NCIS beginnings and ends – Judgment Day and Last Man Standing

One of the best pairs. The kind that really left us snapping for oxygen over the summer. More so because the strike during the winter of season five meant we went several episodes short.

They made up for quantity by writing some real quality episodes to round off season five. You can argue that they only ever kill off the women, but Director Shepard was ready to go. Lauren Holly might not have been, but we were done with her character, and she went out with all guns blazing, which is the best way.

Wasn’t just guns which blazed, come to think of it. That was some funeral pyre Gibbs and Franks came up with, as the solution to all their problems. They killed a lot of birds in the final double episode. We got a western, as well as a California beach dream, followed by a grieving team. But after Kate, we could cope with anything. And Vance had already been eased into the role of taking over.

We were used to him. Almost liked him, despite that awful toothpick. So they had to go and make him temporary bad guy over the summer. I don’t think I ever saw so much fan speculation as that year. People screen-capped the shredder, to try and see what Vance was shredding.

We hated him. Bad or good, no one comes and splits up our team.

And then we returned to a new but still totally old set-up. New agents. Old roles. The ‘real’ team had new jobs. Some where happy. Others not. But it was done so well!

Gibbs and Vance cornering Palmer is priceless. The way the scriptwriters mixed silly humour with the deep sadness of losing an agent and friend takes a lot of skill. You went from giggles to tears to fury and back.

Not everything got sorted, but we were on a journey once more.

(Photos © CBS)

NCIS beginnings and ends – Angel of Death, and Bury Your Dead

Hindsight makes me dislike more about season four than I noticed at the time. Probably because I didn’t actually like the Tony DiNardo disguise. I wasn’t dead keen on Jeanne, but hated the way she was being used, which once you know, is pretty upsetting if you watch again.

But, we are still talking good writing, and a strong end to one season and a very good start to the next one. Once you stop having qualms about Jeanne, that is.

We haven’t watched Angel of Death very often. I used to think it was a mixed up episode, and my co-watcher isn’t too keen on the druggie’s sister in the morgue. Well acted, but disgusting. Her boyfriend is deliciously clever and crooked and very Irish.

But the rest is pretty decent. The thread about the little girls on the loose in the hospital, who might be Shirley Temple, or not, is fun. Not so sure about leaving Gibbs in charge when the Director goes away. Why would he be? Nice cliff-hanger ending.

For a first episode, Bury Your Dead is one of the best. That car bomb is most effective. The way Abby and McGee have mirrored each other overnight, helping the Director and Gibbs respectively, works well.

I love McGee’s comment to Ziva about how his parents raised a gentleman while Ziva’s parents raised a killer. La Grenouille gets his come-uppance, but by now we almost like the man. Kort is as bad as we want him to be.

And overnight, Director Shepard’s hair grew a good few inches.

Funny that not one of them thought to comment on that.

(Photos © CBS)

NCIS beginnings and ends – Hiatus and Shalom

Close on the heels of the death of Kate comes Gibbs lying injured in a hospital bed. I mean, as episodes Daughter tries to avoid watching because they are just so sad… Both parts of Hiatus are sad, but they are also funny and enjoyable, while being dramatic and quite upsetting in many ways.

That’s what good writing is. I know I keep coming back to this, but it’s true. So once you overlook the sight of Gibbs biting back a sob when he realises (again) that Shannon and Kelly are dead, this is fun. The drama doesn’t feel synthetic.

As I’ve said before, Abby’s monologue in front of the ICU nurse is priceless. Director Shepard is good in the same spot, but Abby is wonderful. Ziva’s threatening the ship’s captain is just right, and our first look at Mike Franks wears well.

On to Shalom at the beginning of season four and we return to Franks and his Mexican paradise. Camila brings the phone a second time, mirroring the call in Hiatus. It’s the first time we have seen a relaxed and almost normal Gibbs, and he does another ‘Mark Harmon thing’ by being on the roof, mending it for Franks.

Seeing Ziva both vulnerable and strong works well, and I’m glad she called in Gibbs’ debt so soon. As for her girl-on-girl fight at the end, it was rated 18 on YouTube at the time, which is ridiculous, but shows how good it is. The mirroring of Kate and Ari when Ziva is lured to follow the motorbike is another excellent move.

Did I mention good writing?

And we like Gibbs with a beard. The shirt is borderline, but the beard is just right. Could we have the good old days back, please?

(Photo © CBS)

NCIS beginnings and ends – Bravo Yankee Echo to Kate

The end of NCIS season two and the beginning of season three are among the very best episodes, and among the hardest to watch. Even though we watched season two late, when we already knew how it would end, it still didn’t make it any easier, or even any more obvious what was going to happen.

