"I went to a place to eat. It said 'breakfast at any time.' So I ordered french toast during the Renaissance". --Steven Wright ... If you are a devotee of time travel, check out this song...

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

NCIS 8.17: Budget Cuts

Budget cuts continue to loom larger in NCIS 8.17  - no, not budget cuts to the drama with the highest ratings on television - budget cuts within the NCIS story, which may well affect Gibbs and his team.

Leon continues to be nastier than ever.  It's surprising that Gibbs has put up with it thus far.   Leon's not divulging exactly what he's going to do to cut expenses, including giving Gibbs any idea of how it might affect his team.  Gibbs himself could be on a stealth track to a chopping block.

One of the time-honored ways of saving money is combining teams.  Special Agent E. J. Barrett had  the team-leader job with the NCIS unit in Spain that the late Director Jenny had offered to DiNozzo, and he had turned down.  She's back in the USA now, working for NCIS, but not quite on our team.

Here are two significant things we see about E. J.:  Ziva doesn't like her, and DiNozzo very much does.  So much so, that tonight's episode ends with E. J. coming out the NCIS showers, with just a towel on, and DiNozzo about to kiss her.  When he says that's against the rules, she says that's no problem.

It's good to see DiNozzo back in  business again, but E.J. represents a variety of threats to our team.  Leon could have her replace Ziva, DiNozzo, even Gibbs.  Again, with the way Leon's been behaving, I wouldn't be put any of that past him.

Lots of good banter tonight, too, with Ziva on books vs. DiNozzo (of course) on the movie versions.   To the perennial question of which is better, the book or the movie version, I've always thought the answer is based more than anything on which you read or saw first (I call this "the first love syndrome" in popular culture).  Certainly applies to NCIS - I'd like to all of the current team survive into subsequent seasons.

Except, perhaps, Leon.  Hey, maybe E. J. will take his job, and Leon will become SecNav.

See also NCIS Back in Season 8 Action ... NCIS 8.2: Interns! ... NCIS 8.3: Tiff! ... NCIS 8.4: Gary Cooper not John Wayne ... NCIS 8.5: Dead DJ, DiNozzo Hoarse, and Baseball ... NCIS 8.6: The Written Woman ... NCIS 8.7: "James Bond Movie Directed by Fellini" ... NCIS 8.8: Ziva's Father 
... NCIS 8.9: Leon's Story ... NCIS 8.10: DiNozzo In and Out ... NCIS 8.11: "The Sister Went Viral" ... Bob Newhart on NCIS 8.12 ... NCIS 8.13: The Wife or the Girlfriend ... NCIS 8.14: Kate ... NCIS 8.15: McGee and DiNozzo's Badges ... NCIS 8.16: Computer Games

And see also NCIS  ... NCIS 7.16: Gibbs' Mother-in-Law Dilemma ... NCIS 7.17: Ducky's Ties ... NCIS 7.18: Bogus Treasure and Real Locker ... NCIS 7.21: NCIS Meets Laura ... NCIS Season 7 Finale: Retribution





                 Special Discount Coupons for Angie's List, Avis, Budget Car, eHarmony, eMusic, Mozy, Zazzle




The Plot to Save Socrates


"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly

"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This was a kind of a mish-mash episode, which had an odd rhythm. The case was interesting, although Helm's dripping condescension was overdone or over-acted or something that was not right or good. McGee's "this is not fair" mewlings was also wearing and since when is McGee the social conscience for the team? The new woman team leader was irritating and intrusive, in fact the whole episode could have been titled Arrogance in Action. Yes, yes, Tony and new team leader woman are trading pseudo sophisticated banter and sexual tension and yes, Vance and Gibbs have never been farther apart, but this episode was not convincing about any of it.

InfiniteRegress.tv