this is not a love song
Dear CBS,
Recycling is nominally supposed to be good for the environment. Not so much for serialized television.
NCISes
NCIS: Poor David Sinclair. He leaves the LA office to take that spiffy job in Washington, only to be shot dead by a crazed naval officer turned assassin. Unless this was a favor for a friend, Alimi Ballard, fire your agent.
The wrap-up of the P2P case was... whatever. It wasn't as cracktastic as some of the other stuff they've pulled and nobody watches NCIS for the cleverness of their ideas. For what they had, it wasn't handled that badly.
The death of Mike Franks is now officially doubly pointless, since we now have the unnecessary lung cancer/emphysema on top of the gratuitous stabbing. I thought having Gibbs make the coffin was a nice touch, but I wonder about his final product; Franks doesn't seem like a guy who wants flowers on his casket and Gibbs doesn't seem like a guy who'd put them there unless specifically requested.
The final scene brought us back to... what? Season Four? Five? Which one had Tony lying to Gibbs and pretending with Jeanne and the whole Frog fiasco? On the bright side, it did bring us the least annoying Tony ever, so I may go along with it entirely for that reason. Nonetheless, it's a rerun and, even within the wacky world of how bureaucracies function in the NCIS universe, does the new SecNav call a mid-level agent out of the blue and task him with an Internal Affairs matter without running through any channels, let alone the Director?
EJ better be a more worthy adversary as a traitor than she was as an ally.
I dislike the Ziva/Ray relationship not only because the actors have zero chemistry with each other, but also because it's based on lies and is a disservice to Ziva. No, Ray can't tell Ziva what he's doing if she's not read into the case, but the writers are constantly putting them in situations where that comes into play and then has Ziva react badly to it. It makes her seem unreasonable, jealous, and robs her of the wisdom she won the hard way in her previous career as a Mossad wetworks agent and as the handler for her half-brother. Ziva should have a very different appreciation of covert work and secrets in general than she does.
NCIS:LA Funny how the Black Sea coast bears a striking resemblance to SoCal. It was even more hilarious than the "Tel Aviv" the mothership depicted the other season.
I don't know if it's because I'm getting older or what, but my reaction to Callum having a hissyfit over not being allowed to do what he wanted, when he wanted to be 'grow the fuck up' and sympathy with Lauren Hunter, which I suspect was not what was intended. Everyone was being a whiny baby, the "plot" was ridiculous even by NCIS standards, and I'd kind of hoped that we'd gotten past the point where everything (anything) is about Callum's search for his family. I don't think anyone watches this show for that storyline. Making him the last surviving member of some Romanian gangster clan doesn't make it more interesting; it makes it more preposterous. Which is not the same kind of 'good stupid' the show works best as.
Bring everyone home, give them back their badges, and have them make goofy banter as they make the Worst Undercovers Ever and bust meth-dealing junior enlisteds and find the killers of closeted lieutenants. Froth should not be asked to support anything weighty.
Criminal Minds: the worst of the bunch. Historically, when they don't even bother giving a profile, it's because the case is being made secondary to some character development/movement. But they... didn't. They threatened to and everyone was reacting as if there was going to be something, but... nothing. It all got put off until next season. So we got no actual case worth following (a happy ending for everyone!) and no actual character development and that left us with... nothing.
The 'return' of JJ was just... really? That was the best you could do? JJ, who presumably has a son and a lover at home waiting for her, is sitting in a dark office at 2am waiting for Rossi so she could tell him that she's decided to come back. Apparently, she's forgotten that the whole premise for her leaving was that it was involuntary and unwanted and unstoppable by people far more powerful than David Rossi.
This show has managed some very good season finales, but this was just a waste of our time by people who clearly didn't give a damn.
The Mentalist: Speaking of recycling... Yet another of Grace's boyfriends is using her to get to Jane. We get that she and Rigsby are an OTP and an adorable one at that; you don't need to keep whoring her out to prove the point.
Jane did not kill Red John, but instead just another one of his lackeys. This was just a test. Hopefully, it will be revealed that Red John's revenge on Patrick Jane wasn't to kill his family; that was just to kick things off. It will be to turn him into what he's become because Red John wants a worthy opponent, a playmate worth the effort.
What I am starting to mind is that we are never getting any clue about how/why Red John has all of these minions to do his bidding. And, more importantly, nobody on the show seems at all curious. Is Red John a serial killer or a cult leader or some amalgam of the two? Whenever one of his minions is discovered, nobody asks how he got to them, where/when/why their involvement with him began, or why so many people -- all of whom are clearly capable of holding down jobs and leading productive lives without this nonsense -- are all willing to die to please Red John. None of these people are ever investigated beyond confirming their Red John activities. Nobody cared why Gupta the Gas Station Dude was looking for a way to track Hightower for Red John, or why Bosco's secretary or Todd Johnson were working for Red John. Nobody will care why O'Laughlin was doing the same. Someone may wonder if there are more of them somewhere, but nobody will do any sort of investigation to figure it out.