So we knew Kate would die, but the way they set up smoke screens, pretending to kill DiNozzo with the plague, and then offering up snakes and bombs and the need to protect Gibbs, meant we were as confused as they wanted us to be. I saw an interview with Mark Harmon on the eve of the last episode, and he claimed not to know who was going to die. It could have been him. Or so he said.

Twilight is as strong an episode as any, and it stands the passage of time well. It’s still exciting to watch, despite us knowing how and who and why. That penultimate shot when we think Kate has died, quickly followed by the killshot is pretty good.

There is humour, despite the fear and the danger. That’s what makes NCIS; the plot as such might be mediocre, but the script and the dialogue is first class.

As for Kill Ari, I had to watch part one three times before I felt even vaguely normal. It’s the one that has affected me more than any other. Yet again it’s the strong writing which makes it what it is, more even than the acting, which is also fantastic.

The team are shattered in more ways than one, it is raining (it always rains when things are bad) and Gibbs is nice. DiNozzo is right, we don’t want a Gibbs who is too nice, but it was quite fun to see what a nice Gibbs might be like. He doubts his own abilities, while the rest of his team daydream about Kate, the way they each saw her.

They have Ari to chase, while fighting the FBI’s view of him as an ally, and Gibbs has his old partner return without warning as his new Director. Ziva turns up and confuses DiNozzo, and we have that priceless scene in Ducky’s Morgan, with the useless Gerald almost wrecking it.

You don’t often get a really bad bad guy who can also be as interesting and as charming and normal as Ari. We sense that he is ice cold and cruel, but there is still a sense of humour.

(Photo © CBS)

NCIS – Life Before His Eyes or This is your wonderful life, Gibbs

It was too sad, too introspective, to be a 200th celebration. I’d been afraid of confusion and a rush to get through all those old and ‘new old’ characters for NCIS’s milestone episode no.200. That part was OK. It’s nice to see old friends, and foes, for that matter.

I loved the diner where Gibbs goes. Very classic sort of place and just suited to someone like him. It’s a lovely idea to find the people you care about all gathered somewhere like it. But it got confusing, keeping track of who was dead. And the question is, considering what Gibbs learned through meeting both the obvious people and some unexpected ones, will he remember his lesson and be happier in future?

Is a happy Gibbs a good thing?

There was no question but that ‘his people’ love him. But would they have, in this alternate world? What was Vance doing playing chess with Ari? And Jenny Shepard and Kate were far too cardboardy. I know why, but it was almost scary.

One day surely Gibbs will have to ask the girl masquerading as Kelly whether she really is his daughter. Is that daughter number three or four? Having the young Gibbs carrying on with his Marine colleague also felt slightly inappropriate.

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I need to get back to normal next week. And after all that psychoanalysis Gibbs will be more than ready for another woman.

(Photos © CBS)

Good old NCIS – Sandblast

It started with a face, and I had to work my way back to whose face and what episode. It turned out to be Blake Bashoff’s face and the episode was Sandblast, a great episode from season 4 which we don’t watch nearly as often as we should. I remedied that with yesterday’s lunch, and it reminded me of what has almost gone missing in more recent seasons. It’s choc-a-bloc with funny one-liners and you sit there wearing a big grin as you watch.

The reason Blake as the teenage Josh came to mind was that he was unusually good. Bereaved, but allowed to be funny and normal, with DiNozzo being very DiNozzo-ish while still not coming across as insensitive or making me want to bash his head in.  If you apply ‘an eye for an eye’ you end up with ’a lot of toothless blind people’.

It’s the episode where Gibbs meets Lt. Col. Hollis Mann, and what a meeting it was! She gave as good as she got, and sometimes before getting it. There was never a more suitable match for Gibbs, which is why she couldn’t be allowed to last. But she was fun while she did, that future fourth ex-wife of his.

DiNozzo had also met ‘his match’ in Sandblast, and it’s weird how Jeanne was sneaked in and barely noticed because of Hollis Mann. What we did notice was Tim’s poison ivy. Second time round for poor McGee. And Director Shepard was more than acceptably catty, now that we have hindsight.

There was the charming muslim terrorist, and his pal Abraham, ‘a few puppies short of a petshop’, but who nevertheless knew what names mean. Although he’d never come across Tim as ‘he who is about to wet his pants’. Understandable, but ‘when your time’s up, it’s up’.

Sandblast was better than ever, and I don’t think it was just because it had been a while. Quality shows.

Friends and Faking It

I feel better for it. I’ve been so busy with the Edinburgh International Book Festival, that I haven’t had a single day relaxing with NCIS. It’s now only three weeks until season eight begins, and so far this summer, the lunching with an old episode of NCIS has fallen by the wayside something shocking.

