Reviews

For 6 or 7 seasons, the Flash, whilst not quite Arrow was not far behind. The characters had dramatic impact and were varied enough to make it a decent watch.

Now just as the ultimately woeful Supergirl and increasingly ridiculous Legends devolved into sickly sweet nausea evoking one dimensional woke gesturing (and Batwoman was infected with the same purile disease from the outset) so it seems the Flash is disappearing down the same bizarrely abstract rabbit hole into a netherworld of puerile irrelevance.

The perfect smug grinning niceness of all the heroes, like some comic tragic caricature of real super heroes, almost screams for them to be defeated. Equally the hysterical psychopathy of Red Death makes you wonder how on earth that such a maniac had the time to come up with any sort of scheme let alone one that would put super heroes on the brink of defeat in between her rage driven rants.

The characters are no longer credible and the dialogue and acting are simply terrible. Its as if the whole show has become some childish in joke for the cast and crew that they don't want anyone else to be in on. It's the worst sort of parody. 5 year olds could do better.

All I can put it down to is the complacent self indulgence of those involved in the shows production preferring to go out on a whimper rather than a triumph. In short knowing this is the last series they disappeared up their own 'rabbit holes' rather than give their audience a series to remember.

Still at least you can be fairly sure that few will ever want to see these shows revamped and in the 21st century that's a blessing because the vast majority of the revamps attempted have been awful (Charmed, 4400, Equalizer etc etc).....

it's such a shame.......

First of all lets say what is right about this show (and there is a lot). The acting is great, the dialogue fine and the premise on which its based albeit I have not read the book is good.

However I found by episode five I was being distracted from watching it by pretty much anything going on around me and the reason is there wasn't enough going on. It had already become far to repetitive not least the almost constant visual bombardment of the sight of Theo James nether regions (if a female had been required to appear so often thus I doubt the show would have made it passed episode 3).

Whether it was the book that limited the scope of storylines or whether it was a show decision the simple reality is that cut off most of their dramatic and fantasy narrative opprtunities far too early in the shows development leaving only the relationship between the two of them, which without the full gamut of the time travel narrative soon became little more than a mundane relationship story with the added inconvenience of him disappearing and reappearing at the drop of a hat. Incovenient yes, dramatic not really.

So Chaos Theory is thrown out of the window and he cannot change events no matter what (made clear in episode 1 or 2) shuts down any number of narratives (including saving his mother). So there is no real exploration of the wider issues of his existence (his criminal behaviour) or the ability to take advantage of knowledge of the future (which is largely glossed over in a couple of scenes) and the whole thing quickly becomes immensely insular. Even the end of season 1 left us only with an emotional paradoxical dilemma of mild interest (is sleeping with a younger version of her husband to get pregnant infidelity?).

Whether it is the book that is insular and arguably emotionally indulgent or whether it was the shows script writers, the show that I watched simply failed to maximise its potential nor indeed come close to doing so. A great shame really.

If you compare this show to say a story like 'Snowpiercer' which whilst very different is similarly restricted in a number aways by its underlying storyline, that show took all sorts of liberties with the original story line (which itself took some scientific liberties as well) many of them utterly unrealistic, but did so for dramatic effect, then you can see why this show has failed and Snowpiercer didn't. Snowpiercer took a good story and made it larger than life pushing it beyond credibility but did so in the name of action, drama and entertainment and has so far succeeded in keeping the storyline fresh (it did struggle a couple of times).

This show seems to have stayed strictly within bounds of what it was supposed to be and has ran out of steam very quickly....

Its a pity, such a storyline has a far greater potential and the actors involved would have been more than capable of delivering a far more ambitious story but it wasn't provided them and ultimately if the storyline lacks variety and imagination it will quickly lose people's interests. There are only so many ways someone can incoveniently pop back and forward in time before its starts getting boring......

PS I've now read a synopsis of the rest of the book and frankly I don't think season 2 would have made particularly good TV either. Its far too insular and unsatisfying to translate to an extended TV series. If true to the book It was a mini-series at best (eg 4 x 2hr shows).

PPS And if the sequel ever gets finished I won'ty be watching any TV series about that either for the same reasons.

