New season and the gang is back.
Sean Murray has lost quite a bit of weight. Lotsa blogs speculating. Official CBS blog skirts the topic when asked point blank. People who have seen Murray sans sleeves says his arms are practically skeletonized.
Anyone got the SD? Or close to it?
If thisis what you’re talking about, I don’t see a problem. Maybe he’s just eating better.
His double chin was a liability for him as a character actor with aspirations of being a leading man. I thought maybe he had some lipo done, but have no direct knowledge of his situation. This is an industry where producers think nothing of ordering an actor to drop 30 pounds “or else” (See: Margaret Cho). This is complicated by the fact that his producer is also his stepfather…
That may be true in geneeral, but becoming more conventional leading man material would be detrimental to the character of McGee. It’d be like having Abby dress in plain suits with a soccermom haircut.
He was definitely too chubby when he first started- it likely affected his role choices. Losing weight was a good career choice for him.
However, he’s gone way too far, now. He doesn’t look healthy to me. He looks thin, not healthy.
Or, it might be like Rhoda Morganstern dropping a few pounds and getting more fan mail from prison inmates than Mary for a change. McGee has been getting progressively more assertive with Tony for the past two years and, unlike everyone else on the team, has plenty of room to grow as a character. Tony can’t credibly act less puerile or Ziva less* femme fatale*, but McGee can be less of a butt-monkey.
Speaking as a huge N.C.I.S. fan, I prefer shows with more real people on; then the endless procession of pretty boys/women who usually have very few faults and an amazing number of skills (not to mention being brave, loyal, honest, caring etc.) which tends to stretch both belief suspension and identifying with the main characters.
Weatherlys Denozo has so far got away with his good looks and jock body by being immature and insecure, but they seem to be trying to drop these attributes and turn him into Superman.
Now it seems that they’re trying to turn McGeek into a male model and no doubt all round action hero.
If they do this the show will die INSPITE of the usually very high standard of writing.
Start putting on the pounds McGee, and a little bit more irresponsibility and Frat house outlook DeNozo and get the show back on track.
And yes Ducky we DO want you to tell long boring irrelevant stories.
I’ve no idea who they are.
It wouldn’t surprise me if he already got more fanmail than the bloke who plays Tony - the geeky vulnerable thing is attractive to a lot of women, at least when it comes with someone who is also actually pretty capable and strong, like McGee. He’s never going to have leading man looks; he just doesn’t have the bone structure.
He has been getting more assertive, you’re right, and Tony has got less obnoxious towards him too; that’s totally credible, too, with McGee no longer being a probey. It doesn’t really relate to McGee’s weight though.
Y’see I wouldn’t have as much of a problem with this if they didn’t keep treating him as if he were still fratboy Denozo. I can buy a character maturing and growing but then, out of nowhere, it’s as if he hasn’t matured at all.
I’ve wondered about Murray’s weight loss too. Assuming for the sake of argument that it’s not to an unheallthy level, I can imagine the character deciding he needed to shed some mass and get in batter shape. He’s in a job that regularly requires some physical work. He may have just barely met the department requirement’s for, say, running the 100 meters when he started, but then, as he matured, realized that he needed to improve.
As for DiNozzo, it’s been apparent for a long time that his fratboy persona is an act. Partly because he wants suspects to underestimate him; partly out of some genuine self-loathing. When he was framed and in the FBI holding cell, he rattled off his character flaws in a way that made it clear he was quite aware of them. And when he’s under emotional stress the frat-boy stuff disappears rather than becoming more emphasized.