Just had a Stilton toasted sandwich while enjoying Faking It, with Ziva and McGee searching for puke. Goes well with any food, I find…

Meanwhile, Daughter has done her relaxing for the past weeks in the company of Friends. Now, that is a series I didn’t watch. I have probably seen a full episode of it at some point. Maybe. But I have caught lots of bits of Friends to the extent I feel I know them. I know exactly (well, almost) who the characters are, but would struggle to name any of the actors, except for that Aniston woman.

So, Friends in one room, and NCIS in another.

But as Daughter pointed out; we will soon be home and can return to our old, and possibly bad, ways. One indication we haven’t indulged enough, is that the other day she asked ‘how did NCIS: Los Angeles season 1 end ?’ And I couldn’t remember.

Hiatus – NCIS style

It’s funny how, even with a favourite television series, there are episodes you almost avoid. I wouldn’t say we go out of our way to do the avoiding, but between us Daughter and I manage to have episodes we choose less often. Hiatus in season three is one of them. So when I was on my own last week, I took advantage of my travel exile and watched both parts of Hiatus.

I have a real problem with the title, foreigner that I am. It sounds like it should mean something violent. (I’ll ‘hiatus’ you, you dirty soandso…) But it means pause. So, even the title is appropriate now that we are having our enforced summer NCIS hiatus.

Anyway, I quite like Hiatus, apart from when poor Gibbs hopes Shannon is still alive, which is painful to see. And I can’t decide whether seeing Mike Franks portrayed as younger or Gibbs as a younger man is the worst. Bad hair dye, say I.

Now we’ve seen the end of season seven, the happenings in Hiatus are more relevant than ever.

Noticed that both Gibbs (season seven) and Ziva wash their faces to hide the signs that they’ve been shedding tears.

And the scenes in the hospital where both the Director and Abby try to get past the nurse to intensive care, are hilarious. Jenny is impressive enough looking like she might shoot (why, when there’s Condi to phone?), but Abby is priceless going on about her hearse and emptying out her bag. It’s one of her better monologues, out of all 162 NCISes.

There was a suggestion at the time that we might see the doctor again, but we never did. He’d have been good for Jenny.

Now I need to identify more avoided episodes, because one thing about watching them, is that they feel a lot fresher since we’ve not played them over and over, like some.

(Photos © CBS)

NCIS – Blowback

When the Resident IT Consultant’s away, the witch and Daughter watch more NCIS still. For some obscure reason we haven’t watched Blowback, season 4, very much. Actually, the obscure reason for me is Director Shepard’s obsession with The Frog, but that aside, it’s a very humorous episode.

There is the discussion over a suspect’s dead body – who they did not intend to die – on all the possible ways they could have had him end up dead, had he not had a heart attack while being followed. Climbing lots of stairs is, as Ducky points out, ‘rigorous for most, but rigor mortis for him’.

Gibbs shows his childish side in pretending to sound like a frog, and we se him and Di Nozzo in the gents’ toilet. Not that all that much seems to happen in there. As Gibbs points out, they need running water.

Ducky goes under cover and finds he quite likes the Director’s foe. And in actual fact, the Frog is quite a nice man for a bad man.

Hate to admit I’m an idiot, but I still don’t get the ending. Not so much what happens, but more what Director Shepard had intended to happen. And there may have been a continuity glitch, or perhaps I just failed to pay attention.

(Photo © CBS)

“Their tyres, not their throats”

NCIS 5.14 has to count as one of my most favourite episodes. We watched it  recently, again, when we needed cheering up. Have already forgotten why we needed cheering, but not what we watched to treat the symptoms.

I think it might be because in ‘Internal Affairs’ our gang are on the outside, having been put out of business by the FBI. Not out of action, though, and they use their spare time efficiently, solving the case from Gibbs’ basement, using his ancient computer (just the fact that he ever had one makes the mind boggle) and his even dustier printer. And McGee is too polite to tell Gibbs what he thinks of his dated equipment.

‘Do what you do best’ says DiNozzo to Abby as she goes to be interrogated by Fornell. ‘Dance?’ she says. Well, that would have been fun. Her slurping CafPow and waffling is pretty good, too.

I’m reminded of no 5.14 more often than any other episode, as I happen to have a still as my wallpaper. I was watching when the phone rang, so I paused. After staring at the screen for all of the phone conversation, I decided I liked it, so saved it.

But what I like best is when Gibbs hands Ziva a knife and tells her to deal with the FBI, outside. ‘Their tyres, not their throats’, he reminds her as she sets off.