Last night concluded an odd bit of plotting on NCIS, don’t you think? First Ducky switched to ties to please his lady friend. Then he went back to bow ties after breaking up with her. All in the span of a week. I know it’s minor, but then why bother with it at all? I’m wondering if there might be some greater significance here, like teaching us to keep an eye on Ducky’s neckwear in the future for a window to his moods. Maybe that was all just scaffolding for some future construct.
If that’s the case, I’d actually take Ducky singing over any other hints that his mood is jolly. Wasn’t that great when he sang as he and Palmer walked across the beach to what they thought at the time was a dead Navy diver? Who, by the way, looked a lot more like a shriveled doll than anything else. At least from the angle we saw him from when the Marine stumbled upon him. Unless he was familiar with the wetsuit, I don’t know how in the world he spotted that.
What did everybody think of CGIS Special Agent Abigail Borin? Diane Neal, who played Borin, actually just did a guest spot on White Collar as an FBI agent. However, she’s best known as ADA Casey Novak on Law & Order: SVU. And I think she’s much better on the legal side of things. She was not great on White Collar, and she was really not great last night on NCIS.
Which might, by the way, be because I didn’t see anything of Gibbs in her mannerisms. And maybe we weren’t meant to, but the fact that everyone else involved was seeing it, and talking about it, made it impossible not to think about the idea that Borin was a female Gibbs. Which she absolutely wasn’t. So she slapped her subordinate on the back of the head. So what? That was the writers and the director telling Neal how to imitate Gibbs, not Neal channeling Gibbs. I didn’t see it at all.
And not only did I not see it, but I thought she was a terrible investigator, a terrible interrogator, and a terrible character. Some of you might hope she returns for a variety of reasons — CGIS versus NCIS, Gibbs versus Borin, or Gibbs and Borin romantically linked — but I for one hope we never see her again.
For those of you who watch Criminal Minds, I want to mention something that my wife said to me as we were watching a scene between Gibbs and Tony on NCIS last night. The friendly, playful banter that they toss back and forth … that’s what Criminal Minds is missing these days. And I don’t know where it went, because it’s not like they increased the amount of time that the BAU spends just focusing on cases. But the banter that makes the NCIS team so great is currently missing on Criminal Minds. Just glance over at Tuesday nights for some pointers, writers!
But back to the show at hand. I have to admit something to you all … I had no idea that Richard Dreyfuss was in Jaws. No way! Does he play a major role? I’ve never seen the movie, and never had any desire to, but this news might change that. Thanks Tony!
Oh, and did anyone find Abby as a frustrated mess endearing? If so, please tell me how and why, because I just found her annoying. It always surprises me that Gibbs has so much (relative) patience for her. I guess he has a soft spot for Goth?
Clacked by Aryeh S.
on Mar 17, 2010 @ 12:00 EST5EDT
They did this same thing a season or two ago with a local cop and his two detectives to much better effect. I don’t know if it was the way it was written or the way it was acted but it felt too forced.
I think the only time I found Abby truly annoying was the episode where she sulked over Gibbs not acknowledging her birthday. I kept saying “grow up” every time she pulled a face. I could empathize with the frustration and know that pounding on my keyboard will not make the computer work any faster, but I do it anyway not to mention yelling at my computer screen…. Before you ask, no I do not hit my monitor as LCDs tend to really not like that.
Best part . . . Not a Date Date with Tony and Ziva.
Jaws was as iconic in it’s day as what Avatar is now. Made a butt-load of money and brought together some of the best actors, directors and effects of the generation and the times. And it kept people on the beach and out of the water for years!
*POST AUTHOR*
Oh man, do you have the wrong person. I’m not sure there’s a movie I want to see less than Avatar – not a thing about the story intrigues me. And why would I want to wear special glasses to see a movie?
Endearing isn’t the right word, but I did find her funny. My only question is: where’s the puppy?! You don’t train a seeing eye dog in a week… and he was so cute!
I didn’t notice Ducky’s ties either, but I think this whole season has been a setup for something big in Duckyville (perhaps a retirement?). I do like the direction they’re taking Palmer’s character though.
*POST AUTHOR*
That’s interesting, and something to look out for. And I too love Palmer’s growth, and his banter with Gibbs.
I must admit I only watched one SVU ep recently (the one where the millionaire’s unloved daughter killed his girlfriend – I’m assuming that’s SVU) and I found Diane Neale’s character over the top obnoxious. However, I feel her characters in White Collar and NCIS were pretty similar: two agents who are dedicated to the job
(similar to the SVU but not as intense), but have something to prove either as slightly jr. agents or agents from slightly jr. agencies. I noticed her Gibbs-isms without the head slap. In fact, I felt if Harmon ever wanted a week off, they could bring her character in for a day.
I would’ve loved to see the two pair up, but they seemed too alike so that would’ve seemed a) creepy, b) they already negatively paired Gibbs up with a female counterpart, and c) Gibbs currently has a girlfriend. What made you view her as a terrible investigator, etc.? I’d say her lab tech was terrible, but she typically asked for the same results/questions as Gibbs at the same time or slightly before him. Also, her team got the drop on Gibbs and she had the instinct about the ship’s death relation to Gibbs’ NCIS death.
Has anyone noticed they’re slowly humanizing Gibbs? He’s speaking more, he has locks on the door and now rose bushes! It seems like he’s slowly recovering from his past. Finally, Abby’s difficulty actually comes from a Jughead comic (where the company switched the formula of a chip on him). Could one person really get such instantaneous results i.e. call 7-11 to complain about their big gulp iced coffee slurpee formula switch and the next day they mass ship out the old formula to all their subsidiaries? I kind of expected Abby to create her own Kaf-Pow after investigating the formula.
*POST AUTHOR*
I saw her as a poor Mary Shannon on In Plain Sight. I just couldn’t get the comparison out of my head, and Neal fell short on both shows for me.
Maybe not a bad investigator, but Gibbs’ way is his way. Maybe it was again the imitation thing, but seeing someone else do Gibbs’ thing looked amateurish to me. And I thought her interrogation technique was really terrible, so that blurred the rest of her abilities.
You’re right. I could see her as a poor woman’s Mary Shannon, although it doesn’t really bother me. And, actually, I can’t comment on the interrogation technique. That was the only part of the episode I missed, as I turned away right when she started interviewing the wife and then turned back right when it ended –
*POST AUTHOR*
She seemed a lot too hostile. And overall, her methods were extremely un-Gibbs, and not likely to elicit any beneficial information from interrogations.
I like this whole Gibbs like leader thing when it was Col. Hollis Mann. She was competent and had the proper authority for it too… plus she and Gibbs had good chemistry, shame the actress had to be written out when she moved to the now canceled NBC show, Kings.
I liked Borin well enough, but then I like most of the investigators from outside agencies that end up getting along with our team and she was great with Eddie Shin’s Agent Omagi (and note that her lab tech wasn’t even her lab tech, but an outsourced consultant; I loved how defensive she got about CGIS’s size and resources). If I had to pick, though, I’d much rather see Cara Buono’s NSA agent from “Power Down” again.
I always like Abby, but she would have been annoying if we didn’t learn in this episode why she was so frazzled. The payoff just made her more adorkable.
I assume that Abby only brought Mortimer to work last week because she was unable to make alternate arrangements in time. She can’t expect Vance to let her keep a puppy there every day, so she must have some sort of doggy day care now.