'Review: 'NCIS' season ten premiere' [And reviews of other new & returning TV Shows]

Examiner.Com ^ | 9-26-12 | Bender2

[Bender2]

Review: 'NCIS' season ten premiere
By Rick Ellis

Season nine found Gibbs... --snip-- He began a relationship with CIA analyst Samantha Ryan (Jamie Lee Curtis) and there were moments in the middle of the season where it seemed as if Gibbs was finally at peace. It was a slightly more optimistic take on his life and for fans, one that was welcomed. But the season ended with an arc that ripped that momentary contentment into small pieces and moved the series into a new direction for season ten. It was an arc with some jarring moments and it set up a season premiere that moves Gibbs into a much darker place.

The arc began with sabotage on several Navy ships. A mysterious series of explosions were initially thought to be terrorism but the agents slowly began to realize the motivations were a bit more complex. One of the things I like about "NCIS" is that it never takes the easy way out with villains. Unlike some similar genre shows, the bad guys are more likely to be American malcontents than foreign operatives. There is respect for the Navy, but the show isn't afraid to show the worst parts of the military.

In this case the attacks were being planned by a mysterious industrialist, Harper Dearing (Robert Shiff). --snip-- Dearing seemed to have the upper hand and last season ended with the bombing of NCIS headquarters. To say nothing of Dr. Donald "Ducky" Mallard's (David McCallum) apparent fatal heart attack on a beach in Florida. Agents DiNozzo (Michael Weatherly) and David (Cote de Pablo) are stuck in an elevator following the blast and it's not clear about the fate of Abby Sciuto (Pauley Perrette) and Special Agent Timothy McGee (Sean Murray).

[Bender2]

Well, “NCSI” jumped the shark as far as I am concerned. While a fan of the show since it began nine years ago, I have noticed over the past few seasons how the show was inching toward a more liberal slant.

Last night, in the early part of the plot, the Secretary of the Navy placed a heavy tone on a call from ‘The President’ expressing “extreme prejudice” as the final outcome for the bomber of NCSI’s HQ. Shades of taking a subtle lap over Osama—

Then, just after that we find Tony and Ziva being rescued from the stuck elevator by Abby, who exclaims she wishes to be stuck in an elevator with Amelia Earhart or Michelle Obama—

That did it, I clicked my Tivo to delete. I shall not watch “NCSI” any more.

[Bender2]

I will be using this thread to comment on this season's new and returns shows as I watch them either live or via Tivo.

So far, the Winners are "Major Crimes" is a worthy follow on to "The Closer." The jury is still out on "Revolution" being a regular stop. "Boardwalk Empire" stays the course being interesting and bloody. "Son of Anarchy" is a guilty pleasure that has me watching while thinking out loud 'Why am I rooting for these crooked SOBs?' "Mike and Molly" still give me a laugh.

Losers so far are "Mob Doctor" that needs to be put down quick. Last year I tried watching 'New Girl' numerous times and did not find one funny thing. Not one laugh out loud instance. I find the same situation with "Go On, Partners and 2 Broke Girls" Not funny at all and even "How I met your Mommy" lacking laugh out loud anything.

Still to come and still on the Tivo are "Vegas, Son of Anarchy, CSI, Big Bang, Two and Half Men, Elementry, Fringe, Made in Jersey and The Good Wife"

Well, I shall return with more comments as time passes by... Y'all put in your two cents.

[Mercat]

They’ve all aged. Not buying the young eager investigator deal anymore. Watching reruns and still occasionally see ones I haven’t seen.

[driftdiver]

A while back they had one where evil Defense Contractors were conspiring to use poison gas to kill senior military leadership.

That kinda did it for me. I did watch last night and the elevator scene was over the top.

[ILS21R]

What’s up with McGarrett’s mom not killing Wo Fat?

[JCBreckenridge]

Wow. Sad. I loved NCIS. :(

[LachlanMinnesota]

The entire show was designed to put Gibbs in the shoes of Obama and to reinforce and justify the killing of Bin Laden in the memory of the public. If it chooses to go that route, it won’t last long, since the political overlay will take away any enjoyment I had in watching the show.

I know I won’t be watching if that is the meme, or if they add other canvass threads to the story line of a similar color. That’s ok though, nothing is immune from the effort to get us to think like a bunch of worker bees in a hive.

Buzz buzz.

[skinkinthegrass]

"..Ziva being rescued from the stuck elevator by Abby, who exclaims she
wishes to be stuck in an elevator with Amelia Earhart or Michelle Obama— "*snickering*..she wouldn't have survived, she would've been eaten (Bones /all) by Michelle.

