NCIS, Mark Harmon, And Anger-Management Classes
So, on Monday nights, we get a reboot of a classic, with the new Hawaii Five-O. Wednesday nights, something all new, with The Defenders (more on them, tomorrow). And sandwiched right in the middle on Tuesdays is a whole big ol' night of a show that just keeps rolling down the tracks like a freight train: NCIS ... and NCIS Los Angeles, duh.
Nobody's ever asked me to teach a cooking class (Imagine that -Ed.), but you don't have to be a chef to know the cake tastes good; and the recipe for NCIS is really, really simple: tell compelling stories with a great cast. Note, I said it was simple, not easy.
Watch tonight's NCIS season premiere at 8: you're familiar with the characters, but the story is fresh. And yes, I'm under orders not to reveal it. Trust me. This is the show's 8th season: that's phenomenal. The production team is first-rate. And the cast gets each other, but don't phone it in. --No small trick after all this time. When Mark Harmon--"Leroy Jethro Gibbs"-- greatest character name ever--talks to his staff, he always looks to me like a guy who's struggling with his anger-management classes. Waiting to see how he responds to his underlings, it's hard to take your eyes off him. But somehow I manage when Cote de Pablo and Pauley Perrette ("Ziva David" and "Abby Sciuto") are in the scene. Yes, I focused on the two women: you write a blog, you pick who you want.
Tuesday, Sept. 21, is NCIS night: the original at 8, then two episodes of the returning spinoff, NCIS Los Angeles. Ah, these are good days to be a couch potato.
