Joined: Feb 2004 Gender: Female Posts: 8,416 Location: Sunny Melbourne
Director Jenny Shepard « Thread Started on Nov 9, 2005, 5:33pm »
Well if she's now officially a Regular Cast Member, then I guess she should have her own thread.
Given that the character of Director Jenny Shepard doesn't seem to have any supporters, I guess this thread may end up being more of a place to vent...but please try to keep any criticism constructive.
If anyone can think of any redeeming qualities that The Jen has, please share. We need all the help that we can get in seeing the silver lining to this new character.
Oh and suggestions for the thread title would be good too. At the moment the title is about as boring as her character. Oooops
Joined: Apr 2004 Gender: Female Posts: 735 Location: Virginia
Re: Director Jenny Shepard « Reply #1 on Nov 9, 2005, 5:51pm »
Today at 15:22, Moose Wizard wrote:
LAUREN HOLLY JOINS "NCIS" AS A SERIES REGULAR
Well, this ruins my day. Actually the whole season.
From what I've read, Holly seems like a nice person, but her character adds nothing to NCIS and detracts a lot.
As Director, she's a lightweight, lacking both judgment and intelligence. She asks an employee to escort her to a ball? That's a no-no in federal agencies! And as a woman, she lacks judgment, personality, charisma, and appeal.
But worst of all, she's dragging Gibbs down with her. He's just the shadow of the man he was prior to her coming on the scene. Now he seems directionless, like he's biding his time until she's gone.
And what are they doing with the story arc? Okay, they once had an affair. Does anybody care? There doesn't seem to be any UST left, despite their half-hearted stabs at innuendos. It seems that Gibbs is beset with memories, and sometimes he says suggestive things, but he doesn't seem to be really interested, more like he's trying to needle her because he can't take that she's his superior. For her part, she seems to be trying to arouse him, which is patently inappropriate for the boss. The worst of this is, do viewers care? I cringe at these scenes and wait for them to pass.
Somehow, I don't think NCIS's big increase in ratings is because of the additon of Jen shepard. I suspect it's more because lots of new people tuned in to see what happened after Kate was shot, and were drawn to Gibbs, Tony, Ziva, Abby, and/or Ducky.
So now that Jen is a regular, I hope they'll get a hold on the character. I was going to add "and on the relationship with Gibbs," but it would really be better if there were no relationship - if she were the distant director and he returned to running the team.
Joined: Feb 2004 Gender: Female Posts: 7,322 Location: Los Angeles
Re: Director Jenny Shepard « Reply #2 on Nov 9, 2005, 6:10pm »
I've only seen her in a couple of eps and she looked about 50 years old in Honor Code. Gibbs honest to god looked younger.
In Under Covers she looked younger, but her skirt is too short and her shoes completely inappropriate. Geez, I'm self employed and I wouldn't wear strappy heels to a client.
Then the party gown was unfortunate in the fit of the bodice. (Yes, I had to research and find the word bodice.) Who in the name of dressing the cast would have chosen that ill-fitting thing which only looked good from a distance. The skirt was good.
I'm prepared to like Shepard. I'm not prepared to like the Gibbs look-alike who is in the scenes with her. Dottie made me realized that Gibbs has been kidnapped and some smarmy guy is filling in.
Quote:
Somehow, I don't think NCIS's big increase in ratings is because of the addition of Jen shepard. I suspect it's more because lots of new people tuned in to see what happened after Kate was shot, and were drawn to Gibbs, Tony, Ziva, Abby, and/or Ducky.
What Dottie said.
Modified to say - Let's get it all out then we can start on the positives. Remember, she is not dressing herself or writing her scenes. Sir DPB is doing this for a reason. The man knows what he is doing and it will be fun to see how much we like Shepard by the end of the season.
Re: Director Jenny Shepard « Reply #3 on Nov 9, 2005, 6:48pm »
The problem with her character that I've had with Jenny is that there just hasn't been much done with this character other than reinforce that she and Gibbs once had a romantic relationship and it has gotten to the point of "So What?" really quickly. It seems more like the writers and producers felt that they had to have a more visible director, but, I think that there was already an issue with screen time and character development before Jenny was ever in the picture. I don't think that she adds anything significant to NCIS right now and I think that she's distracting because, she seems to try and act like a director from time to time but, when it all comes down to it, she comes across like an awkward outsider.
Joined: Feb 2004 Gender: Female Posts: 7,322 Location: Los Angeles
Re: Director Jenny Shepard « Reply #4 on Nov 9, 2005, 7:57pm »
Quote:
It seems more like the writers and producers felt that they had to have a more visible director, but, I think that there was already an issue with screen time and character.
