Ah, Code Reds. Did anyone else wonder if Jack Nicholson was going to appear at Gibbs’ desk?
I’ve never heard of Mischief Night, but it would stand to reason that Tony would be an enthusiast. But would we have (or am I forgetting something) gone six seasons without Halloween at NCIS coming into play? I’m just always thrown for a loop when big things appear for the first time 150 episodes in.
Another first, at least as far as I can recall … have we ever heard that McGee grew up on a military base? Could be that I’m just forgetting, but the wife and I both felt as if we’d never heard that before. Wouldn’t it have been significant to his back story? I imagine it would play a large role in making him who he is.
NCIS excels at creating well developed one-time characters, and I’m sure if I took the time to think about it, I could come up with an extremely long list of them. Tonight it was Mr. Rodgers (Perry Anzilotti), who got hit both by the to-be-expected jokes, as well as being categorized as a nerdy little man who dresses in sweater vests to report to his home office. We get just a taste, and rarely are these people integral to the plot, but I certainly remember them going forward.
But even better than those one-time-use characters? Gibbs out-of-character moments. A little apple cider Halloween break from the boss for his team? And they got all of five seconds to enjoy it? Such a generous man!
Tonight’s episode was lighter on character than we’ve seen of late. What it did leave me thinking about was Jimmy Palmer (Brian Dietzen). Palmer joined the cast at the end of season one, as a replacement for the injured Gerald Jackson (Pancho Demmings). And at first, all he had were some laughs with Ducky week after week as he learned the ropes, as well as a smattering of pretty amusing light banter with Gibbs.
Eventually, Palmer built up a rapport with Tony and McGee, and he could always be counted on for a good laugh. And then came his romance with Agent Lee (Liza Lapira), and Mr. Palmer was finally an active supporting character.
But tonight I was reminded just how little he once again does. A line here, a joke there, but nothing much that I can claim to remember even ten minutes later. It’s too bad, because Jimmy was a great fit with this ensemble. I hope he gets another chance to try and claim a permanent identity.
I’m glad things were back to normal tonight. Case, characters, laughs, and fun. Ironically, I was a little sad about the rebalancing between case and characters, now heavier on the former and lighter on the latter — I know, I know, I can’t have it both ways. But what can I say … I’m particular.
Even so, I say welcome back team.
Clacked by Aryeh S.
on Oct 20, 2009 @ 22:12 EST5EDT
The one Halloween ep I remember is the one where Abby was in the Monroe dress and wig, the little girl got kidnapped and the end of the ep was the little one trick-or-treating the office.
They always do a Halloween episode.
You clearly need to watch NCIS more. They’ve had a couple Halloween episodes, and it’s been mentioned in a handful of episodes that McGee is a Navy brat (his dad was some high-ranked something or other).
*POST AUTHOR*
I’ve seen every episode – maybe it’s the details I need to retain better. :) I’m just totally blanking on McGee being raised on a Navy base. Thanks!
But it’s never come into play with his father being called upon or being mixed up in an investigation, right? Wouldn’t that be an obvious place to go?
Clearly you need to watch the episodes repeatedly and obsess about them more ;-)
No, McGee’s father has never come into play into an episode. It could be a potentially interesting path to take for a story. I love McGee and it would be fun to get to know him more.
*POST AUTHOR*
Definitely; how about some more novels?
*POST AUTHOR*
Thanks for the correction, everyone.
That actually leads to the other part of my statement about Halloween on the show, which has to do with continuity – we were given the impression in this episode that Tony does an annual pool with his Baltimore PD buddies, pranks run wild in the office, and things got so out-of-hand last year with the Jonas Brother debacle that Vance put a stop to them. Wouldn’t it then stand to reason that we’d experienced that for the past six seasons? So have we and I’m just forgetting all of that?
The pranks are new as is the mayhem pool. I know there were other Halloween eps but for the life of me I can not remember anyone dressing up beyond Abby as Marilyn. Didn’t Tony claim to hate Halloween in the Halloween kidnap episode?
Jimmy had the one big ep where he was a witness to a crime scene theft but that was pretty much it as far as him being a drive by character.
Yep, Tony previously claimed to hate Halloween. Continuity is clearly overrated (at least as far as the NCIS writers are concerned).
