S20.E13: Evil Eye

[thewhiteowl]

In preparation for a role, a world-renowned actress shadows the NCIS team as they investigate a decapitation case.

[Grizzly]

If there was an Emmy award for crazy eyes, that guy would win, hands down. And that was before he took out the contact.

[Poohpoohpooh]

^Yeah, best part of this was knockoff Cillian Murphy.

Kinda boring, the "swelling emotional scenes" by Knight and actress didn't hook me. And actress was boring to watch.

However, I am pleasantly surprised about no main character's personal drama this week, and this is the best I can expect from NCIS. Fez does best in his narrow specialization of Fez comedy, even when he was in the car with Parker raving about "Paw and Order" movie.

Next week will finally be a Gary Cole dramatic episode, so I expect more from that.

[buckboard]

I've never understood the need NCIS has to show mutilated bodies and to give us up close views of autopsies.  Yuck. 

[twoods]

The actor that played the creepy serial killer was so good. He freaked me out. The episode kept me entertained and went by quickly so I liked it. I didn’t mind the actress- I thought she had a good vibe with Knight.

[UncleChuck]

I thought the episode was OK, but the timelines on these shows just are so unrealistic.

The crazy ex-prof had NO way of knowing that famous actress Chloe would be attached to the NCIS, much less actually showing up at his crime scene (as he pretended to be innocent bystander), yet...

Even as he was busy building another guillotine, ordering the new blade, kidnapping the Hansens and building a new bomb he somehow managed to find out ALL of the Chloe's secrets, including the secret location in Toledo, Ohio where her mother lived.  He even explained that he was able to find all that secret info by going to Ohio and watching, watching, watching and being patient.

How could he do all that travelling, watching and waiting in the few days it took for this case to proceed from first head discovery to the end???????

 

[South]

16 minutes ago, twoods said:

The actor that played the creepy serial killer was so good. He freaked me out. The episode kept me entertained and went by quickly so I liked it. I didn’t mind the actress- I thought she had a good vibe with Knight.

Also, if anyone ever needs an actress to portray Amy Winehouse in a biopic, the actress portraying the actress is the one to call.  I didn’t see it early in the show, but Partner South mumbled it a few times.  Towards the end of the episode, I was mumbling “Sonofabitch!  She looks like Amy Winehouse.”

[South]

59 minutes ago, buckboard said:

I've never understood the need NCIS has to show mutilated bodies and to give us up close views of autopsies.  Yuck. 

Maybe some of y’all that watched from the beginning, like when the show was new, not in reruns, could tell us if the autopsies and such were a thing that was unique to NCIS back then.  Was that a feature that set the show apart from others, and made it memorable as they searched for viewer recognition. 

[Daff]

11 hours ago, South said:

Maybe some of y’all that watched from the beginning, like when the show was new, not in reruns, could tell us if the autopsies and such were a thing that was unique to NCIS back then.  Was that a feature that set the show apart from others, and made it memorable as they searched for viewer recognition. 

If you are asking if that was the draw for such a large fan base, no. It was the link to JAG (and its popularity), the actors, and the stories and action (and I’m not even counting Dinozo, VSA in that reasoning). Gibbs always went to the morgue to confer with Ducky, conversing over the dead body (Ducky WITH the dead body). However, it wasn’t long before Criminal Minds came along to take creepy crime scenes, blood and gore to a really sick level.  Also, don’t forget CSI with Grissom’s fixation with bugs.

Edited February 7, 2023 by Daff

[Poohpoohpooh]

11 hours ago, South said:

Maybe some of y’all that watched from the beginning, like when the show was new, not in reruns, could tell us if the autopsies and such were a thing that was unique to NCIS back then.  Was that a feature that set the show apart from others, and made it memorable as they searched for viewer recognition. 

CSI began 3 years before NCIS, and its signature was dead body gore with the autopsies being a big part of it.

Good catch on the Winehouse similarities, I now see it too with her bone structure and thick lashes. I just read that this guest actress played Cynthia on Malcolm in The Middle too (Malcolm's honors student girlfriend).

