A Friend Writes . . .

by Little Miss Attila on December 15, 2009

“Why do I find myself watching CBS’s NCIS? It is vapid. It is shallow. Every single character in it is made from 100% non-recycled cardboard.

Am I watching because of the pretty women, the forensics pr0n, or the gunplay?

Why am I doing this? Please help.”

Any thoughts?

{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }

Foxfier December 15, 2009 at 6:55 pm

Abby+Gibbs= worth it.

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richard mcenroe December 15, 2009 at 7:10 pm

I’d watch Ziva David read the phone book. I’d better, if I know what’s good for me. My dream is Ziva and Calleigh Dequesne make a ‘very special video’ for Cynthia Yockey and I get to hold the camcorder.

Mark Harmon’s Gibbs is a great character and David McCallum is an old TV friend not often enough scene.

And besides, Tony needs the back of his head slapped on a daily basis.

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Foxfier December 15, 2009 at 7:18 pm

Daily?

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richard mcenroe December 15, 2009 at 7:48 pm

Gibbs ain’t a young feller no more. Gotta watch the carpal tunnel.

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jc December 16, 2009 at 12:52 am

It’s got the unapologitic old fashioned old guy (as opposed to vietnam victim) plus it’s go the killer Goth chick. Did I mention the Goth chick?

They also seem to have some standards of right and wrong.

And the cute Goth chick.

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Peter December 16, 2009 at 2:10 am

All of the above, plus the dialog is understandable, the charectors do not mumble. The enunciate like they are real actors.

Plus, people LIKE Ducky and Abby along with whathisname, the pudgy proby. Harmon does the guy with the tragic past well, too.

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Joe December 16, 2009 at 6:45 am

My wife and I were ahead of this curve watching Autopsy on HBO (which was a great documentary) so we never got into the whole made up NCIS, Bones, or CSI stuff.

So I can’t help you, other than to say if you are attracted to women, it is probably the women. Dick Wolff learned that a long time ago.

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Darrell December 16, 2009 at 12:09 pm

Familiar faces, plausible plot lines, violent women, occasional glimpses of new tech, easier on TV screens and channel change buttons than a Dick “Let’s subpoena Cheney!” Wolf production.

I enjoyed the “Christianists killing Muslims” Christmas episodes of NCIS and its spinoff, NCIS Los Angeles, yesterday. I wonder if they are going to make that a tradition? Makes me think about missing Donald Bellisario as showrunner/head writer a little. Unless Bellisario took a hard left turn that I’m not aware of. I do wonder if they made the NCIS-LA Hq “secret” because it would be implausible in Hollywood to have military agents leaving a building without knocking over Susan Sarandon, Sally Field, and Laurie David.

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The other Jerry December 16, 2009 at 12:54 pm

Well, most TV shows are vapid and shallow but this one is much less so. The acting is very good, the characters are likable, and Ziva is just wonderful. My next wife will have to be from Chile.

The guns are right (SIGs and Glocks abound).

What more could one want in a cop drama?

I also liked last night’s back-to-back Muslim stories on NCIS and NCIS-LA, although I don’t think the spinoff is nearly as good as the original.

Bones is often quite entertaining. The sexual tension brings back memories of X-Files and Moonlighting.

CSI-Miami is very well done but David Caruso can be maddening sometimes. At other times he’s perfect. Ever since I saw Emily Procter having lunch at Gladstones I’ve been a fan of the show. The guns are right too.

Joy, I’ve been meaning to ask if you watch Bones. Dr. Brennan could be your sister. She looks like you, is frightening bright and just a little crazy.

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Little Miss Attila December 16, 2009 at 1:17 pm

JB:

It’s been a while for “Bones.” Last time I saw it was at my mom’s house, and before I can watch there again I need to hook her antenna up on the roof. (No. She will not spring for cable. And we can’t hire people to come fix things, because then they would see that her house is untidy. So it’s all on me, except when I say “no.”)

As far as NCIS is concerned, the characters are likeable-but they are not quite believable. That takes some of the fun away. Though Gibbs has a certain middle-aged-guy intensity that . . . mmmm. I’ve got to go take care of something.

Okay, I’m back.

Darrell: I watched the Thanksgiving one last night, plus the Christmas one. Then I went back and watched the pilot of the L.A. show, and I probably need to re-watch that one: the ambien was starting to kick in, and so the plot . . . suffered. The L.A. variant didn’t really remind me of the original at all, though I loved their live-action version of Edna from The Incredibles–and I got that the central character was a lost soul in the same way the jerk from the D.C. version was supposed to be.

I guess the main problems I had with L.A. were in fact 1) why hide this operation? and 2) if it’s a show about the U.S. Department of the Navy, then why are we in Los Angeles, rather than in San Diego? Or even Seattle? (Except that there’s more entertainment industry infrastructure here, and/or they like the fact that this is a bigger town with more variety in types of filming locations.)

Joe: Yeah, I did like the documentary-style forensics shows; I used to watch those on the Disovery Channel.

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Little Miss Attila December 16, 2009 at 1:18 pm

Oh, and Jerry–

“Dr. Brennan could be your sister. She looks like you, is frightening bright and just a little crazy.”

Oh. So, like a “good twin/bad twin” kind of thing?

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The other Jerry December 16, 2009 at 2:03 pm

Yeah.

But I don’t know which is which.

Don’t you think Dr. Brennan (Emily Deschanel) is beautiful? She’s done a lot of TV and film work.

http://www.fox.com/bones/bios/emily.htm

And isn’t it cool that Temperance Brennan and Caleigh Duquesne are both played by women named Emily. Wow. How about a “movie” with those two?

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Little Miss Attila December 16, 2009 at 2:12 pm

She does have that “square jaw” thing going on. I don’t think I notice it so much on TV characters, but I remember driving on the 5 one day, looking in the rear-view mirror, and seeing that the woman in the Saturn behind me had a big fat square jaw, and slight circles under her eyes. And it was like looking in a mirror. I pulled up so I didn’t have to see her any more, because I’ve been told that it’s never healthy to hang out with one’s doppelgangers.

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