I don't think that was it. I think they wanted to add a female for Gibbs and decided on one with a past. They couldn't have her as an agent to replace Kate, so they looked around and decided to throw her in as the boss. It is pathetic but it will probably end up working.
When I remember how pathetic Kate was in Season One, losing her weapon, getting tied up, then they plopped her in red lingerie. I think Kate turned out to be a good character.
The good thing is Shepard makes Ziva look wonderful.
Re: Director Jenny Shepard « Reply #5 on Nov 9, 2005, 9:24pm »
I don't think I'll ever like her. Her making changes to the team with no notice, messing with Abby's dress code and making her have the world's most psychotic assistant, and her just plain nasty comments have done it for me. I am SO glad I don't have to work under her because I know I'd go insane.
To me this exchange sums her up perfectly:
Gibbs: Have you ever doubted me before? Jen: Professionally? No.
I'm glad the cast is having so much fun with her on the set. But I kind of wish she'd gone and done the CBS interview on Kill Ari. Okay, maybe that was a little strong.
Re: Director Jenny Shepard « Reply #6 on Nov 9, 2005, 10:37pm »
Given the characters that were already on the show before Jenny was ever in the picture, I think that character development and screen time were already an issue and her addition doesn't help the situation. I hope that for everyone's sake that Jenny is developed and given something to contribute to the show and it's storylines because, I think that Kate wasn't given a fair chance to be developed because for one reason or another Kate's character development seemed to be put on the back burner and I didn't like that.
Joined: Jun 2005 Gender: Female Posts: 1,681 Location: Hong Kong
Re: Director Jenny Shepard « Reply #7 on Nov 10, 2005, 1:48am »
*cough* I'm probably one of the rare population here who don't hate Jenny Shephard for the time being, but it's probably because I liked Lauren Holly when she's in 'Picket Fences', and then, Jenny Shephard is just a character who only took up a few minutes screen time once in a while, so she didn't bother me much.
But, I agree with you girls on the point that the hairs made is reeeeally bad and the costume.. jeez... it's nowhere like a Director. But I'm sure with her new hair cut (where she cut it real short), it'll be a bit better at least for the eyes.
As for her competency as a Director, yes, she's not good at the job. But doesn't it mean that, our Gibbs is, once again, correct? He believed that Jenny's more of a good field agent than a Director and from 'Kill Ari', we've seen and knew we can just trust Gibbs' words.
For her relationship with Gibbs, well the fact that they have a past is a fact and it's inevitable. I just hope they're not going to do anymore flashbacks or let Gibbs and Jenny picked up where they left of their old relationship. They can't be anything but good friends. My hope is, with her there, Gibbs will be more willing, and have the chance to, open up more and talked about what happened to him in the past, why he has turned into the nowadays Gibbs from the time when he's a lot like Tony. What's his history in NCIS and I really wanna hear Gibbs (in case he's telling Jenn) say how he looked at his agents.
Joined: Jun 2005 Gender: Female Posts: 614 Location: California
Re: Director Jenny Shepard « Reply #8 on Nov 10, 2005, 2:10am »
I really think they're going to have Shepard and Gibbs hook up. I know people will differ in their opinions on this, but I think its unavoidable at this point.
I wish Shepard was more like Cuddy on House. If you havent seen that, its a very similar relationship. Cuddy is the smart, sexy, no-nonsense, by-the-book boss of the gruff, grumpy, anti-social, brilliant rebel loner main character. They have a reparte that is always funny, mostly risque, and mutually antagonistic. There are vague, wispy indications of a past, but regardless of whether thats true or not, the relationship makes you want to see more of it. You want them to get together.
Joined: Jul 2005 Gender: Female Posts: 1,123 Location: Texas USA
Re: Director Jenny Shepard « Reply #10 on Nov 10, 2005, 5:45am »
Ok, I'm putting this here because... well... I can!
Everyone remembers my feelings about Ziva. I didn't completely bash her, I let her alone. Now it's Jen Shepards turn. I am not entirely happy with this character, only in that there hasn't been much about her. She's been brought in to show that there is a lot of politicing going on behid the scenes of a good agency, and she is showing that. The hair was ok, not a favorite but well... the clothing, come on, show me what a Director should be wearing? If Abby can wear her black t-shirts, why can't the Director wear a softer fashion?
I like the IDEA of having her around because she brings out Gibbs' past. I remember everyone around here talking about how they wanted to know more about Gibbs, well I think we have gotten that. Since she has shown up with her snide little remarks about how Gibbs has always been so good with kis and why didn't he think of having one... Then we find out that he did once have a kid. And later on we figure out the kid has a name...You know we would have never found that out without Jen.