Last weeks episode of the Orville, I thought was possible the best ever. This weeks is by far the worst and when I say worst I'm comparing it to the clowns of NCIS Hawaii and the litany of prejudiced pre-pubescent dross cancelled this year by the CW.

It is not the fact that it raised a contentious and difficult issue nor indeed that it presented it in a highly prejudicial way (and the whiff of subliminal misandry permeating the show was not unnoticed either) but that it did so in a most shallow, superficial, irresponsible and crass manner without any regard for reality. There are always negative consequences to such events.

In a matter of days (seemingly) the crew of the Orville were able to correctly psycho analyse an adolescent's 'confusion' and make potentially life changing decisions for them, get the adolescent and a parent to agree to it without seriously exploring the potential consequences or alternative options, allow an uncertified member of crew undertook a medical procedure, trample over parental rights, trample over the Union chain of command, trample all over the culture of another species and do so without any serious consequences at all. Well it is Follywood.

In a more realistic version, there would have been a full inquiry into such a breach of protocol, the Kaylon would have been kicked out of the Union forces altogether (the Mochlans would have insisted). At least one if not more of the senior crew would likely have been transferred for their disobedience (you cannot allow such conspiracies to go unpunished), the Doctor could have been struck off (how did the Kaylon get access to the equipment) and Topa and Bortus likely would have been banned from ever returning to their home planet or face charges if they did. There would have been serious consequences for such a conspiracy even if it didn't break the Union alliance up.

Simply saying the Mochlans decided not to break the alliance just doesn't wash. To allay domestic unrest over what they saw as an outrage they would have had to demand their pound of flesh. At best the whole episode is an exercise shoddy writing. At worst its outright dishonest

Furthermore, by taking such an extremist libertarian/liberal stance serves nobody. To run a successful society one has to balance individual self-determination against the collective needs of that society and any act that totally disregards the collective needs takes that society one step further toward chaos and anarchy. Of course it does help explain as to why the USA is in the increasing mess it is in and why a certain supposedly 'enlightened' section of western society is treated with utter contempt by the rest of it. They've lost any appreciation for the need for balance. Its not what they stand for, its how they stand for it thats the problem.

If it were just a story it would be fine but clearly the writers set out to preach at its audience from its very own little soapbox and if it is going to preach then it needs to preach honestly. There will always be longer term negative consequences to such reactionary behaviour and by failing to allude to that within the show, the show became a joke.

And the most hammed up badly delivered line of the week goes to Commander Facelift for her trashing of the line "Not Alpha Braga Four, Captain?". It only just beat Captain Quiff's delivery in responding and i have to wonder if this wasn't the 120th take of these lines. At the end of the show Captain Quiff does an intentionally bad imitation of a pirate which turned out to be a far better delivered than many other parts of the show.

It wasn't the only unintentionally hammed up part of the show. Just about every critical moment instead of being dramatic was hammed up as if the director was intentionally irreverent of the legend of Star Trek or totally oblivious of how to deliver the show.

Not only that but the storyline was simply not credible. Are we seriously going to believe that with all Star Trek's rules & regulations they did not have records with a photograph of an ex Starfleet counsellor available or that the Security Officer hadn't done their due diligence to identify who the counsellor was before it being revealled she was really the lead pirate?

Even more incredible is the idea that pirates could take the Enterprise in what seemed a matter of minutes. Where did the crew go?. Normally you would have reports from this deck and that deck of changes in situations. Security hatches would have been closed, elevators shut off etc. Yet none of this seemingly happens yet lo and behold they are suddenly invading the bridge. The crew had only just had shore leave whilst being in space dock so arguably the ship should have been fully complimented especially going to the outer reaches of the Federation. Surely Starfleet regulations would have demanded it? Had Captain Quiff and Commander facelift mislaid their crew (Uhuru amongst them)

Furthermore, every estimate of the crew compliment in the history of Star Trek for NCC-1701-A is between 200 and 450, yet only around 20 are pictured in the cell on the Squall ship? Had they all gone on their holidays to Risa?

