It’s not unusual for me to be indifferent about the latest case-of-the-week on NCIS. Not to ever give the impression that that detracts from my enjoyment of the show … it’s just that sometimes I don’t really care who dun it.
This week there was a bit of a variation on that theme — I think my lack of interest in the case stemmed from the fact that there was just too much going on. The CIA, MI6, AND a murder to solve? There was so much happening that nothing really got the due it deserved.
Royal Marine Major Peter Malloy (Daniel Gillies), meanwhile, was totally not a worthy opponent for Gibbs. Granted he ended up not being the enemy, but their face-off in the interrogation room lacked gravitas.
And I was totally lost on the role that CIA agent Loretta Tennison (Kristen Ariza) played in the grander scheme of Federal agencies. I know we did get some background on her, but with all of the regular murkiness surrounding her particular spy agency, I felt like we were left half in the dark.
To top it all off the war in Afghanistan got some mild play. If the show was looking to make a political statement, a) it shouldn’t; and b) it missed the mark, because it amounted to little more than a few lines about paying bad people to help us in our fight against worse people. That’s about as broad a statement as one can make.
But even with all of that I had a pretty good NCIS time. McGee in the HazMat-worthy hot tub was fun, and his line about his weight displacing water that would seep into his boots was priceless. I also appreciated Tony and Palmer’s shared I Love Lucy grape stomping memory — that truly was a great episode of the classic sitcom.
Palmer scored again in the morgue when he and Gibbs exchanged lines about a lung sandwich. He hasn’t had as much of an opportunity this season as he did in the last, but I really do enjoy how Palmer has grown as a character.
I wonder why this episode pitted Gibbs versus the British Royal Marines. It seemed totally random a subject matter, and was only really applicable when the ship being foreign soil came into play. Of course even that was solved by Gibbs and a good wrench.
Vance showed a side of himself that I appreciated when he put his foot down after Gibbs was ready to go off on the British government. As much as he puts up a front with Gibbs, Vance has never really come across as the same kind of leader that Director Shepard was, so for once it was nice to feel as if he wasn’t working FOR Gibbs.
I really do feel as if NCIS stands alone among procedurals as the only one that can consistently deliver despite a lack of compelling crime fighting. The team is just so solid, it makes little difference what they’re working on on a daily basis. With them it’s all about the camaraderie. Why not?
Clacked by Aryeh S.
on Oct 14, 2010 @ 11:00 EST5EDT
