StarBrand

I don't know about the quaity of NCIS: Origins, but if people are avoiding it because Hawaii was cancelled, well-like the current mothership, it's entertaining enough, but forgettable. It wasn't Firefly, that's for sure. NCIS Origins might have had more intrique to fans if Gibbs' backstory had never been fully known. Myself, I've had more than enough of Gibbs' angst and his tragic family story had been brought up time and time again. I didn't want to see or hear about more of it. And I think a lot of fans felt the same, which is why it's not pulling it's weight With Tony and Ziva, there's plenty of unfinished business that fans like myself would like to see. How much milage it has in the long run remains to be seen though.

I would agree that the show, for the last couple of years at least, has been entertaining enough, but nothing to write home about. It's certainly not Gary Cole's fault-he's been a nice change of pace from Mark Harmon's Gibbs. The fact is, this show has been on for over 20 years. It's hard to keep things fresh on a show that's been on for longer than five years, much less twenty-two. I don't know if any kind of "shakeup" would right things. I'd say the show gets another year to right itself, to see if NCIS: Tony and Ziva perhaps gives the mothership a boost. If that doesn't happen, it's probably goodbye.

Martian ain't fooling the psychiatrist lady. Neither is Naomi. She has probably always known Martian hasn't been telling the truth. I like how things are threads are coming together. Martian is certainly going to have to read Sami in on what he's been doing, but I doubt he'll come completely clean, in the interest of saving his own ass. I don't get Danny's interest in FuckBoy. Dude tortures her (albeit under false pretences), he says "sorry, just doing my job", the next minute she's fucking him....I don't get it.

Yeah, I was like "what the hell, didn't they agree to keep all that there?". I did appreciate the older guy running in to say to leave that shit alone....

Abby was Abby. If you liked her, that was great, but if you didn't, you weren't going to be converted. As for McGee, yeah, he's changed a little. He does have a wife and kids these days, which would have been unfathomable for the McGee of 20 years ago. We'd had more than a few man-children on this show, Tony being the prime example. It's OK if some of them actually grow up. It's not "selling out".

Yeah, the car driving itself thing has been done before on the show, but the last time it was, such technology was years away from being made available to the public. I'm not sure how common car hacking is, but the fact is, technology can simply malfunction and take a passenger on an unwanted joyride. A friend bought a car years ago that was doing all sorts of weird shit when they got it. I liked Grace's approach to Parker's recurring issue, not going the repressed memory route. But there is something in Parker's head that needs to get knocked out. He says he doesn't know who Lily is, and at this point, I don't think he's hiding anything. I'm just wondering where the writers are going with this. I liked Grace's brief "WTF was that?" look when Parker kissed her forehead. Also, agencies getting a kick out of NCIS having their car driven away.

When people talk about "toxic masculinity", the situation with Junior's Dad is a perfect example of it. Your daughter died in a tragic accident, that's hard to deal with, yes. Did Dad ever attempt therapy? Probably not, because stiff-upper-lip tough guy Dad "didn't need it". Instead, he takes out his grief and anger on his son, first for Junior deciding to enlist, then getting mad because Junior took the high road and decided forgiveness was the best course of action. Dad's inability to deal with his grief destroyed his family. Junior's five times the "man" his supposedly is. If he were my Dad, I'd have told him to go to hell.

This series keeps getting better each episode. It's tricky to pull off the "events lived out of order" storyline, but it certainly did stick the landing. I liked how the episode began and ending with Lily falling. First, we think it's because she's fallen to some sort of purgatory that The Teen sent her to, which initially turns out to be true, but at the end, we know she's falling towards certain death. And I believe it's permanent, because Lily achieved some sort of peace being able to put the timeline of her life together at last, after fighting it most of her life, which lead to it being a very lonely and miserable one-that's what the journey of the Witches' Road gave to her, in the same way that other witch (forget her name) found some newfound (but brief) peace after being able to lift the family curse, and not feeling anger anymore. So the theme appears to be the witches getting what they need the most, (release from pain, loneliness, anger), rather than what they think they want (power). Agatha chose power, but at a huge cost-her son, once before. Is that going to happen yet again? Of course, I could be just talking outta my ass...

I think last week's ep was burdened with re-arranging the gameboard for the final few weeks, and felt rushed. I had no such feeling with this one, which felt like a more typical "Evil" ep. I didn't see the judge beheading the witness coming, although I probably should have. Why is it some see the demon lawyer, and others do not? Any week that features Sister Andrea is usually a good sign. I must have missed it somewhere that the love she left for the church took his own life. That's a hell of a burden to carry. I liked the last scene of Andrea assuring David of God's presence by playing the Holy Chord, and the both of them disappearing into the light. Everyone's life is seemingly falling apart, except for Ben, who is surprisingly skittish of financial success. I liked the doppelganger versions of the gang, complete with Katja signing in her native Dutch; Each one seemed to see something in the other that made them think they "other" was much happier than them. Well, David's was only seen by Kristen, who certainly made her happy in her dreams.....

Wow, two eps in a row that haven't had a minute of the Bouchard children. Odd, considering what happned two weeks ago... Ah, Sheryl, you did have one up on Leyland for a second there. Too bad you underestimated how batshit crazy he is. Kristen can protest all she wants she didn't like DavidBot's sexting, I don't believe a word of it, although I'm sure she's prefer the read David doing so. Watching her reaction to the whole IT team playing back the conversation made me both wince and laugh....

This has to be the high point of the season for me, so far. Cheryl, for all her faults, comes off as more than sympathetic here-she's clearly given up on herself, and to see her reject David's offer of forgiveness, was rather sad. Lahti was excellent in this episode. She did strike a severe blow to Leyland's plans, (although whether that sticks remains to be seen) I found it hilarious Leyland was more annoyed/scared of "happy" Tim than the crying, projectile-vomiting creature he's dealt with before. Good thing Sister Andrea was available for the baptism, because she could actually tell Cheryl was dead serious about the baby being the antichrist. David was also great this episode. I liked the way he stood up to both Dominic and Sister Andrea and insisted that looking into the guy planning a murder-suicide was the MOST important thing-"THIS is EVIL!". The fact that the guy lived right below Leyland, of course, wasn't a coincidence.. Although it seems that he wasn't quite able to prevent.....something from happening with the 60, although what just occurred, I dunno...

No, she's not, but she gave Leland very clear instructions NOT to harm any of her grandchildren, ever. I'm pretty sure she told him "harm any of my grandchildren, and I'll cut your balls off".

Yeah, that bit about the "muse" was left wide open. The fact it visited Boggs and "inspired" him to start writing like a maniac seems to indicate she/it will be back....that, along with the little grief demon that's been hanging around...

I'm delighted by the return of the pop-up books. I don't think that was used last season, was it? Kristen laughing manically at Leyland was absolutely hilarious. You can tell he never thought for a second what it would mean actually raising a baby. Haha.

I'm sorry, I laughed out loud when Kristen starting singing the song from "Hair". I'm wondering how much longer Kristen will keep it together. It was really said how she tried to reassure the kids that Dad would be OK, then immediately fell apart when alone at home. They know he's not OK. Children are smart. They know when parents are feeding them bullshit.