The Big Bang Theory & NCIS Reviews
Apr. 8th, 2011 06:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
iariaThe Big Bang Theory 4x20 ‘The Herb Garden Germination’
- There was a lot in this episode that annoyed me but I’ll start with a couple things I liked. Amy and Sheldon were the best part of the episode. I loved their rumour experiment. I continue to like Amy's friendship with Penny. I like how easily Penny and Leonard get along as friends. I liked Penny interceding in Raj hitting on Bernadette and calling him on his shitty behaviour. I liked the Leonard/Priya bathroom scene. I liked the Priya/Raj scene at his apartment.
- It made me pretty unhappy that at the end everyone is having dinner at the apartment except Penny. It just felt wrong. Especially considering that Bernadette and Amy were there after their behaviour in the previous episode (100% on Penny’s side/against Priya). Especially when Howard prefaces his proposal by saying he can’t think of a better time than when ‘all his friends are there’. Um. Missing someone there?
I think this would have been alleviated somewhat if Bernadette had immediately run across the hall to show Penny and we’d gotten them hugging and squeeing over it together maybe with added Howard creepiness (say ‘alas now I am officially off the market and you’ll never have a chance with me again... unless you girls want a threesome’ or something). Actually now it bugs me even more after thinking about it – we get Bernadette texting Penny the information instead of walking across the hall to tell her? WTF?
- That leads into – I am really over the Penny vs Priya bitchiness and hate. Why couldn’t they act like adults? Why does it have to devolve into stereotypical female cattiness? It’s just really annoying. I did not like Penny’s bitchiness about Priya this episode. It was somewhat amusing the first time – mainly her obliviousness about being hypocritical about gossip – but not really and when she called her a bitch to Raj (to which he replies ‘you should hear what she says about you’) I was so over it. Why the hell can’t those two be friends? Or at least not bitchy to and about each other?
- I thought it before that Priya demanding Leonard cut Penny out of his life is ridiculous. Creating boundaries was a reasonably request and completely understandable but cutting her out entire just wasn’t and frankly it’s just not possible. Penny lives across the hall. She is not only close friends with Leonard’s roommate Sheldon but also with his other two friends, one of who’s girlfriend is her close friend and her other female friend is also Sheldon’s friend. Penny is tied up in Leonard’s life by dint of being an integral part of Leonard’s social circle. It just doesn’t work, it never was going to work, and I just want this storyline done.
- I really didn’t like Raj’s reaction to Bernadette and Howard potentially breaking up. Yes, Raj has a crush on Bernadette and that’s been known for awhile, but Howard is his best friend and I just can’t see Raj being this gleeful about Howard getting his heart broken let alone making a move before they’ve even broken up. It’s just really detestable behaviour. I think if there had been some set up that he was in love with her it would be a little more understandable that he would be happy with them breaking up but it still wouldn’t excuse his glee when he basically encouraged Howard to propose while thinking he’d be rejected. That’s just being a bad friend.
- Howard proposing and Bernadette accepting makes me scratch my head a bit since we’ve already dealt with them trying to live together and failing miserably at it this season. Why exactly do either think adding a marriage to it would suddenly fix all those problems? It just doesn’t make sense to me.
- Why exactly was Penny telling Amy that Bernadette was thinking of breaking up with Howard anyway? Did she just makes it up, did Bernadette confess it to her (doubtful considering her reaction to the proposal) or what?
NCIS 8x20 ‘Two-Faced’
- Holy crap, Gibbs was an asshole this episode. We were supposed to think that right? The writers don’t intend for us to be taking Gibbs side in this right? Because his behaviour in this episode was just... unbelievable. He was rude, obnoxious (god, the interrogation scene, so bad), childish and sulky and so very, very unprofessional. Even for him! I mean talk about creating a hostile work environment. Gibbs is often very abrupt to outright rude and that’s just who he is. I like it about him. But in this episode there was a layer of nastiness to his behaviour towards EJ that was completely new.
When he told EJ to ‘stay’ I wanted to punch him in the face. In fact halfway through the episode I was really hoping it would end with Gibbs being called into Vance’s office where EJ has reported him on his unprofessional behaviour and Vance puts her formally in charge of the team. Sure he would continue to be insubordinate and would eventually get his team back but I really wanted EJ to get the upper hand at the end and the power to rub it in his face. I mean he even got snide about EJ ‘having a hunch’ when half the time he works off his own! When he warned her off dating Tony, because it was against his rules, it came off less protective about Tony and more about his weird dislike of EJ.
- Back to the interrogation scene – wtf was that?! It was made even worse by the suspect being this smug douche who kept looking amused at Gibbs treatment of EJ and it made me so mad at both of them. God. This episode was so infuriating. This was like a special episode showing the workplace sexism that women have to deal with. If the plan was to get viewers on EJ’s side they succeeded with me.