[Ax]

I thoroughly enjoyed the long-awaited new “NCIS.” It was pretty good up until the point where Abby slipped in a gratuitous plug for Michelle Obama.

[Cowgirl of Justice]

Hubby and I LOVED that show. I think last season, it seemed to change overnight, as if new writers completely took over the script.

Everything that made those characters likeable was gone. It was as if new people had stepped in and took the parts from the original characters.

We haven’t watched it since. And that was the only series we watched.

[bmwcyle]

The writing is poor at best now. The shows contains a lot of single lines with the camera jumping around. The old shows did well at developing each main character with good dialog. Now the shows are focused on one or two characters with choppy dialog of the rest of the team. The show has become unwatchable. Abby’s comment wishing to have a meal with Wookie Obama in the beginning was extremely cheap. Then Abby had her 40 plus face stuck in the background of too many of the dialogs. The end where they killed a criminal to protect the family was absolute bull crap. The writer was trying to invoke though but the story was so phony.

[bmwcyle]

It all was crap.

[chrisser]

Considering what else is on broadcast TV (we don’t have cable), NCIS is still one of the best things on, and certainly there are plenty of shows on broadcast TV that go out of their way to push a Leftist agenda even when it doesn’t make any sense to the story.

NCIS generally puts the military and intelligence services in a pretty decent light without being too propagandistic in either direction. The Gibbs character was a sniper in the USMC and is still portrayed favorably and unrepentant.

I’d like to see more storylines that were closer to real life (how many former industrialist terrorists are there really?), but, on balance, it is fiction, and it’s a fun show to watch, has interesting characters and storylines, and generally isn’t preaching LGBT/Leftists/PC hogwash. Not everyone wants to come home after a hard day and watch a show they have to be obsessed about just to figure out what’s going on.

Hopefully they won’t ruin it like they did with the Unit, which was great in the early seasons but then went off some sort of deep end for reasons unknown.

[xp38]

I stopped watching NCIS way way back when they offed Kate.

[TomGuy]

I skeptically watched Vegas. Series that bring in ‘old’ tough guy hero stars and then have to use special effects to make the old guy appear virile and able to take on many bad guys in a single scene, etc., just don't cut it.

Vegas was watchable. I'll watch the next episode or two and see how it going then.

==

Some series [NCIS, Bones, Criminal Minds, etc.] have been on so long that they have run out of story ideas. Thus, they just have more bizarre crime scenes that test credulity.

TNT’s Perception is fun to watch, but the premise is ridiculous. The Prof is incapable of walking across campus without talking to hallucinations, yet he is able to conduct classes almost flawlessly and solve crimes. Add to that the female FBI agent who goes into dark alleys and abandoned building late at night, alone, no backup and manages to take down the bad guy. Yawnnnnnnnnn.

Mob Doctor was my prediction as the first series of the new season to be cancelled and pulled. So far, the viewership numbers are below the reruns on other channnels.

[bcsco]

I missed NCIS last night due to a Legion meeting. NCIS-LA was half over when I returned home. I’ve never been into that one. My wife gave me a short rundown on NCIS, but didn’t mention any crap like this. I think she was too wrapped up in the story.

I bought a Sony Media Center box last week (similar to Roku but not as expensive if you need it HD capable). My cable co. is sending a new modem as my old modem isn’t capable of the download speeds I should be getting, but I like it so far. The only thing I’m paying for is monthly Netflix. Otherwise, it’s free content or pay-as-you-go. And there won’t be much of that. Most of my TV viewing will be thru the box. Otherwise, it’s either sports or news. And very little news, I get that here.

Now, it’s time to catch up on some old movies...

[TheLawyerFormerlyKnownAsAl]

Person of Interest is the only show worth watching, period. Season 2 starts Thursday.

[raygunfan]

love two broke girls...any show where a main character is a cute leggy blond six in stillettos and a short waitress outfit gets my attention....jest sayin....

[dps.inspect]

Ya, I saw that too... I hate it when a TV series interrupts itself with an announcement that it has a political preference, and you know, for the purpose swaying some idiot voter. Same thing happened with 24... why do these idiots like ruin a good thing. Wouldn’t be surprised if Ziva David converts to become a muzzi...

[bcsco]

I watched Vegas last night for only one reason. I was told by a former HS classmate that another classmate was/is married to the rancher/sheriff in real life. The show didn’t show him married, although there seems to be something between him and a lady DA attorney. Her name is wrong (which may be intended), and she’s too tall. But, who knows?

I wasn’t all that impressed. Just another crime show, IMO. I’ll watch another couple episodes if I’m still up, but not excited about it.