1000? Really?

I forgive them. In the first place I should have done the arithmetic myself and not bought into this stuff about the 1000th episode of NCIS. ‘How did it go so fast?’, I thought to myself. It did, and it didn’t. One thousand episodes within the NCIS world, and I haven’t watched them all. Of NCIS itself, there must be around half that, and I have watched all those.

So, episode 1000. I liked it. I was going to say, surprisingly well written, but I think what I mean is pretty well plotted. Enough encompassing characters from other series, and some looking back over the years – which suggests some of the writers have watched, or caught up with, enough old stuff – leaving this old fan surprisingly satisfied.

The of necessity short season 21 hasn’t been the best. Nor the worst. I’ve just not hurried to watch it immediately, the way I used to. Nothing like when I got out of bed extra early for season three episode one. (Don’t arrange to host dinner parties when something like that is on TV!)

Don’t want to spoil anything for anyone who’s not seen no. 1000 yet. But it’s worth watching. I will happily sit down with the rest of the family for a second viewing. Maybe even a third.

See you there?

NCIS – And then there were, erm, not very many

left. At all.

The scriptwriters and those who decide what happens in NCIS ought to be ashamed of themselves. If the purpose is to remove as many characters/actors as possible before the end of season 18 and, one has to assume, the end of the whole shebang, there is no need to decimate the cast quite as harshly as this. Apparently they even omitted telling Emily Fornell that she was going to be no more.

Other – successful – television shows have ended after many seasons, with all or most of the characters still standing; some of them even living happily ever after. Or they could try repeating the bomb that that blasted most of the Navy Yard nine years ago.

But before that, please leave us with some characters left to watch. Even love.

One of the things that makes for a successful show, is the building up of many supporting characters; the ones who come back every now and then, and who we like and who add to the breadth of our NCIS family. The loss of three characters in as many episodes looks like carelessness.

We have devoted fifteen years to this. Yes, I know. It’s season 18, but we started late and went faster to begin with. Those years amount to a quarter of my life, and half Daughter’s life. Yes, we’ve done other things as well, but it’s a long friendship.

To start with we also rewatched many episodes. Less so now, because we are busy with other stuff. Returning to older episodes has always been an enjoyable pastime. But it’s harder to have fun with characters in the past, when you know that there will be a sad, or completely wasteful loss of their lives, later on. You can’t laugh at the ridiculousness of someone, if you know something that you’d rather not know about.

And to think that just the other day we were speculating about the speculations that Mark Harmon might semi-retire next season. We were discussing who could take over from Gibbs and make it work.

(The answer is Abigail Borin. She is [the only] well known and likeable character we have, who is still alive, and who is boss material.)

NCIS – not many left to kill

SPOILER ALERT

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This might not be enough. But then there was no warning at all of spoilers when Daughter stumbled on the bad news for NCIS episode seven. Although I suppose one could have guessed some of it, by paying attention.

So, I firmly believe it was right for someone to die from Covid. It’s realistic and it might tell some doubters what’s what. It also only works if it’s a longstanding character, who you know and like. And from a practical point of view, it is often worth not killing the main characters. Although, consider the impact!

So we, and Jimmy, have lost Mrs Palmer, and their young daughter her mother.

We now have a veritable stable of what I call John Wayne characters; men whose wives are dead. It’s too much. Not only is there only one more wife who could be killed off – and I sincerely hope not – but there are no male equivalents. Neither Sloane nor Kasie nor Bishop have partners.

There has been talk of losing Sloane. She wants to run a bar in Costa Rica. Maybe. Personally I thought she looked more like she’s ill but is trying to hide it by talking about Costa Rica. I am probably wrong. It’d be ‘nice’ for a character to leave willingly, and while still alive.

They wore face masks at last, now that Covid has caught up with them. Possibly not always worn correctly as far as time and place is concerned, but this is fiction. It’s enough that they do.

We need more new characters being introduced. Not necessarily to kill them off, but the team can’t really spare anyone else now. And please keep Ducky on his computer screen, where he will be much safer.

