Archive for Drama Series
CBS’ top drama series, NCIS, will no doubt be back for an eighth season, but what about the cast? While star Mark Harmon, who is also a producer on the show, is locked in, the four other original cast members, Michael Weatherly, Pauley Perrette, David McCallum and Sean Murray (he started off as a recurring in season 1), have no deals beyond the current seventh season. And from what I hear, talks between the actors and CBS TV Studios, which produces the hit procedural, have slowed down with the two sides far apart on the money. My understanding is that the studio went to the cast members with pretty low-ball offers, leading to the impasse.
At least a couple of the quartet are making well under $100,000 per episode, which is low for a hit seven-year-old series. I hear co-star Cote de Pablo, whose deal is up after next season, also has been approached with a similar low offer to extend her contract. In addition to Harmon and de Pablo, also set to return is regular Rocky Carroll, who also has a deal in place for next season. He joined the show in Season 5 as a recurring and was upped to regular the following year.
As the title suggests, what we witnessed going on for much of this episode was not reality, but a ‘Masquerade.’ If you pay attention to titles, you can have an edge figuring out what’s what. Meanwhile, beyond the action, there was more character interaction as ‘NCIS’ continues to weave a few mystery threads, including M. Allison Hart’s fascination with Mr. Gibbs.
That’s right. She calls him Mr. Gibbs. Even after Jethro reminded her that he’s a Special Agent, Hart continues to give him the dig by calling him mister. She also continues to challenge him, and with Rena Sofer in the role, the sparks are flying between her and Mark Harmon. However, Gibbs’ history with women suggests that he’s going to need to be wary with Hart. He’s already on edge because she has seemingly put herself in his cross hairs. The question is why … and can she be trusted?
Questions about Tony and Ziva and what really happened in Paris remain unanswered, which is terribly frustrating. However, Tony did broach the subject of Ziva’s experience in Somalia when she was a prisoner. She didn’t say much, but clearly she was traumatized by the event. She also put forth the theory that a group of terrorists may be a real threat or they might be defenders of their way of life.
That kind of political objectivity is unexpected in a drama series, but ‘NCIS’ seems to enjoy not fitting into any spot on the spectrum. The politics cropped up with the whole dirty bomb plot and the supposed terrorist group from Peru. Vance mentioned more than once that he was meeting with the Joint Chiefs and testifying before Congress about a defense appropriations bill, which was suspicious. All the leaked stories on the ZNN cable news channel was also a tip off that the fear of the bombs were more real than the actual devices. Or at least bombs that actually were properly formulated.
Colonel Bell seems to be the puppet master behind a lot of this business, don’t you think? Private military … defense contracts … terror threats to keep people fearful. Now, if it turns out that Hart has been working with Bell to get to Gibbs, that will be a bad thing … for M. Allison Hart. You don’t do that to Jethro.
Watch ‘Masquerade’ Episode Online
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