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delgaSaturday nights have become something of a time warp for me. I should point out that before I went to university, I wasn't really allowed out unless it was a very specific occasion - a birthday more often than not. In theory things have changed, but in practice, not so much. So, anyway, since about 1999 five has designated Saturday night crime night. I'm pretty certain that was the year they launched CSI and Law and Order as a double bill and since then, in some permutation, there is always one of each franchise showing on a Saturday. In recent years NCIS has also been added to that mix, and basically, my non-life is complete.
Anyway, because I didn't watch the latter end of S8 CSI I've been watching the repeats on five. Last night's episode was actually pretty good! The production, whilst still over-saturated, has returned to what was used in the early seasons (where it didn't look like people were wandering around a set), and apparently the one I watched last night was the first CSI to air post-strike? I don't know. That's not even my point here.
What is my point?
Right, Saturday nights. We always cook/eat around 7 or 8 which means whilst we're cooking, or cleaning things away, the NCIS double bill is on, and we watch it through the door (we don't keep a TV in the kitchen/dining room, only in the living room) and say things like aw, I love this part! or I don't remember this-- OH WAIT YES I DO whilst loading/unloading the dishwasher. More often than not we end up rushing and watching at least the second episode if not most of the first, too. (The Mother loves NCIS, too, so I've been watching the S2 repeats on Friday nights, too.) (I know, I know: RIDIC.) And then I watch CSI on TV which feels wonderfully yesteryear to me, but in a good way.
ANYWAY. MY POINT. WHICH I AM COMING TO. Yesterday I was home alone, and baking cookies whilst I watched some late S4 episodes - the one with McGee's book (awwwwww!) and then Brothers in Arms. And even though I know exactly what happens in that episode, and the whole of the Jenny Sheppard arc, I realised that the story makes me really fucking tense. Tremendously so. Jenny Sheppard is SO FIERCE AND SCARY and kind of off-the-rails intense, and Jethro is basically superbly powerless, and the whole thing makes me ache. Her frustration and desperation are really kind of depressing to watch! I knew how Brothers in Arms ended (it's an iconic shot, really) and yet I was still nervous through and through. And this is an episode that has some gems in it in terms of characters - the scene when Jen and Jethro are waiting for the CIA liaison and it turns out to be Tobias Fornell? Fuck me, I LOVE that scene. The scene when Jen and Jethro meet Fornell and Kort in the car? And Jethro picks up the bridalwear magazine? The scene where Jen and Kort meet in the park and Fornell and Jethro are at a distance? The old school rocks this episode. All the awkward pregnant pauses, all the quiet misplaced humour, all those horrible references to Jethro's past obsessions (specifically Ari which is kind of cruel if you consider Ziva. But then, I wonder how many people know that Ari was her brother?) (Hmmm. I never actually made that connection before.)
There are flaws to Jenny's arc (the very beginning and the very end specifically, especially because the end doesn't line up with the middle) but they match the character, and I cannot dislike her. I cannot begrudge her intensity. And she is terrifying when she begins the second half of her arc. Horribly frightening. IT IS KIND OF MARVELLOUS, GUYS.
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Date: 2008-10-20 08:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-20 08:02 am (UTC)This would have been a lot snappier if they'd picked a day and stuck to it every series.
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Date: 2008-10-20 08:27 am (UTC)TRUTH. Do you think they'll hit up Tuesdays again? (Wasn't it originally on Thursday?)
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Date: 2008-10-20 04:20 pm (UTC)