Then I realized she still has some of her same mannerisms as when she was a child actor, that lackadaisical drawl.

Even reputed actors can't change their on-screen mannerisms. Does anyone else find Gary Cole always has that slightly standoffish, dismissive air as any character?

[HurricaneVal]

While the "big Hollywood star embeds with the team for a role" is a very tired trope, I kind of liked this episode.  However, it really highlighted how much I miss fun and competent Tony*, who would have had a blast with this scenario.

*as opposed to stupid, obnoxious, and juvenile Tony.

[MissLucas]

I was extremely distracted by how much Tania Raymonde looks like Amy Winehouse - and the make-up department made sure we all saw it by giving her the heavy eye-liner. All that was missing was the beehive. If they ever plan to do a biopic (with lip-synching) they know who to call. Or she could take over Aeryn Sun if Farscape ever gets remade... ack!!! (scared myself there for a moment).

It was an interesting take on the usual trope: actors shadowing main character is annoying/messes up investigation. Crazy dude was scary enough. No props to the props department - that historical painting was baaaaad on so many accounts (I guess they blew their budget on all the severed heads). As for historical accuracy, I found no evidence for Jimmy's lecture though heterochromia was probably considered a sign of witchcraft. But 18the century France seems a bit late for that. However Joseph Mengele was also interested in the phenomen - I spare you the rest.

Edited February 8, 2023 by MissLucas

[preeya]

9 hours ago, Poohpoohpooh said:

Good catch on the Winehouse similarities, I now see it too with her bone structure and thick lashes. I just read that this guest actress played Cynthia on Malcolm in The Middle too (Malcolm's honors student girlfriend).

From IMDB: "Tania Raymonde began her career on Malcolm in the Middle (2000), and is known for her portrayal of Alex Rousseau in the J.J. Abrams series Lost. She played the title role of notorious murderer Jodi Arias in the Lifetime original feature Jodi Arias: Dirty Little Secret (2013), and starred alongside Billy Bob Thornton and William Hurt in David E. Kelley's legal drama Goliath for Amazon."

I remember her most vividly from her role in LOST.

[meira.hand]

10 hours ago, preeya said:

19 hours ago, Poohpoohpooh said:

Good catch on the Winehouse similarities, I now see it too with her bone structure and thick lashes. I just read that this guest actress played Cynthia on Malcolm in The Middle too (Malcolm's honors student girlfriend).

From IMDB: "Tania Raymonde began her career on Malcolm in the Middle (2000), and is known for her portrayal of Alex Rousseau in the J.J. Abrams series Lost. She played the title role of notorious murderer Jodi Arias in the Lifetime original feature Jodi Arias: Dirty Little Secret (2013), and starred alongside Billy Bob Thornton and William Hurt in David E. Kelley's legal drama Goliath for Amazon."

I remember her most vividly from her role in LOST.

I looked too, but thru her IMDb full filmography and found out she was also a guest in one of the early NCIS episodes (S2.E17) with the title: "An Eye for an Eye". I was curious enough to watch it and it has a pair of very blue eyes playing a major part:). I have a feeling someone decided to recall her as an inside joke.

[immortalfrieza]

"We need to get the Harlans into protective custody."

You mean, the woman had a severed head and a bomb delivered to her yet and her husband weren't in protective custody already?

 

On 2/6/2023 at 11:31 PM, buckboard said:

I've never understood the need NCIS has to show mutilated bodies and to give us up close views of autopsies.  Yuck. 

Bones made going over the top with body reveals a thing, and ever since then other similar shows have been going more extreme with body reveals and autopsies.

I was just glad that the actress shadowing them treated everything seriously rather than be the stereotype of every successful actress ever. She didn't spend the whole episode doing things like whining "the sea air is messing up my hair!", didn't constantly go out of her way to irritate everybody around her just because she's famous or anything like that.

I took one look at that woman in her overly big sunglasses and the big white coat and had this horrifying vision that at some point  she would point at Torres and go "Cabanna Boy! Get me a Pina Colata! Chop chop!"  but that thankfully didn't happen. She took a look at what what was happening and all the bodies and freaked the hell out after a bit of trying to fake being together.