Now if it was a spoof as the Orville started out to be then these oversights might be acceptable but its not it's Star Trek and whether its Pike or Kirk its THE NCC-1701-A ENTERPRISE and such liberties as taken in this episode and in others previously simply taint the Star Trek brand to the point where The Orville (I watched their latest episode directly before this latest STSNW) is now more Star Trek than the competing Star Trek franchise show.

Both Discovery and Picard have their shortcomings but they still feel like Star Trek shows. STSNW on the other hand comes over as a slapdash spoof which does not do its Star Trek branding justice. Its simply not up to Star Trek standard.

They must do better and a good start would be to ditch this particular director. It was their failings that made this show incredulous. None of the shortcomings in this show were unavoidable and it spoiled what potentially could have been a good Star Trek script in the right hands (i.e. Someone who respected the Star Trek legend and had a modicum of respect for detail).

You know when a show is dead and buried when the supposed 'hero's' idea of 'empowering' the whole of the human race is to violate their minds and effectively brainwash them to their side with proselytyzing sanctimony whilst subliminally inferring that nothing is sacred, humans have no defence against such invasion nor indeed control over their minds and they can be abused at any time should those with superpowers feel fit. What a very liberal way to end this homage to puerile wokery. Even Lex Luther was not that ruthless.

So it was with Stupour Girl. A finale that was up there with the most ridiculous of all time. In fact I cannot recall an finale so absurd.

But with that possibly the most tedious exercise in mindless superficial politicised posturing in the recent history of Follywood was done. The good news was it was actually over and we will never again have to suffer those seemingly neverending self obsessed bouts of neurotic handwringing and self doubt nor indeed the cringeworthy rationalisations and second guessing that increasingly plagued the latter seasons of this show let alone the obvious infantile attempts to preach the more extreme views of liberal identity politics.

Still with all such shows it ends on the sort of absurd happy clappy note that such shows never deserve and everybody (well almost) lives happily ever after just like in never never land.

It was once a good series but the rot set in around season 3 and its nosedived since and frankly it would have been better if this last season had not been made. It was dire. Still its done now (as are several other dire CW offerings) and we can only hope that the CW gets sold and whoever becomes Executive President of Programming has a far better idea of what entertainment should be than the current rabble.

It should have been a celebration. Finally we were to be rid of these pitiful incompetent excuses for witches. Throughout you wondered if it would end with the three of them waking up and finding themselves as they should have done as part of a group session in a secure psychiatric facility (Insane in Seattle' has a certain 'je ne sais quoi' about it ) but no instead they left their fate open in what for a second seemed to be the ultimate heresy (them moving into the original Charmed House) but as it turned out it wasn't. Instead we were treated to the most outrageous smug exercise in self congratulation. Unlike the original series which focussed on family and the continuation of the Charmed legend through successive generations this ended with these three delusional infantile neurotics telling each other how wonderful they were and leaving it open for a comeback (God please no). This was the 'Me' generation's narcissism at its very worst. I reached for the bucket.......

I write this having watched the first 3 series in one go and overall as my rating indicates I have enjoyed the show and will certainly continue to watch it when season 4 begins. In particular I have enjoyed the acting which generally in Follywood terms is a cut above the usual LA dross. Unlike others I found all the main characters credible in their day to day presence. Bean is excellent as the tyrannical sociopathic narcissist, Connelly as the cool, calculating and somewhat aloof technocrat and even the identity appropriated Layton' quiet man social warrior comes across as credible, unlike so many other recent shows in Follywood. If it was just on the acting I'd probably give it a 9 out of 10.

That said I struggled to get into the storyline initially and it took a good half season before I actively wanted to watch more and come season 3, I, like others, felt it was running out of steam. Equally the constant intrigue and betrayal throughout the 3 seasons at times became exhausting and so when season 3 ends tying up a number of storylines it was a relief.

