They introduced Ziva’s replacement last night and I’m not real impressed. They kinda painted themselves into a corner when they had Leon tell Gibbs “Future agents are going to look a lot more like McGee and a lot less like Tony” a while back, so I guess a credibly kick-ass action heroine just wasn’t in the cards.
Ellie Bishop, a quirky, nerdy, kinda hot looking NSA agent, made her debut. Other than visually, there’s not a huge enough contrast between her and Abby. She (while unarmed) took down an armed bad guy, for no better reason than that the script says she did. She’s an extreme Mary Sue and her unseen husband might as well be wearing a red shirt for how dead he will soon inevitably be.
I really wanted Diane Neal (ADA Casey Novak from L&O), the Coast Guard agent, to be the new Ziva.
Are the producers trying to appeal to a younger crowd with Ellie Bishop. Personally, I hated her. I hated that Gibbs, Tony, and Tim just stood around and watched her while she performed her *wunderkind *tricks. We’ve already got geeks Tim and Abby. Don’t need any more.
I don’t have one good thing to say about the Ellie character. “This is just the way I work.” Blech.
Gibbs was even more terse than usual last night. Are they trying to see how few words he can speak without being totally mute.
Little known fact - when Mark Harmon negotiated for the role - the producers offered to pay him by the syllable with a bonus rider for laughter - at the time, it seemed like a good idea.
I liked Ziva best in her original incarnation: a cold-blooded Mossad assassin. That’s really what the show needs to make it more realistic and believable.
I agree. And besides, her character was one of action. Adding another geeky* analyst leaves Tony as the only person of action. Gibbs is The Terse One, Ducky, The Old Suave Guy.
*Don’t get me wrong: IRL geeks are my favorite people.
Eh, we’ll see how it plays out. Didn’t much care for Ziva when she first arrived either. The show has a formula, they needed to distinguish the new woman from the previous one. I’ll give it time to flesh out.
What bothered me a bit about the episode was the blatant propagandizing for the NSA. I expected a “Consideration provided by…” credit at the end.
I have a feeling that the rest of the season is going to revolve mostly around rubbing the rough edges off of Bishop in one way or another.
She’s got a good start; if you recall, the whole fish out of water thing with Ziva was mostly culture shock- she was better with a gun and in a fight than anyone on the team, save possibly Gibbs. But she was a foreigner, so we got all the weird malapropisms, etc… and love story between her and Tony. In Ellie’s case, it’ll be more along the lines of “quit being such a lone wolf, quit being such a weirdo, yes, McGee, Abby and Ducky are as smart as you are, and yes, Gibbs and Tony are just as good at figuring out what’s going on as you are. You just have it all in one person”
I think that they’ll miss a great character development opportunity if they don’t use this as a reason to make McGee more action-oriented, whether he likes it or not. With Tony the only other action person besides Gibbs, McGee will hopefully be expected to step up, being experienced in the field, unlike Bishop.
Please reassure me that Ellie is too young to be a love interest for Tony.
So… will Tim take a shine to her and make Abby jealous (although presumably there’s nothing between her and Tim)?
I think the theme of Ellie’s involvement will be “making a team player out of her.” That was telegraphed pretty clearly.
The reason I wanted Diane Neal is because there was a little buzz between her and Tony AND between her and Gibbs. That was more interesting to me as a grown-up* than bringing a teeny-bopper (does anyone say that anymore?) on board.
*As “grown-up” as one can be and still watch this program, that is.
Another plus for Diane Neal: I love it when cop show vets wind up on other cop shows. The Closer/Major Crime has a cast of mostly cop show (and movie) veterans. They take care of their own.
Not sure yet if I like the character, but at least that fact that she is married will take some of the “will DiNozzo get to boink this one” sexual tension away from the group dynamic.
I don’t watch NCIS anymore, but I did some looking into this Emily Wickersham person. She played a twentysomething on The Sopranos seven years ago, so she’s hardly a teenager. She also “doesn’t talk about her age” which is Hollywoodspeak for “over 30.”
