Wednesday, July 10, 2013

RULE 7:  TV's number one drama is losing the closest thing it has to a leading lady, as Cote de Pablo will leave NCIS after a short arc at the start of next season to give closure to the character.  I don't know that it'll affect ratings much--yes, there are a number of very loud "Tiva" shippers who will swear off the show, but the show's recast this same role before, as have most of the long-running CBS procedurals, with little negative effect on ratings.  The more interesting question is who winds up filling the part.  You can come up with some interesting names just going through cancelled shows from last season:  Dana Delany, Dichen Lachman, Radha Mitchell, Caterina Scorsone, Anna Camp, Janet Montgomery, and Jordana Spiro.  I'll offer a dark horse--Callie Thorne, whose USA vehicle seems teetering on the verge of cancellation, and who has the right sort of energy for the part.

10 comments:

  1. Joseph Finn7:12 PM

    Oh boy, I have no idea why this name comes to mind: Eliza Coupe. Yes, yes, she's done pretty much only comedy up to this point but for some reason I'd like to see her give this a try. She has an interesting energy and spark that I think would make for a definite not-Ziva and has the strength of personality you need for that cast.

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  2. Becca7:44 PM

    I would like to see them establish a female character and then allow that character to be who she is for her entire run, and not keep bending her to fit into whatever they need for that week, especially if she, for example, has to keep being the damsel in distress even though she's supposedly a tough-as-nails Mossad officer. Yes, the interaction between the characters is why we keep coming back, and yes, all the dudes are WELL established, but it would be interesting to see Tony and McGee shaken up a little. Make the new lady a lesbian, for example! No chance of her being distracted by Tony! And I love Callie Thorne. She'd be great!

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  3. Well, given that they're introducing a lesbian character (Charlie's daughter) on 2.5 Men, I suspect they may not want to go so edgy here. A lot depends on how they write Ziva out. If they write her out without killing her, keeping the flirty Tony/partner chemistry is trickier than if they kill her.

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  4. Becca8:08 PM

    Oh, I'm confident they won't want to go edgy at all on NCIS. It'd be fun to play with, though!

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  5. To their credit, they do have a gay recurring character (the dweeby probie) and the response from the other characters when he came out was kind of "so what?"

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  6. Duvall8:26 PM

    I only support this if Coupe is playing her character from Community.

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  7. Jordan10:24 PM

    My parents watch the show and I've seen a couple episodes. It's an interesting show in that a lot of the plots/dialogue revolve around computers, but it's clear that the writers have never used one.

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  8. Marsha3:28 PM

    I am a charter member of the Happy Endings Full Employment Club, but I have mixed feelings about this suggestion - I would have to start watching NCIS if they put Eliza Coupe on it, and I really don't want to.

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  9. Said this on the Twitters, but personally, I want to see them bring in somebody different and shake up the chemistry a little. So far, it's been relatively young, attractive women who've been tossed from their previous gig in some other agency. And they need to do a better job making us believe in the well-trained Secret Service Agent or the former Mossad Assassin being the damsel in distress (as Becca put it).


    Given the current plotline (DoD Witch Hunt against Gibbs), I don't think they'll kill Ziva off since I think losing a second daughter-like female agent under his command would probably break him. Too much Gibbs focus.


    Leaving, on the other hand, could create a solid Tony plotline on many different levels. And you wouldn't need to make her a "love interest" type to do it, either.


    Not sure on options since I'm not entirely sure what type of character I'd like to see there.

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  10. And we now know why writing something hastily before a meeting is a bad idea.

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