That said, from the point when Melanie goes off to the weather station, I increasingly started to question the background on which these characters were painted and how much of a unrealistic contrivance the show as portrayed is. It was when we see the snow bike on which Cavill is riding stall with the Weather Station in the distance that my plausibility alarm started to ring. Without any continuity from a once stalled snow bike we now see Melanie dragging one sled manually. But the snow bike just stalled? Why didn't she try to restart it? Surely by simply removing one of the sleds she could have restarted the bike and pulled both one by one to the weather station? Of course that would have undermined the coming storyline and so it became one of many contrivances and shortcuts that the the writers had made. It got me thinking and once one looks under the bonnet its amazing what questions arise like the one in the title of this piece. Here we are in an Arctic plus environment and not a pair of Skis to be seen. Equally not an Arctic Survival / Skiing expert to be found on the train. Surely people as bright as Wilford and Cavill would have recognised the need for such expertise?

If one then recognises that unlike the premise of the film this story is based on the idea that Wilford had plenty of time to prepare the paradoxical questions rise like a Tsunami. Try this one for starters. The Snowpiercer Engine is a technological state of the art marvel and WIlford an, albeit highly intelligent, authoritarian control freak who not only has recruited his own train police (the Breakman) under ex-cop and security chief Roche but also an additional private army (the Jackboots) under Nolan Grey, yet nobody thought to put security cameras in the public or storage areas of the train? Seriously? Does anyone realistically believe that Wilford would not stick cameras everywhere he could and have built a state of the art security monitoring centre for his security team? Furthermore, the order of the compartments makes no sense at all especially for a control freak like Wilford.

Basically, I would have imagined the order to be: Engine, essential engine services, Wilford's (did he actually have quarters on Snowpiercer?) and senior staff only quarters and amenities, security and technology nerve centre, critical supply and equipment storage (inc armoury), security barracks and essential staff quarters, security and admin offices all in the front part of the train and then some sort of secure DMZ type carriage arrangement as an effective firewall seperating all the critical functions of the train from the clients in a secure front of house / back of house divide. After that would come the passenger facing services quarters, offices and facilities (hospitality, local breakman, dining, exercise entertainment etc) for each class of passenger alongside the passenger quarters and amenities. Then at the tail Auxiliary storage

This brings us to one of the great paradoxes of this story. There is no continuity timewise. The engine is definitely of the 21st Century but the hospitality is reminiscent of a British 1950's holiday camp ("Hi-De-Hi campers"), the first class facilities are reminiscent of a 1920's Steam Cruise Liner that Poirot would have felt comfortable aboard (eg with a plush library full of books), the third class and the Nightclub like some pre-war middle / far eastern bazaar (Casablanca anyone?) and as for 'the Tail', its straight out of 'Les Miserables'. Where is the 21st century technology? They are still playing vinyl and cassettes. Barely a sign of a computer let alone CD and DVD technology? Surely given the technological nature of Snowpiercer it would have its own Intranet not only for the management of the train but equally for the entertainment of the 1st and 2nd class (if not the 3rd class too). Any psychologist , anthropologist / sociologist would highlight the need for distractions when asked to consider the concept of being imprisoned on a train going around and around in circles for decades on end and the thing is you could probably store the sum total of the planets artistic and entertainment product digitally in a single train car yet there is no computer server room or staff or security nerve centre to be found on the train. Really? In the 21st Century?

And so it goes on. Does anyone seriously believe that they would have designed the train without gym facilities for each class (stuck on a train it would be essential) or indeed that 1st Class at least would have been provided Spa facilities and Virtual sports/ games facilities (eg Golf, Tennis etc) as well as access to a full digital library of entertainment? Its quite preposterous to believe that Wilford would have put in the Aquarium and planned for the fairground without providing adequate entertainnment and exercise facilities, just as he would have ensured proper security as well.

From this you start to ask about the people WIlford gathered around him? Where is the Quartermaster to manage the stores (the engineers do it, seriously?), where is the Bursar to manage the valuables (not just for the train but the 1st class and so forth) and in a functioning society there would be a need for some sort of financial system. Not only that where is the Shrink / Anthropologist to advise him on human behaviour as well as the Climate / terrain experts to advise on those matters? Equally are they seriously suggesting that a single doctor and a couple of support staff is an adequate medical team for a population of around 2,500 people that includes some of the wealthiest and most entitled on the planet? The medical facilities portrayed on Snowpiercer are absurdly substandard.