Someone (Ziva or McGee) did mention the seeming inconsistency to Tony in the episode. I believe he replied that not only was the easy money worth it, but that they bet on Mischief Night, and not Halloween.
These new elements were obviously just invented now, but can reasonably be said to have occurred offscreen in previous seasons. The Jonas Brothers costumes involved background staffers and none of the main cast. The pranks are sprung back in the office when we’re watching the team in the field, MTAC, Autopsy, Forensics or Interrogation. Tony’s pool doesn’t even involve anyone else at NCIS, so that one would be the least objectionable.
*POST AUTHOR*
I thought Abby said the Jonas Brothers incident involved McGee, no?
Minor for sure, but it’s like coming home to your family and saying, I don’t know, “I always do X on a Wednesday. Have for 15 years.” They look at you like you’re crazy, and you say you used to do it at the office, but can’t anymore. So all of a sudden you have a long history doing said thing?
I just feel like it’s cheating sometimes. Couldn’t Tony have been joining this long-standing betting pool for the first time, just for the sake of consistency? I mean, yes, it’s easy enough to rationalize these add-ins, but why don’t shows in general just make them more fluid?
I missed that, and, knowing the JB hairstyles, would have loved to have seen that on McGee.
That analogy only holds true if you only see your family for 44 minutes each week, and they are then surprised that they don’t know everything about your life outside of that interval. It would have been nice to have seen this earlier Halloween stuff, but it’s by no means inconceivable that we simply weren’t around at those times.
*POST AUTHOR*
I’ll grant you that it’s not inconceivable. But maybe these shows take advantage of that loophole a bit too often when introducing new things that are supposedly really old.
As a side note – I was completely thrown by Abby calling Vance by his first name and being so casual with him on NCIS:LA. Have I missed some interaction between the two that led to such a friendly relationship?
*POST AUTHOR*
Not that I know of either, but you never know with Abby….
I must have missed that … I heard her call him Vance once, but never Leon.
But now that I’ve watched NCIS:LA, I know what you mean.
I didn’t see NCIS:LA (I decided to give it up last week), but I also don’t remember any interaction between Abby and Vance on the regular NCIS. Maybe this was supposed to be part of Abby’s quirky charm (which I don’t personally see)? And while we are on the topic of Abby, I would just like to vent my frustration that even though the show is inaccurate with regard to her science abilites, she should know that you cannot drink in a lab!!!
*POST AUTHOR*
I’m with you; as a member of the team, and the work that she does, I enjoy her. As a quirky character? Not so much.
I wonder more how she’s expert in science AND computers; wouldn’t she be only trained in one field, in which case wouldn’t the NCIS team have someone else to be their tech in the other?
Abby’s expertise seems to be in forensic science and computer forensics. I can see a prospective applicant for the NCIS job deciding to study both, especially as the latter is gaining so much purchase in the field.
The illegal hacking, being illegal, I would count as her hobby rather than a job skill. McGee has been shown on occasion to be a better/faster hacker than her, but this remains a close rivalry rather than a clear superiority.
We’ve seen NCIS’s specialized techs when Vance banished McGee to the basement. I pray we never see them again.
*POST AUTHOR*
I could easily be wrong, but I’ve always gotten the impression that she’s just “good with computers” as opposed to being trained in computer anything. With more experience than McGee, to be sure, but she’s been working with Gibbs for much longer. It doesn’t keep me up at nights, but it does surprise me that they don’t have her focused on one, and someone else focused on the other.
McGee was introduced on the show to deal with hard core computer issues. But the depth and breadth of Abby’s knowledge does get a little bit much sometimes.
*POST AUTHOR*
Well then the problem you run into is that McGee would seem to be serving two masters. Can’t NCIS afford specialized techs? ;)
As to the Code Red, I first saw Timothy Busfield and Ron Perlman in the stage play in New York, years before the movie. Perlman’s Jessup was cool, collected, and positively demonic, even without the red makeup, and far superior to Nicholson’s blustery arrogance.
*POST AUTHOR*
I’ll give you points for saying “Timothy Busfield” and “New York,” but whoa. ;)
I’m deadly serious. Pure, velvety evil. And the famous line was delivered in a chillingly understated, near-whisper tone that rises with the rest of the speech to a commanding volume, whereas Nicholson just bellowed the whole bit—so over the top I nearly laughed. But then Perlman’s voice work is always superb.