Tag Archives: Ziva David

November 22, 2024

Friday Notes (Nov 22, 2024)

It has been another slow month here, and I remain conflicted about trying to blog both here on WordPress and now, on Substack. Last May I committed to posting on my WP programming blog (The Hard-Core Coder) every two weeks.

I’d discovered that I didn’t like writing about programming as much as I enjoy doing it, but figured I’d give it one more try (hence the commitment). So far, I’ve been keeping it up, and plan to continue, but it’s one more thing taking time from this blog.

It’s possible (but maybe not yet likely) this is the penultimate Friday Notes.

7 Comments | tags: blog, blogging, die spammers, Election 2024, grammar, NCIS, Ziva David | posted in Friday Notes

January 7, 2020

The Good Place of Oz

By Wyrd Smythe

This TV Tuesday post was originally going to be another rant about WTF is going on with NCIS (I held off on because I didn’t want to kvetch on Christmas). But then I had a really interesting thought about my other favorite (broadcast) TV show, The Good Place.

There’s an old joke about the philosophy professor who says, “Every time I think I’ve had an original though, it turns out some damned ancient Greek thought of it first.” There’s a more serious version in Ecclesiastes: “There is nothing new under the sun.”

It turns out I’m not the first, by a long stretch, to notice how The Good Place echos and references The Wizard of Oz.

10 Comments | tags: Cote de Pablo, Gibbs, Jack Ryan (TV series), Jethro Gibbs, NCIS, The Good Place, The Wizard of Oz, Ziva David | posted in TV, TV Tuesday

October 1, 2019

NCIS: On Very Thin Ice

By Wyrd Smythe

Maybe it’s expecting too much that a TV series remain in your heart for 17 seasons. I still enjoy The Simpsons (starting its 31st season) and South Park (starting its 23rd season), but both the cartoon format and the nature of those shows gives them a lot of latitude in exploring new ideas while remaining true to the show.

A drama, like NCIS, which I’ve rated as my favorite TV show for well over a decade, is more restricted. It’s harder for a drama to find new ground while remaining true to its nature. That can lead to stagnation, viewer fatigue, or, in some cases, “jumping the shark.”

Which is all to say I’m very disappointed in NCIS, season 17.

26 Comments | tags: Jethro Gibbs, NCIS, Ziva David | posted in Rant, TV, TV Tuesday

June 11, 2019

NCIS: Widening Gyre

By Wyrd Smythe

Just last March I asked, Am I Over NCIS? The question seems even more pressing given the NCIS season 16 finale. (Spoiler warning on the season, not to mention any and all previous seasons.) I’ve never been this mixed in my feelings regarding the characters, and the off-screen personal stuff is especially disturbing given other ugly entertainment-related realities that have been uncovered recently.

There is additional pressure from time in the saddle as well as from how viewing habits have changed (both mine and the world’s). Weekly episodes of commercial-filled broadcast TV seem increasingly quaint somehow. And sixteen seasons — most of them 24 episodes — is a lot of NCIS (378 episodes; over 260 hours).

All-in-all, for me the sun may well be setting on NCIS.

23 Comments | tags: Abby Sciuto, Cote de Pablo, Gibbs, Jethro Gibbs, Mark Harmon, NCIS, Pauley Perrette, television, Ziva David | posted in TV, TV Tuesday

July 27, 2016

Over and Over

By Wyrd Smythe

Come over here. Go over there. Let’s go over the bridge, over the wall, and over the plan (while we still have a roof over our heads). But let’s not get over-confident and allow our enthusiasm to spill over. (For that might over-turn the apple cart and we won’t get a do-over!)

Something can be over — that is to say finished, done. And one can be over something (finished with it, done with it). I’ve been struck, lately, by a number of things that are over as well as by the realization that I’m over some things.

The former make me a little bit sad, and a couple of the latter, especially one, took me a bit by surprise!

15 Comments | tags: Anthony DiNozzo, Bernie Sanders, cable news, Castle (TV series), Michael Weatherly, NCIS, Person of Interest, Rizzoli & Isles, Star Trek, Supergirl, The Good Wife, Ziva David | posted in Politics, Society, TV