Comments | meredith44: NCIS vs. WaT

meredith44

NCIS vs. WaT

Oct 31, 2005 00:27

What has happened to my shows?
Before I get into details/discussion, let me just set up the background of this. Back in May of last year, rumors were swirling about regarding the changes happening at NCIS. Someone was going to die in the finale, and the producer kept talking about how he was planning to make the show darker the next year. Then, ( Read more... )

meta discussion, ncis, without a trace

Comments 11

janetmaca October 31 2005, 15:13:01 UTC

Amen! Except for WaT being my favourite drama on tv (that's a toss-up between The West Wing and This is Wonderland) The rest of it was spot-on. Thing is, for me, With WaT the addition of Elana is overcrowding the show, but NCIS's addition of Ziva is just right, partially because the started off with 6, went down to five and bounced back up to 6, and also because they're spread out. They're not all agents going out into the field (like WaT).

meredith44 November 1 2005, 00:37:06 UTC

The only episodes I've seen of The West Wing are the ones that featured Mark Harmon, and I've never heard of This is Wonderland, but I'll trust you that they are good. *grin*

I didn't even think about the fact that the NCIS agents were spread out making the addition better. You're right; that definitely is a factor.

dricks October 31 2005, 18:09:46 UTC

Hi !
So, the actress who plays "Ziva" is from Brazil? Is she brazilian? I never heard about her ... but that´s cool!
I just saw season 1 from NCIS but I´m looking forward for season 2 begin here.
I don´t dislike Elena (so far..) but I want more M/S ! ! !

meredith44 November 1 2005, 00:44:14 UTC

Eh, my mistake, I'll have to go fix that. I looked it up, and it turns out that the actress is from Chile. (I could swear I'd read somewhere (Entertainment Weekly? TV Guide?) that she was from Brazil, but I guess I was wrong.)

Have fun with season 2; there are some great moments!

I know that a lot of people dislike her. This is rather bad of me to say, but I almost would prefer her if she were replacing someone. It's really, really hard in my opinion for WaT to successfully balance a five person ensemble and not shortchange anyone or the case; it's nearly imposible for a six person cast. Your statement that you want more M/S sort of shows that. They're going to have a hard time fitting in personal stuff with the regulars and work in all of the grandiose new plots that I have heard that they have planned. I'm hoping for the best, though.

meredith44 November 1 2005, 00:45:36 UTC

That was supposed to be... I know that a lot of people don't dislike her. *sigh* I knew I should have proofread!

carrieross October 31 2005, 18:46:15 UTC

Sob. It's the thorough summary of they are doing to my show.
Anyway, the things I liked most of NCIS were the Ari story and Kate... I'm glad I wasn't a fan!
I'm watching SVU, but the season they're airing (6?) is twisting towards Stabler's personal problems (which I personally don't care much of, cuz it wasn't a show focused on characters) and many of the victims are not killed, but missing... in NYC! *confused*
In the first episodes the chinese psychiatrist was absent and they introduced a nasty female psychiatrist... Stabler seemed very interested to her and I considered dropping the show (it was my fave show two years ago). Then, out of the blue, she disappeared and the Chinese shrink reappeared... and the fans lived happily afterwards.

Female characters? When they started to air S1 of Cold Case, I wasn't sure I would watch it, cuz the main character was a woman, I go for men as main characters, usually. Two scenes later I was 'in love' with Lilly Rush!

meredith44 November 1 2005, 00:55:51 UTC

Season 5 (the season you're talking about) of SVU wasn't my favorite. They're dragging the DeStabler story into this current season, but hopefully it was resolved in one of the recent episodes that I haven't watched yet. The reason they can investigate missing persons cases in NYC is that there is no FBI MPU in real life. In fact, the FBI only gets involved in missing persons cases under certain circumstances. WaT takes a bunch of liberties with their stories, but I forgive them for it! (Usually. They're trying the limits of my patience with their current stories...) D.B. Wong (who plays the psychiatrist that you're talking about) was in a play or something that meant he wasn't available to do the show, so they pulled in a guest star to be the psychiatrist. I didn't like her much either.

I'm like you; usually I like male characters a heck of a lot better than female characters. I like Cold Case, but for me it's more about the emotion they are able to portray and the stories, rather than Lilly. (You can't be surprised about ( ... )

carrieross November 1 2005, 08:38:40 UTC

Thanks for telling me what was behind those weird episodes of S5 of SVU.
And I love Cold Case for how it is cut, Lilly adds the fact that I can relax loving the show without thinking 'I'm gonna kill this woman'.

meredith44 November 2 2005, 04:41:32 UTC

You're welcome. If you keep watching, beware for some weird set-ups in season 6 (our current season). Christopher Meloni (Elliot) took time off for another project, so that changed the dynamic and makeup of some of the episodes.

Lilly adds the fact that I can relax loving the show without thinking 'I'm gonna kill this woman'.
I guess that could be considered a plus! LOL

I know that I need to like (or at least not dislike) the characters of a show, otherwise I won't watch it. If it's just one character of an ensemble (like Charlie on Lost, I might be able to ignore it, but I cannot ignore a main character. Good thing I like Lilly too.

smilla02 October 31 2005, 23:53:56 UTC

Okay, I left your post among the last thing I intended to do today. I had read your psot this morning, but I needed to think on it to reply properly.

The actress abilities: the first thing I thought as soon as I saw her on screen was that she was too plastic for my tastes, apart from my personal preferences, every (or each?) actors on WaT, even the much maligned PM, are good in their delivery, ALP is out of discussion, even when his performances are a bit over the top, EC is very good at subtlety and he is able to expresses a large range of emotions (when they give him the chance to do so ;), MJB has an impressive pedigree and I find her acting always spot on (but she, too, is usually left behind), EM has improved very much on his acting abilities over the three years he is on WaT and he can emotes very well, PM is somewhat the weak link, but she, too, is able to expresses her emotions very well and she has grown on me, even when they treated her character badly ( ... )

meredith44 November 1 2005, 01:08:41 UTC

I pretty much agree with everything in your comment.

It heartens me that they aren't letting the Martin storyline drop. I don't want specifics, because you know how spoiler-phobic I am, but I just have to say, as much as I want continuity, I really, really, really hope that they aren't going to make him addicted to painkillers. First of all, addiction storylines on cop shows (and other shows, like WaT's timeslot competitor, ER) have been done. Numerous times. Second of all, there already is a recovering addict (Danny; granted his drug of choice is alcohol, but still...) on the team, should there really be another? There are more reasons I don't want that storyline, but I'm not going into it now.

I think my predisposition toward her would have changed a lot if they had used her to make light on the team, how they are feeling after the shooting, why they are reacting like that (or not reacting at all).See, this is exactly why I wasn't adverse to a new character. I think an "outsider" could have been used to let the audience ( ... )