Back on form

NCIS are back, and in more ways than one. Three so-so episodes before Christmas and now another three in January. And they’ve been good. Some even downright exciting. Delilah is back, and she’s on a romantic holiday with McGee, who’s shrunk nicely into his beard.

When I say romantic, I mean romantic for those two. They don’t get their kicks in the ordinary way.

If anyone is reading this, could I respectfully ask that not all British actors are villains? It’s so obvious. Not all villains are British, but the other way round appears to be an unavoidable pattern. We don’t even get to ponder who the ‘unknown’ bad guy might be.

So we had the holiday in the sun, where obviously all the action shifted to McGee and Delilah.

Then at last it was back to the early taster of when Gibbs shoots McGee. We understand why, and that it can’t end entirely badly, but there was some nail biting as to the how on Earth?

Last it was the turn of Torres and Bishop to have their own locked in episode, being in severe danger, some fifteen years after DiNozzo and Ziva spent quality time in that cargo container. Again, we knew, but we didn’t know how.

The priceless look on Gibbs’s face when he arrived at McGee’s with all those computers…

Please keep this up! We need something good after all this time.

Photo © CBS

NCIS – The North Pole

We saved this ‘Christmas episode’ of NCIS until the one who hadn’t yet caught up had departed, and while we could still muster up some Christmas cheer. Except, well, yes there were Christmas decorations. But it was not cheerful.

And either I’m getting old and slow, or the scriptwriters are upping their game considerably. I didn’t see much – any – of this coming. Despite me noticing the staircase as being a copy of Gibbs’s and wondering if it was going to be used in the same way again, seeing as Ziva was back. Again.

Well.

And there was a decent red herring, as well as a really strong clue, had I actually been awake for the first half of the season. I suppose most of us fell for that double bluff.

It’ll be interesting to see where they can go with the fallout from this. They could ignore it, and continue as if nothing had happened, as on other occasions in the past. Or not.

Returning to their roots?

Hmm. Interesting.

Is NCIS attempting to return to the good old days? After my murderous outburst against Ziva’s sudden and illogical appearance, things are improving.

OK, third episode was a bit too much of navel gazing, or do I mean naval? But the last two weeks NCIS has begun to look rather more like it used to. The ending of episode five was almost textbook first two seasons.

I’ve quite enjoyed myself, and there’s been much less of the raging about how no one has looked at what they used to do. Someone might actually have done that. Still not keen on the new McGee, but even he has got less annoying.

Gibbs is back to being Gibbs, and Mark Harmon seems to have been sent packing. For the moment, anyway. Torres and Palmer and Kasie do well, and Bishop is OK.

I’m jinxing this, aren’t I? Let’s see what the next weeks bring. How about a ship or two? To remind us it’s the Navy.

Ziva must die

Surely?

Unless Gibbs – and then all the rest of the team – were having a Pam Ewing moment this week, NCIS needs some credibility here.

I was going to watch Bull, but came to the conclusion that he could be my reward and I’d better get NCIS over with. So I did.

Well, Gibbs was a lot Gibbsier than of late, which I suppose is a good thing. The newer members of the team who had never met Ziva were reasonably good as well. As was poor Palmer, down on the floor. But McGee has not improved over the summer.

Cote de Pablo has clearly forgotten how to act Ziva in the six years she’s been gone. She at least has experience of her character, whereas neither scriptwriters nor directors have to have been around all that time, so legitimately know very little about former Agent David.

The plot – ‘to be continued’ – has quite a few holes in it. But if Ziva is not killed, any writing out of her character will need to be convincing. After all, how is DiNozzo, and Sr, going to change their lives around again? DiNozzo is busy as Bull, and the whole gang really can’t just come back to the Navy Yard as though nothing has happened.

NCIS – Daughters

Seeing old friends again is generally nice. So, OK, I will admit to some pleasure in meeting up with old characters in the 16th season finale of NCIS.

