NCIS – Damned if you do

That was a little better, although the ending of NCIS season ten will not have me sleepless over the summer. My companion shook his head and said he didn’t quite get it. He also wondered if we’d strayed into Due South. I think being in a boat with someone dead makes it look as if we had. Someone you talk to and who talks back, I mean.

But it was good to have Mike Franks back, even as a dead guy in a boat.

What really doesn’t make sense is how the Directors of two agencies can take personal interest in one agency team, when they must have so much else to do.

Good to see them digging up someone from JAG. I liked him, despite not being a JAG viewer. He drinks tea, if nothing else.

Usually it’s September when we see what happened in the intervening four months. This time we made the jump to September, while it is still technically only May. Time travel?

And that thing we saw, or thought we saw, at the end? That’s bound not to happen. But they want us to worry all summer.

Quite liked the cabin in the woods.

NCIS – Double Blind

Could Gibbs really not think of anything punchier to say than ‘what do you think?’ He really isn’t the same man he was. I know, it’s not realistic to expect people to stay the same, but this was the retort of the child who can come up with nothing better under pressure. (And I know; it’s the scriptwriters who couldn’t. Not Gibbs.)

Although, until then it was going quite well, with plenty to think about for the season finale next week. Bluffs and double bluffs are effective, and can have you change your predictions every five minutes.

Colin Hanks was excellent as the annoying outsider, probing away and irritating the whole team. And was there a suggestion he’s smarter than McGee? We can’t allow that.

After the earlier fears that Ziva is on the way out, I feel the limelight has switched to Gibbs, which is unlikely. Which brings thoughts back to Ziva again.

Or there is more than one double bluff.

(Photos © CBS)

NCIS – Revenge

It wasn’t bad. Nor were Tony and Ziva dead. But it wasn’t marvellous, either. Let’s say it was an adequate ending to an exciting start.

This revenge thing is almost getting too big. It’s the ‘he killed my wife so I have the right to kill him’ syndrome. It was for the best that Director Vance didn’t shoot anyone. As I said last week, lovely to see ex-Director Morrow, but why did he have to act so impatient?

The fact that Ziva is not yet dead, doesn’t guarantee her presence next season, unless Cote de Pablo has signed in the interim. It could be a Kate Todd all over again. Someone has to go, so let’s tease them with who it might be, kind of thing.

I for one would welcome some ordinary decent Marine/Navy killings/mysteries. Maybe a week or two without personal connections to the cases? Let DiNozzo fondle some more implants and be rude about McGee’s driving, by all means. But let’s go for plain NCIS crime.

And remember the humour. More of it. (I suppose the plunger was OK.)

Please.

She’s probably not dead

And neither is he. Probably.

It’s funny how when other television shows have just screened, facebook is awash with people commenting. For NCIS I have to sit in silence, except tonight when one of my favouritest crime novelists shrieked with worry about the fate of Ziva and Tony. And she clearly has the right kind of friends. Ones who know what it’s about.

But last year’s season finale bomb was worse. And people survived that. On the other hand, actresses of a certain age have to chose between having babies or playing their screen part, when shows run for years. S’not easy, as Abby might say.

Whatever happens later, this was one of the few worthwhile episodes of season ten. One where – thanks to fb friend – I sat stiff with excitement the whole way through.

And I love it that ex-Director Morrow is back!

Here are a couple of links.

NCIS – Detour

While you know they are not going to kill two of the regular team just like that – probably –  Detour was still exciting. It’s one of the few really enjoyable episodes this season, and all the better for letting Ducky and Palmer take the lead.

(I was fascinated to see quite how many tweets Brian Dietzen produced soon after the episode aired. He was right to be proud.)

Even if you hadn’t read about it in advance, the signs that something would happen to the two good doctors were there from the start. Using the clichéd phrases we’ve heard for years took on a new meaning when you knew it wouldn’t be quite the same as it usually is.

‘A most interesting autopsy’ is one way of putting it. Not the only one Ducky has done in the rough, but more spectacular. Going on about how good a brain Ducky has, suggested that he’d need to use it.

And then you have the ‘unfeeling’ way of talking about dead bodies to the baddies; ‘I can peel back the skin if you like.’ It’s good to see how much can be achieved by using brains rather than brawn, or conventional weapons. This was not an episode about those who are less able. They are just different.

Always so formal with each other, it was telling when that Ducky started calling Palmer Mr and changed it to Jimmy.

I have no idea what Prestige 6, or even 7, might be. Something for the young. They bickered like father and son. Wonderful!

(Photos © CBS)

NCIS – Shiva

They seem to specialise in writing a good episode, ‘to be continued’ by a less riveting affair, don’t they? I felt Shiva was nothing but sentiment. It had none of the Kill Ari thrill, where every scene was full of everything you could possibly want.

Gibbs is getting soft in his old age, while DiNozzo occasionally comes across really well. Funny how we get to visit his apartment so soon again, now that we’ve finally been allowed in. I was hoping he’d introduce Ziva to Kate the goldfish, despite her grief. But he didn’t.

