[Hawaii Five-0] The NCIS:LA Edition

[eumelia]

No spoilers.

Because it was honestly pointless.

It was gross.

I actually felt as though the show was telling me "You're so dumb! Here's another sex joke! Oh look, sexual harassment is fucking hilarious."

Danny had a few brilliant lines; Schnauzer? Made me laugh out loud.

He also made a homophobic dig, which I have to say, I was not expecting and was actually very uncomfortable about. Because that isn't Danny, or at least, it wasn't. Danny was never the guy who needed to make a dig regarding some other man's masculinity in order to be funny or to take him down a notch.

On the Watson level, I need to reconcile that statement with what I know and the narrative that's been woven into Danny's character.

On the Doyle level, I want to fucking punch whoever wrote that line on principle and that fact that Danny said it in particular. If that was a Scott ad lib, I think that would really crush me.

In any event, NCIS:LA, you did not sell yourself to me. I hope I never have to interact with you again.

Comments

[ajnabieh]

I didn't watch it, because I didn't watch the first part until after it had aired, so didn't know to TiVo NCIS. Let me guess: The Day Was Saved? Did any heroic Asians get killed in heroic ways, or now that we're off the island was that not a crucial plot point?

I liked LL Cool J in the H50 ep. But that was about it.

[eumelia]

Like there was ever a doubt. NCIS:LA thinks its audience is stupid and wouldn't know subtlety if it tapped it on the shoulder and then punched it in the face. But Danny and Chin in LA was superfluous, they served no purpose and in the previous ep it was just boring, because while the plot is not generally the reason I watch the show, some suspense of disbelief would have been nice.

[blueswan]

It was disappointing in so many ways. I've stopped watching H5O, but I was looking forward to an interesting plot with lots of action and maybe some momentary sparks of intelligence. And well, that didn't happen. Season three of NCIS has not been stellar, but the first two seasons were very enjoyable. Stirring it in with H5O did not serve either show well.

The best thing about NCIS:LA, bar none, is Hetty Lange. I love that her team respects her so much, they don't get defensive on her behalf, because they know Hetty can handle anything or anyone. Listening to Danny's continued remarks about her was just - ugh. (Frankly, the episodes I've seen of H5O this season, have frequently had Danny make sexist comments and act pretty much like a dick around/about women. I don't know why Kono hasn't taken him outside and kicked his ass.)

I suppose this was representative in a way of season three of NCIS, which I haven't enjoyed that much. But look, the first two seasons were so much better and this episode didn't really give the H5O audience a chance to get to know the characters. Kenzi and Nell and Hetty aren't there to be patted on the head and disparaged. They'd take the first hand that tried off at the wrist. *g*

I have a feeling the shows both would both have been so much better, if the woman had been front and centre. Henrietta Lange is not a figurehead, Kenzi is crazy smart and Nell is a young Hetty in training. I just wish they'd allowed Kono and Chin to go to LA, the dynamics would have been much less ugly.

[eumelia]

I really couldn't care less about NCIS:LA.

H50 has never insulted my intelligence the way the episode on NCIS did and Danny has never been as disgusting as he was when in LA. To the extent that I literally could not believe what was coming out of his mouth.

I blame the writers of the NCIS show for that. Point blank.

I doubt the dynamic would have been any less ugly because the writers on NCIS had zero respect for the H50 characters.

[silveradept]

That was an awful episode, for both shows. The LA writers treated Danny like he was Deeks, which is a mistake, because Deeks is stupid and should have long since been sent away. The writers didn't really know what to do with Chen Ho, so he just faded into the background, and...


..bleh. I knew that the only real reason I was watching that show was for Hettie, and possibly Kenzi, but the writers really made it apparent this time around. I'm sorry that the NCIS writers did not understand the characters they were working with and abused both H50 characters that badly.

It's true, though - most of that show is sexism from Deeks and Eric and homophobia from G and Sam, and it's really a wonder that Hettie hasn't fired all of them, excepting maybe Kenzi and Nell, and started again.

[eumelia]

They ridiculed Danny (and thereby Scott) and pretty much ignored Chin's existence. It was awful.

[silveradept]

I think the cast standing around uncomfortably as Scott is delivering non-Danny lines is pretty well the signifier for that whole show. Linda Hunt's plastered-on smile works on both levels.

This would be one of those episodes where it would be really easy to declare it out of the canon and that all we really knew about the smallpox story was "with assistance from NCIS-LA, the threat was contained and traced to a Gaia Theory professor."

[eumelia]

I've pretty much declared it non-canon in my book. It didn't happen on H50, as far as I'm concerned it's apocrypha.