Post by Deleted on May 28, 2008 20:44:55 GMT -5
Well, I'm finally weighing in on the season finale.
First of all, I enjoyed the ep overall as an episode. I especially enjoyed the Ducky and Abby scene at the beginning, everything in regards to the CPR, all of the Abby moments in regards to Jen's death (she got me crying every time), the intrigue, suspense, Mike and Jen's dynamic during the first part, and as always, Gibbs. I did come away feeling disatisfied on a few points though:
- The lack of closure in regards to Jen's death. We saw a bit of grieving, but suddenly it was the funeral and everything was over. There especially seemed to be a lack of emotion with Gibbs, which surprised me - I thought we saw more with Pacci. And the way her death was handled seemed kind of odd - you see her body once and that was it, plus everything happened off screen. I almost felt like it hadn't really happened. I hope they do more to revisit in the fall.
- The illness plot seemed extraneous to me and completely unnecessary. Yes, it explained why she was so reckless with her life, but for that matter she could have still easily been killed given the situation without setting herself up as bait.
- The protection detail debacle. Where do I even start? First of all, this is a topic that has fascinated me for a couple of years now and I've done a lot of reading on the topic, especially in the case of federal law enforcement. And to the best of my knowledge, Jenny has no authority to dismiss her protection detail. She might be those agents' boss, but the detail is a requirement of her office. And if the agents in question weren't friends, she never would have gotten away with it. (Hence why on Trojan Horse & Angel of Death, there was mention of her having to actually ditch her protection detail.
Secondly, I'd just gone to see the movie Prince Caspian prior to seeing this and Aslan's comment to Lucy about what stopped her from going alone to follow Him reminded me - if Ziva felt so strongly, why didn't she just go on her own? (Naturally, the one time I'd actually like someone to do that they don't)
Thirdly, Tony's entire behavior left me just staring at the TV set and repeatedly asking, "What the Sam Hill is going on?" A) This is the person who has told Ziva about trusting gut instinct, and how often he's done it against the obvious evidence and now he's suddenly not paying attention and dismissing someone's gut instinct? Can you say character inconsistency? And then, we're expected to believe a former homicide cop is going to notice the Director's car at the scene of a murder, the murder is of a woman who you just saw at the funeral they were in town to attend...and said cop is going to brush that off as a coincidence? Even Viv Blackadder knew better than that. There is just absolutely no way in the world that would ever happen.
- The ending. I'm really not interested in knowing how they're going to resolve it and am just looking forward to getting the premiere over with so we can get back to real episodes. I don't see this situation lasting for very long because NCIS isn't a series like Chicago Hope or CSI, where it was often two concurrent cases. NCIS only ever has one case and the thought of four people in four different departments repeatedly meeting up on the same case in a one month period is too implausible. And truthfully I don't find it a very exciting complication, just irritating. Tony and Ziva should have received disciplinary action for their actions in regards to the protection detail (The order was unlawful and it can't be proved that she gave the order anyway since she's dead), but that was overkill to an extreme, and I'm pretty sure Toothpick would have still pulled the same stunt even if everyone's behavior had been perfect, just because he's got a chip on his shoulder from being left out. (And yes, they shouldn't be leaving the Director out of the loop, but they just lost someone - you'd think the man could cut them some slack.)
Sorry about the novel.
First of all, I enjoyed the ep overall as an episode. I especially enjoyed the Ducky and Abby scene at the beginning, everything in regards to the CPR, all of the Abby moments in regards to Jen's death (she got me crying every time), the intrigue, suspense, Mike and Jen's dynamic during the first part, and as always, Gibbs. I did come away feeling disatisfied on a few points though:
- The lack of closure in regards to Jen's death. We saw a bit of grieving, but suddenly it was the funeral and everything was over. There especially seemed to be a lack of emotion with Gibbs, which surprised me - I thought we saw more with Pacci. And the way her death was handled seemed kind of odd - you see her body once and that was it, plus everything happened off screen. I almost felt like it hadn't really happened. I hope they do more to revisit in the fall.
- The illness plot seemed extraneous to me and completely unnecessary. Yes, it explained why she was so reckless with her life, but for that matter she could have still easily been killed given the situation without setting herself up as bait.
- The protection detail debacle. Where do I even start? First of all, this is a topic that has fascinated me for a couple of years now and I've done a lot of reading on the topic, especially in the case of federal law enforcement. And to the best of my knowledge, Jenny has no authority to dismiss her protection detail. She might be those agents' boss, but the detail is a requirement of her office. And if the agents in question weren't friends, she never would have gotten away with it. (Hence why on Trojan Horse & Angel of Death, there was mention of her having to actually ditch her protection detail.
Secondly, I'd just gone to see the movie Prince Caspian prior to seeing this and Aslan's comment to Lucy about what stopped her from going alone to follow Him reminded me - if Ziva felt so strongly, why didn't she just go on her own? (Naturally, the one time I'd actually like someone to do that they don't)
Thirdly, Tony's entire behavior left me just staring at the TV set and repeatedly asking, "What the Sam Hill is going on?" A) This is the person who has told Ziva about trusting gut instinct, and how often he's done it against the obvious evidence and now he's suddenly not paying attention and dismissing someone's gut instinct? Can you say character inconsistency? And then, we're expected to believe a former homicide cop is going to notice the Director's car at the scene of a murder, the murder is of a woman who you just saw at the funeral they were in town to attend...and said cop is going to brush that off as a coincidence? Even Viv Blackadder knew better than that. There is just absolutely no way in the world that would ever happen.
- The ending. I'm really not interested in knowing how they're going to resolve it and am just looking forward to getting the premiere over with so we can get back to real episodes. I don't see this situation lasting for very long because NCIS isn't a series like Chicago Hope or CSI, where it was often two concurrent cases. NCIS only ever has one case and the thought of four people in four different departments repeatedly meeting up on the same case in a one month period is too implausible. And truthfully I don't find it a very exciting complication, just irritating. Tony and Ziva should have received disciplinary action for their actions in regards to the protection detail (The order was unlawful and it can't be proved that she gave the order anyway since she's dead), but that was overkill to an extreme, and I'm pretty sure Toothpick would have still pulled the same stunt even if everyone's behavior had been perfect, just because he's got a chip on his shoulder from being left out. (And yes, they shouldn't be leaving the Director out of the loop, but they just lost someone - you'd think the man could cut them some slack.)
Sorry about the novel.