That was some season finale, to the worst season of NCIS (so far). And yet, a quick look at Special Ops tells me people didn’t like it. I thought it was well written – by Gary Glasberg – and that it almost made up for last week. No, it didn’t, come to think of it. But it revived my hopes. Which in itself is weird considering we will now spend four months wondering ‘if’ and ‘who’ and really?’
It is yet more proof that good writing is almost everything, and by letting too many bad writers – or new writers – loose on NCIS, they will kill off the enthusiasm of millions of fans. It’s a hard thing to achieve, but season nine is halfway there, so let’s stop the bleeding now.
The first and the last episodes of a season must get it right. The beginning of the ninth wasn’t one hundred percent successful, but allowing a character back for the end, sort of closed the loop.
They didn’t use Palmer’s wedding as well as they might have done. And the title of the final episode is apt in more ways than one, as usual. Except I’d like ‘us’ and ‘do’ to change places.
I’m wondering if Dr Ryan’s cool-and-normal to downright certifiable personality was purely down to individual writers? If so, Jamie Lee Curtis must have wondered how the hell she was meant to play the changeable doctor. Gibbs definitely looked more Gibbs-like next to a mostly rational girlfriend. Yes, the son was creepy, but sons often are.
As a hardened fan I am not the first in line to panic, and I will not spend the next four months in despair, but what a marvellous cliffhanger for all the disenchanted fans! More people will want to return in September than not. Good thinking. Although I wish more good thinking had been in operation before now.
(Photos © CBS)