And isn’t it nice how it doesn’t matter if they have been killed off or not? They can still come back, as long as Gibbs, and now Fornell, can talk to the dead. So practical, as the writers are able to kill, certain their characters can return at some point, should they be needed.

Gibbs had a haircut. I’d like to think someone finally noticed my comments on his Hollywood hair. Could it even be the actor acts better with a more Navy hairstyle? He almost looked like the old Gibbs.

I think Fornell should have more hair, so you can see I’m hard to please. And it’s great that Emily Fornell continues being the same actress. Less sure about Sloane’s daughter issues. They feel laboured.

There were several whiffs of the old NCIS in this last one, before the summer break. Not as good, but you could tell they were trying, even if that meant reviving characters who’d be better dead. Even if we love them, because the entanglement of people rising from the dead is not worth all the confusion.

As for the cliffhanger.., well. Is it? I’m thinking they just put it there and they believe they have four months to come up with a way to make it work, or it will be Bobby and Dallas all over.

Washing and watching

Understandably Daughter and I don’t talk NCIS as much as we did. What with it having been something of a wash-out and that. She watches it sooner than I do, though. ‘I do the washing up and watch at the same time,’ she explained.

Now me, I can’t do that, however bad. It’s strictly one thing at a time. So for weeks on end this spring NCIS was kept in recorded format. Kept. Not watched. Until we suddenly did, as I felt some catching up might be warranted. The Resident IT Consultant didn’t mind as much as I’d thought he would, and when we’d caught up the other day, he expressed an interest in watching some more. I told him there was no more.

We watched Big Bang Theory instead.

But it gives me a little hope that the last two episodes won’t be washing-up material. The last couple were just about enjoyable, meaning that both the writing and the directing were OK-ish. Even the acting. And now everyone knows Gibbs’s dark secret.

Will that bother them? Or is there to be no cliffhanger this May? Can they fashion one out of nothing, or will they dig up some old stuff? I mean, one can actually go off for the summer break with not a single cliff in sight.

Because there is a season 17 coming… While Gibbs will be a mere 61, Mark Harmon is going to reach 68, and he ought to be retired. As an agent, if not an actor.

NCIS – Catching up with the past?

I suppose it’d be too much to ask that more recent scriptwriter recruits sit down and watch the 350 odd episodes of NCIS they haven’t been part of? Just so they know what they are supposed to work on? Ten a day and you’d be done in a month. Almost.

Daughter and I tore NCIS to shreds on the phone a couple of days ago, and this is something we don’t do lightly. We love it too much, or have loved it too much, to want to do it. But what are they doing? Her theory for the lack of old favourite recurring characters not – well – recurring so much now, is that they don’t want to.

The actors, that is. They can’t all be too busy; Borin, SecNav, and so on. Fornell was there this season, but his part is getting too ridiculous, and maybe he only joined in out of kindness.

If there are some serious issues to do with Mark Harmon and why Pauley Perrette left, then it would explain a lot. Give rumours – or truth – enough of an airing and no one will want to touch what was until recently such a successful and happy show. Or was it?

We’re assuming there will be no season 17.

There could be. Get rid of Gibbs, tell McGee to mature back to where he was before, and give him a shave, and find a new boss. Borin, maybe. She’d work well with Torres.

I think I know why the acting is bad. The longer serving actors can’t be bothered, and perhaps neither can the directors. And could it be they no longer take on really good writers, or that there aren’t so many like that to choose from?

If this is the end, there’s probably no point in killing people. Otherwise I’d say kill a few to spice things up and have them replaced. Currently my favourites are Torres, Bishop and Kasie. Palmer when he’s allowed to be Palmerish rather than a pale copy of Ducky.

The threat against Vance; has it been forgotten or are we building up nicely to something magnificently bad? Two threats now, but not even a reminder of what might be coming, if only as a hint.

Kill Gibbs. That way Mark Harmon can keep his civilian hair, and I’m sure the man can negotiate enough money without actually appearing.