Recycling is nominally supposed to be good for the environment. Not so much for serialized television.
NCISes
NCIS: Poor David Sinclair. He leaves the LA office to take that spiffy job in Washington, only to be shot dead by a crazed naval officer turned assassin. Unless this was a favor for a friend, Alimi Ballard, fire your agent.
The wrap-up of the P2P case was... whatever. It wasn't as cracktastic as some of the other stuff they've pulled and nobody watches NCIS for the cleverness of their ideas. For what they had, it wasn't handled that badly.
The death of Mike Franks is now officially doubly pointless, since we now have the unnecessary lung cancer/emphysema on top of the gratuitous stabbing. I thought having Gibbs make the coffin was a nice touch, but I wonder about his final product; Franks doesn't seem like a guy who wants flowers on his casket and Gibbs doesn't seem like a guy who'd put them there unless specifically requested.
The final scene brought us back to... what? Season Four? Five? Which one had Tony lying to Gibbs and pretending with Jeanne and the whole Frog fiasco? On the bright side, it did bring us the least annoying Tony ever, so I may go along with it entirely for that reason. Nonetheless, it's a rerun and, even within the wacky world of how bureaucracies function in the NCIS universe, does the new SecNav call a mid-level agent out of the blue and task him with an Internal Affairs matter without running through any channels, let alone the Director?
EJ better be a more worthy adversary as a traitor than she was as an ally.
I dislike the Ziva/Ray relationship not only because the actors have zero chemistry with each other, but also because it's based on lies and is a disservice to Ziva. No, Ray can't tell Ziva what he's doing if she's not read into the case, but the writers are constantly putting them in situations where that comes into play and then has Ziva react badly to it. It makes her seem unreasonable, jealous, and robs her of the wisdom she won the hard way in her previous career as a Mossad wetworks agent and as the handler for her half-brother. Ziva should have a very different appreciation of covert work and secrets in general than she does.
NCIS:LA Funny how the Black Sea coast bears a striking resemblance to SoCal. It was even more hilarious than the "Tel Aviv" the mothership depicted the other season.
I don't know if it's because I'm getting older or what, but my reaction to Callum having a hissyfit over not being allowed to do what he wanted, when he wanted to be 'grow the fuck up' and sympathy with Lauren Hunter, which I suspect was not what was intended. Everyone was being a whiny baby, the "plot" was ridiculous even by NCIS standards, and I'd kind of hoped that we'd gotten past the point where everything (anything) is about Callum's search for his family. I don't think anyone watches this show for that storyline. Making him the last surviving member of some Romanian gangster clan doesn't make it more interesting; it makes it more preposterous. Which is not the same kind of 'good stupid' the show works best as.
Bring everyone home, give them back their badges, and have them make goofy banter as they make the Worst Undercovers Ever and bust meth-dealing junior enlisteds and find the killers of closeted lieutenants. Froth should not be asked to support anything weighty.
Criminal Minds: the worst of the bunch. Historically, when they don't even bother giving a profile, it's because the case is being made secondary to some character development/movement. But they... didn't. They threatened to and everyone was reacting as if there was going to be something, but... nothing. It all got put off until next season. So we got no actual case worth following (a happy ending for everyone!) and no actual character development and that left us with... nothing.
The 'return' of JJ was just... really? That was the best you could do? JJ, who presumably has a son and a lover at home waiting for her, is sitting in a dark office at 2am waiting for Rossi so she could tell him that she's decided to come back. Apparently, she's forgotten that the whole premise for her leaving was that it was involuntary and unwanted and unstoppable by people far more powerful than David Rossi.
This show has managed some very good season finales, but this was just a waste of our time by people who clearly didn't give a damn.
The Mentalist: Speaking of recycling... Yet another of Grace's boyfriends is using her to get to Jane. We get that she and Rigsby are an OTP and an adorable one at that; you don't need to keep whoring her out to prove the point.
Jane did not kill Red John, but instead just another one of his lackeys. This was just a test. Hopefully, it will be revealed that Red John's revenge on Patrick Jane wasn't to kill his family; that was just to kick things off. It will be to turn him into what he's become because Red John wants a worthy opponent, a playmate worth the effort.
What I am starting to mind is that we are never getting any clue about how/why Red John has all of these minions to do his bidding. And, more importantly, nobody on the show seems at all curious. Is Red John a serial killer or a cult leader or some amalgam of the two? Whenever one of his minions is discovered, nobody asks how he got to them, where/when/why their involvement with him began, or why so many people -- all of whom are clearly capable of holding down jobs and leading productive lives without this nonsense -- are all willing to die to please Red John. None of these people are ever investigated beyond confirming their Red John activities. Nobody cared why Gupta the Gas Station Dude was looking for a way to track Hightower for Red John, or why Bosco's secretary or Todd Johnson were working for Red John. Nobody will care why O'Laughlin was doing the same. Someone may wonder if there are more of them somewhere, but nobody will do any sort of investigation to figure it out.