We have a new father figure for Ziva already, with the return of Schmeil. Let’s hope he lasts. We also have a new Mossad baddie, not to mention a completely hopeless Deputy Director. You can’t have someone like this Craig! Not in a job like that. And if they have deputies, why on earth has Gibbs been deputising in the past?

I know why. It’s plot driven. Pure fiction.

And did they know they had two – seemingly – unrelated Swedes? I mean that the Swedishness was unrelated, not the men.

Photos © CBS

NCIS – Shabbat Shalom

Well, well. This was the first episode crying out to be written about since, since… Probably since the end of season nine.

I wonder how they do it? The scriptwriting, or the plotting; do they gather and discuss who or how many recurring roles they can kill off in one episode? This was quite astounding, considering all the people who survived the bomb blast in May. Could it be they are after getting rid of Director Vance?

You could tell that Eli David was for it. My companion expected him to have a heart attack, but I felt that standing up at dinner was a risky move to make. You could also tell the Vances weren’t going to have their cosy evening in, but we didn’t see the obstacles quite in this way.

Cunning build-up, too. Start with some fishing, and the usual (fake) Navy murder victim, and move sideways to cosy family stuff, and on to top of the range politics, and then, kaboom! Pretty good, even if it was upsetting.

Let’s see how they can disappoint me next week.

(It was written by Christopher J Waild. At the moment I can’t recollect where he stands in my list of writers. He’s moved up, wherever he started.)

Photos © CBS

The Christmas episodes

Not surprisingly, some were better than others. Although we found ourselves making comparisons between fresh new writing as was the case for older new Doctor Who seasons, as well as for the earlier season of NCIS. Downton Abbey was OK-ish. Apart – obviously – for you-know-what. NCIS: Los Angeles felt more Christmassy than its big brother did.

Although, it was very noticeable that they had decided to throw in a little from many early NCIS seasons and stir well. Except maybe the stirring wasn’t done terribly thoroughly, after all.

I don’t care for the Doctor’s new assistant. She’s spunky, but the chemistry between us is all wrong. And I trust there is now a country full of children who will scream at the mere idea of a snowman.

How could they end Downton Abbey like that? They did, though, didn’t they? Someone here was disappointed it wasn’t a wintry episode, but when you’ve seen one snow scene, you’ve seen them all. And all that Scottish deer-stalking will suit the Americans just fine. Long live Mrs Patmore and her patés!

So, L A was an early NCIS medley with a Christmas twist. But at least once they’d sorted out the drugs on the ship (I just couldn’t get over the L A gang being on a boat in the first place) they went a little Christmassy. To my mind Nell didn’t need fake elf ears. Besides, didn’t she go from very sad to surprisingly chirpy very quickly?

But NCIS, oh, NCIS… What shall we do about you? This was an over sugary episode with too many cute scenes. I almost didn’t mind DiNozzo Sr being back. Again. He was almost more rational than Jr. And the sight of Junior’s bed is now forever etched on my mind. His flat was gorgeous, but was it him?

As for the goldfish… Or the snickerdoodles. Well.

Perhaps get Steven Moffat to write the next episode?

Happy Birthdays!

Agents David and McGee and (I suppose he must be a) Dr Palmer have another set of birthdays. Even fictional people celebrate birthdays. Except not necessarily at the same time as their actors.

So a shared Happy Birthday to Cote de Pablo (today) and Brian Dietzen (Wednesday) and Sean Murray (Thursday), 33 and 35 and 35 years old! I suppose for them it might be like twins (triplets, even), that because they have their birthdays around the same time, they each get less attention. On the other hand, they are almost old enough to be glad of that.

Yeah, they look happy enough. Save some cake for me.

(Photos © CBS)

NCIS – Recovery

It wasn’t really, was it? At least not for Ducky, who had to storm off in a most un-Ducky-like manner. And are the team mentally recovered from the explosion, or not? Dr Wolf was so like Dr Cranston as it’s possible to be, without being her. Maybe a little milder, unless he’s just biding his time.

I was going to say all this mandatory psycho-evaluation stuff is so unlikely, except I suppose a US federal employer needs to offer, or insist on, the soft touch for their employees. It’s mandatory. Even for directors on guilt trips.

Had it not been referring back to the bomb, this could have been any old NCIS case; let’s find the killer, but let’s find them even more because the victim was one of our own. There were plenty of new temporary characters who might have done it, but I did want it to be the ‘interior decorator’ except it was hard to come up with a good reason for her to be the murderer. Felt that the armoury chap’s stitches looked too fresh, to be four months old.

But I mustn’t complain, because we finally – yes, finally – got to investigate Abby’s long lost brother Kyle. And now that he has proven himself beyond doubt to share the Abby-genes (what a scene that was, in Gibbs’s house!) the question is whether he will become almost regular, or never be seen again.

Because we don’t want him to pop up as either a victim or a suspect in some future episode! Have you got that?

Perhaps Abby can return to autopsy now. If not to sleep, at least to do her job.

(Photos © CBS)