Los Angeles characters now, that’s wonderfully surreal. It feels like everything has come full circle." Reception The similarities in the relationship between Mac and Harm and that of Scully and Mulder on The X-Files has been noted by many. Entertainment Weekly elaborated further on it: in each case it is a "hunky loner", partnered with "attractive women with whom they have a charged yet ultimately platonic relationship", each working for the U.S. Government and based in the DC metropolitan area, with seemingly "unlimited travel budgets": with the key thematic difference being that in JAG with its "red-white-and-blue patriotism" the "U.S. military is seen as a force fighting for good around the world" while in the other series displays "antiauthoritarian cynicism" towards ditto. Time in 2001 described the character of Mac as a "legal babe who didn't wear micro-minis or have sex with random men in car washes a la Ally McBeal". Slate wrote that "Bell as Mac is fine. The character is cute and scrupulous, a recovering alcoholic; for a short time, she had a Southern accent" and as to the will-thy-won't-they aspect it was asserted that episodes "pass with little in the script or the performances to suggest that Harm and Mac are flirting; then,