Tell me one other person on that team who would have even dared to ask Gibbs questions about his past? Only Jen can do that, she's the Director after all. Had we been able to keep Tom Morrow as Director, I really don't see him asking these questions either.
Finally, I want to think that with her coming on as a regular in the show, DPB might give us more of a glimpse into who she is and what she is doing here. (In my AU mind, I can see Jen putting too much faith in Ziva and the Mossad agent doing something to shake Jen's trust in her. Then bye bye Ziva...)So, yes I am looking forward to the future episodes with Jen Shepard, cause you never know with this show.
And just to reiterate something a friend has said before... Not everyone liked Kate when she first came on the show either.
Joined: Jun 2005 Gender: Female Posts: 614 Location: California
Re: Director Jenny Shepard « Reply #11 on Nov 10, 2005, 10:17am »
Quote:
Tell me one other person on that team who would have even dared to ask Gibbs questions about his past? Only Jen can do that, she's the Director after all. on
Ok, I'll tell you three. Ziva, Abby, and Ducky. Ziva was the one who revealed Gibbs had a child, not Shepard. Shepard doesnt even know about her, so yes, we would know about the wife and daughter if Shepard wasnt there. And it was Ducky who confronted Gibbs about the wife who left him because of the case with the serial killer in Mind Games. Abby has demonstrated repeatedly that she's not afraid to ask Gibbs anything, including what his fetishes are. He may not give her a straight answer all the time, but he lets her get away with more liberties than anyone else.
Joined: Jul 2005 Gender: Female Posts: 1,468 Location: Maine
Re: Director Jenny Shepard « Reply #12 on Nov 10, 2005, 10:47am »
I don't like Shepard. It's not Holly I don't like; Lauren Holly seems like a really nice person, and Mark Harmon even recommended her to the casting people to play Jen. Sometimes I really hate the writers. I think it was a good idea on their parts to have a woman that could bring out Gibbs past (and I do like that, learning about Gibbs past, his daughter, first wife, etc.), but we didn't realy need Shepard to do that. I mean, we didn't even learn about his daughter from her. We leanred from Ziva. Heck, Sheperd doesn't even know that he has a daughter. And she's really bringing out the worst in Gibbs. Like many people have already said, he's acting like some smarmy, drooling love-sick puppy. And why do we need to see them rolling around in bed together every week? We already know they had a thing going on six years ago. And I don't see why all of the characters, besides Abby, like her so much. Ducky, McGee, Tony (although maybe not him as much as the others) all seem to really like her.
But to be constructive, if they made her seem more human and less, I don't know, computerized I guess, then I think she might be able to be an interesting character. And like Aerie said, maybe she'll improve and turn out to be a really good character, like with Kate. For starters, her new haricut is kinda weird, but an improvement over some of her dos before. A warning for those who haven't seen her new do yet: It's really, really short. And all over the place.
Joined: Jul 2005 Gender: Female Posts: 1,123 Location: Texas USA
Re: Director Jenny Shepard « Reply #13 on Nov 10, 2005, 11:49am »
Quote:
Ziva was the one who revealed Gibbs had a child, not Shepard. Shepard doesnt even know about her, so yes, we would know about the wife and daughter if Shepard wasnt there.
Actually, Ziva wouldn't be there is Shepard hadn't brought her in...
Quote:
And it was Ducky who confronted Gibbs about the wife who left him because of the case with the serial killer in Mind Games.
But we already knew that Gibbs has been married three times, so that is nothing new, and we didn't really know why there were three divorces, so this is different. Ducky could have been tlkaing about any of the original three we knew about, I don't think this Shannon/Kelly thing has anything to do with that.
Quote:
Abby has demonstrated repeatedly that she's not afraid to ask Gibbs anything, including what his fetishes are. He may not give her a straight answer all the time, but he lets her get away with more liberties than anyone else.
But she has never, in the two years we have known the show and the team, ever once asked him something as personal as this. Asking about all things fetish is one thing, asking about him having a kid is a totally different thing.
Joined: Jul 2005 Gender: Female Posts: 1,468 Location: Maine
Re: Director Jenny Shepard « Reply #14 on Nov 10, 2005, 11:53am »
Maybe Abby knows that Gibbs has a daughter. Sure, we don't have anything to prove that she does know, but we haven't heard anything that definitely tells us that she doesn't know either. Ducky might know too. Ducky is probably one of Gibbs only friends, and Gibbs might confide in him. Just a theory.
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Remember, she is not dressing herself or writing her scenes. Sir DPB is doing this for a reason. The man knows what he is doing and it will be fun to see how much we like Shepard by the end of the season. 
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