NCIS: In The Zone (Season 5)

So clearly something is going with NCIS Assistant Director Leon Vance who has turned up for the second episode in a row, looking mean and bossing Gibbs around. Is there change in the air? If I'm honest, though, I've never really been comfortable with Lauren Holly's Director Shepard (who isn't in tonight's episode) although maybe I'm just suffering from Alan Dale withdrawl...

One of the problems with the new series of NCIS being broadcast on Ten is that they are broadcasting episodes from season two straight after them, which means that I am constantly comparing the way NCIS is now to the way it was "back in the day". Tonight was particularly painful as "In The Zone" was followed immediately by "Doppelganger". In The Zone is an episode about...well about a petty officer who was in a complicated land deal with someone who then got one of the other POs to arrange to have first PO killed. Doppelganger is about computer fraud, but more importantly than that it is the infamous episode where the team discover that there is another team who are essentially their doppelgangers. The first one is a little po-faced and severe, the second, hilarious and thoughtful. The first one has Ziva, the second has Kate.

Oh, how I miss Kate.

And that worries me slightly. I love NCIS, but I find that already I'm "looking back" at the good old days. I saw already, and I mean really only in season five. This wasn't a problem that I had in the previous two seasons, even though I was still missing Kate, the fact is I didn't find it so much of a hurdle to overcome. Now I feel NCIS is just retreading the same old ground and not actually achieving anything new. Certainly it was interesting to see Tony go out into Baghdad to do his investigation, but when the episode essentially focuses on the character of Intel Analyst Nikki when they have seven good leads that they can play with...

You're a great actor Mark Harmon, but sadly it seems that the show without Donald P Bellisario's guidance has not been as brilliant as it once was. It looks as though it might be time for something to severly shake the team up, and maybe it might be time to say goodbye to Ziva.

"B"