'Grey's' Isn't Going Anywhere
'Red Widow' Gets The Axe
NCIS: Driven
(S04E11) There are a few ways that a show gets put on the list to be covered here. Having a truckload of "buzz" never hurts. A ratings juggernaut is hard to ignore. Being a favorite of one of the writers helps. And, as is the case here, the readers asking for it is always good. Over the past few weeks I've noticed the question of why we don't cover NCIS keeps coming up, so I talked to the powers that be, and moving forward I'll be following the show here every week. That said, on with the show. I'll go ahead and start out with my one complaint with the episode. The robotic Hummer was a little too good. There is a lot of exciting research going on with unmanned vehicles, but I thought this one was a little over the top. We didn't really need to see that amazing demo to kick things off to get it. One small nitpick in an otherwise terrific episode though.
Things got off to a great start with the sexual harassment seminar. It reminded me of a similar story recently on Las Vegas. Ziva licking Tony and Tony smacking the back of McGee's head were funny, but the topper was the woman's reaction to Palmer, "Why are you touching dead naked people?" It was nice how they incorporated the red and yellow light situations into the rest of the episode as well.
While I did have the small issue with the abilities of the Hummer, I loved it as the basis of this week's case. My favorite parts of the investigations are usually when McGee and Abby go all high tech. "...the only trace left would be an extra space on one of the motherboards bios chips." That, and when Gibbs is so decidedly backwards about all things tech. "Figured it'd be something like that." I fingered Egler right away as the culprit, and thought Jones was a red herring. I was caught completely by surprise when Gibbs pulled the memory card trick on the director of the project. Well done by the writers. Being fooled is always the best.
McGee's reaction when he realized that he almost let Abby die was so good. Theirs is an interesting relationship. A relationship that also provided the best moment of the episode. When McGee reminds Abby that she is supposed to ask permission to hug him and she responded, "Never with you Tim." Awwwwwwwwww. They are just so cute.
Apart from the story of the week, the ongoing story of Tony's relationship with Jeanne has been great. While the "solve it all each week" formula for procedurals seems to work well for getting ratings, they can get repetitive. This continuing arc adds a lot to the value of watching each week. Aside from the added value for viewers, it's really good development of the Tony character. He's growing up, making changes to improve his situation. He even got jealous. I loved the scene a few episodes ago when he explained to Jeanne why he was taking the relationship so slow. Paraphrasing here, but it was something like, "If you keep doing the same thing over and over, you're going to keep getting the same result." And it doesn't hurt one bit that Scottie Thompson just might be the most beautiful woman on my television right now. The addition of Ziva's growing attraction to, and misguided concern for, Tony just makes it that much better.
Overall, another really good episode. I'm thrilled that NCIS is having such a good year in the ratings, even if it is putting the boots to Friday Night Lights in the process. Hopefully they can start to get a little more media coverage as well. We'll do our part. Finally, since Tony always gets the best lines, I'll close each episode post with my favorite Tony lines each week.
"Looks like she did a Trading Spaces with John Nash. "
"I'm pregnant. McGee's gonna be very proud."
"English as a third language is always the trickiest one."
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