- As for the Ray thing – it was nice to finally meet him but I’d kind of convinced myself that Ray wasn’t what he seemed and that he’d turn out to be an old man or a woman or not a boyfriend. I do think Ziva overreacted a bit actually – he didn’t tell her about his job because he wasn’t allowed – but it was still very understandable. She has a history of men lying to her and it made perfect character sense to me that she would be devastated and break up with him.
When Ray said he’d lied to Ziva to ‘protect her’ I rolled my eyes. What does that have to do with anything? Protect her from what exactly? Is that a clue that there is something more going on with his connection to the case? I also found it kind of bizarre that Ziva jumped to the conclusion and accused Ray of sleeping with EJ. Where the hell did that come from? He’s a liaison on the case from the CIA as far as she knows so why would she randomly jump to affair? That just seemed off to me. I really hope it doesn’t turn out to be true.
- I wish that the Tony/Ziva relationship hadn’t been so uneven in its portrayal lately because it makes it difficult to gauge what was going on with them. It was obvious that Tony was upset by the idea that Ziva would tell Ray he was ‘like a brother’ and he was jealous. But overall it was very low key between them. I didn’t actually get all that much awkwardness when the four of them met at the elevator.
- Tony sticking up for Ray at the end was a nice surprise and pretty mature of him.
- Tony telling Ziva that "I understand this woman, Ziva. I understand her. That's why it's working." really worked for me. It had tons of subtext to it as did Ziva’s reaction.
- I also really liked Ziva’s joking about whether they weren’t looking for Tony as serial killer after EJ profiled him. Ziva basically sees Tony as "He is charismatic, charming and very entitled." Entitled isn’t great but Ziva sees Tony as charming and charismatic. Also in the description was 'smart' and 'high achieving'.
- I actually like Tony/EJ so I’m interested to see where they go especially with the whole Gibbs vs EJ situation appearing to ramp up. I wonder how Tony is going to take Gibbs warning EJ off? The fact that Tony is keeping his relationship with EJ completely separate from work, that he’s not even playing coy but saying “I have nothing to say”, indicates to me that he does consider it a serious relationship. Or that he’s growing up and being respectful or both.
- McGee was mainly MIA; Ducky and Jimmy had little to do; Vance was in a pissy mood which makes me wonder if he has a connection to the case or if he’s under political threat and finds himself in a situation where he might potentially lose his job (or maybe he’s just pissed off at Gibbs).
- Abby was good and I liked that she a) was hesitant about EJ because she was new and said so because that’s canon and in character, and I like her having that self-awareness, and b) liked and approved of EJ nether-the-less instead of being bitchy about her. She wasn’t anti-EJ because of EJ herself but because of her dislike of change and that came across.
- There was a lot in this episode that annoyed me but I’ll start with a couple things I liked. Amy and Sheldon were the best part of the episode. I loved their rumour experiment. I continue to like Amy's friendship with Penny. I like how easily Penny and Leonard get along as friends. I liked Penny interceding in Raj hitting on Bernadette and calling him on his shitty behaviour. I liked the Leonard/Priya bathroom scene. I liked the Priya/Raj scene at his apartment.
- It made me pretty unhappy that at the end everyone is having dinner at the apartment except Penny. It just felt wrong. Especially considering that Bernadette and Amy were there after their behaviour in the previous episode (100% on Penny’s side/against Priya). Especially when Howard prefaces his proposal by saying he can’t think of a better time than when ‘all his friends are there’. Um. Missing someone there?
I think this would have been alleviated somewhat if Bernadette had immediately run across the hall to show Penny and we’d gotten them hugging and squeeing over it together maybe with added Howard creepiness (say ‘alas now I am officially off the market and you’ll never have a chance with me again... unless you girls want a threesome’ or something). Actually now it bugs me even more after thinking about it – we get Bernadette texting Penny the information instead of walking across the hall to tell her? WTF?
- That leads into – I am really over the Penny vs Priya bitchiness and hate. Why couldn’t they act like adults? Why does it have to devolve into stereotypical female cattiness? It’s just really annoying. I did not like Penny’s bitchiness about Priya this episode. It was somewhat amusing the first time – mainly her obliviousness about being hypocritical about gossip – but not really and when she called her a bitch to Raj (to which he replies ‘you should hear what she says about you’) I was so over it. Why the hell can’t those two be friends? Or at least not bitchy to and about each other?
- I thought it before that Priya demanding Leonard cut Penny out of his life is ridiculous. Creating boundaries was a reasonably request and completely understandable but cutting her out entire just wasn’t and frankly it’s just not possible. Penny lives across the hall. She is not only close friends with Leonard’s roommate Sheldon but also with his other two friends, one of who’s girlfriend is her close friend and her other female friend is also Sheldon’s friend. Penny is tied up in Leonard’s life by dint of being an integral part of Leonard’s social circle. It just doesn’t work, it never was going to work, and I just want this storyline done.
