What a miserable ending to a subpar season. Last night’s NCIS finale was an overstuffed collection of some of the worst things the show has come up with of late: Samantha Ryan (Jamie Lee Curtis), Jonathan Cole (Scott Wolf), and the hunt for Harper Dearing (Richard Schiff). It had already been established that they were all connected, so it wasn’t surprising to explore that, but that didn’t make it any more enjoyable.
First of all, a word about Vance’s abduction. It wasn’t the greatest idea in the first place — I’d nevertheless managed to come to grips with never seeing him again — but at the very least the writers could have had some respect for their own idea and kept Vance missing for at least thirty minutes in an attempt to build even mediocre suspense into the plot.
Anyway, that was not to be. What we did get was the “suspense” of the hunt for Dearing. Richard Schiff did the worst job at pretending that he was a) formidable, b) not a cartoon villain, and c) in any way, shape, or form invested in being a part of the show. Schiff phoned this one in.
As for Ryan, I’m not sure what to say. Fine, so it was enjoyable to see Gibbs encounter her son, Parker (Daniel Polo). You got me. But her? And her and him? Awful. And that’s ignoring their romantic link … her character is just incredibly grating, and she adds a whole lot of zero to the story. Most everything she’s brought to the table we could have done without, but at the very least I’m sure it could have been contributed by other people in some other fashion. We don’t need her. Will she be back? Unfortunately I’d have to say yes, as things were left hanging last night, but hopefully she’s not long for the show. Or maybe she somehow got inexplicably caught in the explosion. Hey, it could happen!
Richard Schiff did accomplish one thing, which was to relieve Scott Wolf of his title as most ridiculous villain casting. Bailey Salinger as Special Ops GI Joe turned Enemy of the State? That’d be like casting sweet and innocent Sarah Reeves as a prosti— whatever. The suit just doesn’t fit, okay? And watching Wolf’s Cole square off opposite Gibbs is like Voldemort taking on Kermit the Frog. Nah … that would probably be fun to watch. But you catch my drift.
Which brings us to the one interesting part of the episode, Palmer’s wedding. Except instead of being great we got Abby being annoying and Palmer being sad. I thought for sure Gibbs and Palmer would share a moment when Palmer came to ask everyone for the final time if they were coming; at the very least I thought Gibbs would say something sweet. But in the end I was kind of disappointed by everyone’s decision to skip the wedding, even if it was for a good reason. I’m not saying they had any other choice, but I was still disappointed.
And what of everyone’s safety following the explosion? The team caught in the blast will be fine — I can see the writers determining that even Cole will turn out to have survived the bomb — but what about Ducky? The beach is a much better place to have a heart attack than in the forest at Camp David (Leo on The West Wing), and I assume Ducky will be fine despite the red herring that talk of his will a few weeks back is bound to promote. So what was the point of the entire exercise if everyone will be fine?
You got me.
What did you think of the finale?
Clacked by Aryeh S.
on May 17, 2012 @ 01:14 EST5EDT
Jamie Lee Curtis must go. No ifs ands or buts. Gone. She has zero chemistry with Gibbs and every time I see her I expect her to whip out a yoghurt and talk about his colon, she is not sexy, warm, funny or even formidable as was (forgot her name) the Marine he dated for awhile. TVGuide interview says she will be back and they are considering the *mystery* behind her husband and his jail time (whoa, drop that in did we EXEC PROD/WRITERS?)
Ducky went to the wedding? Why was he at the beach? Was I letting the dog out at that explanation?
The one piece I liked was Jimmy finally standing up to Ducky, with the WE are a team statement. Finally, Jimmy isn’t the milquetoast or will he have a personality regression?
Tony/Ziva in the elevator conveniently falling on top of each other? Please, enough of trying to force those two on us as a couple…Castle you are not and even they finally just bit the bullet and went with it. See BONES on how not to bring a couple together and not kill the show.
I am starting to fast forward through NCIS episodes, something I never thought possible. Has NCIS grown too grey for my watching?
NCIS and NCIS LA are two of my favorite shows and thought both finales were great. I agree about Jamie Lee Curtis’s character. It really doesn’t bring much to the show and I really don’t like the relationship between her and Gibbs.
I was disappointed that she fell apart when she found out her ex husband had been released from prison. I would have prefered to see her stand up like a “big girl” and say bring it on!!! The rest of the characters I love and as far as I am concerned none of them can do wrong!! I want them all to come back as they have always done with all of their quirky ways and love for each other. The chemistry between all of them is awesome!!!
For a season finale, I seem not to have cared about this one at all. I missed the big explosion because I got up to start on the dishes. For some reason, there was just zero suspense for me on this one.
Unless David MacCallum wants to retire and leave the show, Ducky will be back.
I don’t know what it is about Glasberg’s recurring characters but I’m glad when they leave. So I really hope that Samantha Ryan runs far, far away from Washington now that her ex-husband is out of jail even though that makes no sense since if you can’t count on the navy to protect you, who can you count on?
I like NCIS the least when it wraps itself up in the flag and Jimmy’s speech on how he felt bad getting married when his friends were working on the case back home irritated me no end. He’s an assistant in autopsy not a special agent. There was nothing for him to work on back home. If I would have been Breena and he cancelled the wedding I had spent months planning and my parents paid for, that would have been the last request I granted Jimmy, followed by knocking him into next week.
I thought season 9 and the finale were mediocre. I think whilst they have started to explore the characters in more depth I get the distinct impression the audience are rationed little tid bits just to keep us watching. They need to do more with the characters – explore the Tony and Ziva thing or move in from it, get McGee or Abby in a serious relationship with someone or each other. I just think we need to see more of these, albiet workaholics, outside of their work.
What absolutely kills the show in Australia is the network showing one new episode and then 2-3 weeks of repeats before the next new episode – audiences do not want to be dicked around. Season 9 just came out on dvd here and they still hadn’t shown the last 4 episodes on tv.
Ultimately I think the show is missing Shane (what’s his last name) who has moved on to run NCIS LA…