- I really didn’t like Raj’s reaction to Bernadette and Howard potentially breaking up. Yes, Raj has a crush on Bernadette and that’s been known for awhile, but Howard is his best friend and I just can’t see Raj being this gleeful about Howard getting his heart broken let alone making a move before they’ve even broken up. It’s just really detestable behaviour. I think if there had been some set up that he was in love with her it would be a little more understandable that he would be happy with them breaking up but it still wouldn’t excuse his glee when he basically encouraged Howard to propose while thinking he’d be rejected. That’s just being a bad friend.
- Howard proposing and Bernadette accepting makes me scratch my head a bit since we’ve already dealt with them trying to live together and failing miserably at it this season. Why exactly do either think adding a marriage to it would suddenly fix all those problems? It just doesn’t make sense to me.
- Why exactly was Penny telling Amy that Bernadette was thinking of breaking up with Howard anyway? Did she just makes it up, did Bernadette confess it to her (doubtful considering her reaction to the proposal) or what?
NCIS 8x20 ‘Two-Faced’
- Holy crap, Gibbs was an asshole this episode. We were supposed to think that right? The writers don’t intend for us to be taking Gibbs side in this right? Because his behaviour in this episode was just... unbelievable. He was rude, obnoxious (god, the interrogation scene, so bad), childish and sulky and so very, very unprofessional. Even for him! I mean talk about creating a hostile work environment. Gibbs is often very abrupt to outright rude and that’s just who he is. I like it about him. But in this episode there was a layer of nastiness to his behaviour towards EJ that was completely new.
When he told EJ to ‘stay’ I wanted to punch him in the face. In fact halfway through the episode I was really hoping it would end with Gibbs being called into Vance’s office where EJ has reported him on his unprofessional behaviour and Vance puts her formally in charge of the team. Sure he would continue to be insubordinate and would eventually get his team back but I really wanted EJ to get the upper hand at the end and the power to rub it in his face. I mean he even got snide about EJ ‘having a hunch’ when half the time he works off his own! When he warned her off dating Tony, because it was against his rules, it came off less protective about Tony and more about his weird dislike of EJ.
- Back to the interrogation scene – wtf was that?! It was made even worse by the suspect being this smug douche who kept looking amused at Gibbs treatment of EJ and it made me so mad at both of them. God. This episode was so infuriating. This was like a special episode showing the workplace sexism that women have to deal with. If the plan was to get viewers on EJ’s side they succeeded with me.
- As for the Ray thing – it was nice to finally meet him but I’d kind of convinced myself that Ray wasn’t what he seemed and that he’d turn out to be an old man or a woman or not a boyfriend. I do think Ziva overreacted a bit actually – he didn’t tell her about his job because he wasn’t allowed – but it was still very understandable. She has a history of men lying to her and it made perfect character sense to me that she would be devastated and break up with him.
When Ray said he’d lied to Ziva to ‘protect her’ I rolled my eyes. What does that have to do with anything? Protect her from what exactly? Is that a clue that there is something more going on with his connection to the case? I also found it kind of bizarre that Ziva jumped to the conclusion and accused Ray of sleeping with EJ. Where the hell did that come from? He’s a liaison on the case from the CIA as far as she knows so why would she randomly jump to affair? That just seemed off to me. I really hope it doesn’t turn out to be true.
- I wish that the Tony/Ziva relationship hadn’t been so uneven in its portrayal lately because it makes it difficult to gauge what was going on with them. It was obvious that Tony was upset by the idea that Ziva would tell Ray he was ‘like a brother’ and he was jealous. But overall it was very low key between them. I didn’t actually get all that much awkwardness when the four of them met at the elevator.
- Tony sticking up for Ray at the end was a nice surprise and pretty mature of him.
- Tony telling Ziva that "I understand this woman, Ziva. I understand her. That's why it's working." really worked for me. It had tons of subtext to it as did Ziva’s reaction.
- I also really liked Ziva’s joking about whether they weren’t looking for Tony as serial killer after EJ profiled him. Ziva basically sees Tony as "He is charismatic, charming and very entitled." Entitled isn’t great but Ziva sees Tony as charming and charismatic. Also in the description was 'smart' and 'high achieving'.
- I actually like Tony/EJ so I’m interested to see where they go especially with the whole Gibbs vs EJ situation appearing to ramp up. I wonder how Tony is going to take Gibbs warning EJ off? The fact that Tony is keeping his relationship with EJ completely separate from work, that he’s not even playing coy but saying “I have nothing to say”, indicates to me that he does consider it a serious relationship. Or that he’s growing up and being respectful or both.
- McGee was mainly MIA; Ducky and Jimmy had little to do; Vance was in a pissy mood which makes me wonder if he has a connection to the case or if he’s under political threat and finds himself in a situation where he might potentially lose his job (or maybe he’s just pissed off at Gibbs).
- Abby was good and I liked that she a) was hesitant about EJ because she was new and said so because that’s canon and in character, and I like her having that self-awareness, and b) liked and approved of EJ nether-the-less instead of being bitchy about her. She wasn’t anti-EJ because of EJ herself but because of her dislike of change and that came across.