Beyond that the questions keep coming. Are we seriously going to believe that Snowpiercer had no off train snow transport on board and that Big Alice only had snow bikes? Are we seriously going to believe that no one considered building storage facilities near the tracks to replenish necessary equipment and store essential heavy engineering equipment either too bulky for the trains themselves to drag with them permanently? After all if a weather station can survive on top of a mountain surely its reasonable to think storage facilities would remain reasonably accessible and secure with the right planning and security arrangements.

Furthermore, especially after having to accommodate the Tailies are we seriously going to believe that no one contemplated stopping Snowpiercer when appropriate in the towns and cities they passed through and foraging for additional supplies? Equally why does no one ever consider it possible that others beyond the train might have survived (just as the rats at the weather station did and as Asha at the Nuclear Power Station did) or indeed that the great superpowers of our planet hadn't put in place apocalypse plans (the great freeze is not a new concept) for humanity to survive and as such there were a number of relatively small surviving communites on land? Why was there zero monitoring for potential other signs of life? Whilst hope is an important theme in this story, the hope for the survival of others and indeed the future of the human race is basically non existant.

I also have difficulty in believing that the 2nd Class passengers would be as invisible as they are in the story (why is that?) or indeed that no 1st Class passengers would hold out an olive branch and indeed tried to work with the Tailies to provide an acceptable solution and with the 3rd class etc to unify the train in a humane and peaceful manner. Not everybody is arrogant, brutal, entitled and self-serving, nor indeed submissive to those that are, no matter how wealthy they are.

All of which brings us to what in my view is the 'piece de resistance' of absurdities that surround the set design and back story to Snowpiercer, that being that the genetically interfered with Lian is the first pregnancy / child born on the Snowpiercer in 7 years. Bare in mind that the global average birth rate per 1000 per annum is 18 with most major western economies in the range of 9 to 15 per 1000. Under normal circumstances that would deliver somewhere between 200 and 400 children during Snowpiercer's lifetime to date and if you took into consideration the extreme conditions, the lack of alternative distractions etc chances are especially in the 3rd Class and Tailly sections that the birth rate would be higher. So perhaps enforced sterilisation and contraception I hear you say? Well WIlford and his Frankensteins on Big Alice perhaps might go that way but Melanie and Dr Pelton putting Bromide in the water on Snowpiercer? Not a cats chance in Hades.

So as I have said it is a decent watch but frankly an utterly ridiculous concept as portrayed by the writers. Still its worth 7/10 and with that what odds that Snowpiercer finds a land based Nemesis in season 4?

It occurred to me given the misandrist (why is it only men who are augmented as aliens in this series?) and narcissistic tendencies of modern day Follywood that the augmentation being alluded to in this episode was indeed plastic surgery and who better to feature in the show than poor Rebecca Romijn.

After all with a facelift as bad as hers (and she's not yet 50) its got to be an issue close to her heart.

Additionally the shows seeming sponsorship of child abuse (surely leaving your child in the pattern buffer is tantamount to the 23rd Century version of locking a child in a cupboard?) as well as its support for those in power abusing that power for their own benefit (both Chin and the Doc seemingly get away scot free with serious infractions) is hardly the sort of subliminal morality lesson we would normally expect from a Star Trek show.

Still we live in an era of self indulgent, self-serving liberal prejudice and hypocrisy where Follywood is its spiritual home. So such superficial, delusional self justification should be expected.

As one might guess already. I don't think much of this show despite being a Trekkie at heart. Its contrived, pedestrian, badly casted to a greater extent (there are far better female actors out there), badly written with weak and tedious storylines so far and soooo badly acted. Of the characters, Spock is close to what one might expect and Hemmer shows some promise but the rest are all such sickly sweet 'perfect' liberal stereotypes (especially Pike and Chin with their insular mutual adoration society) that they come across as false, insincere and oh so dull cliches who make Spock the most 'interesting' character and Hemmer the most likeable on the show.

Characters in whose mouth butter would not melt do not make good entertainment. They are boring and unappealing as paint drying and so far that is exactly what Star Trek SNW is.

And whats with the loss of all sense of proportion in the Enterprise sets? The transporter room is the size that the bridge should be, the bridge is the size that the transporter room should be, the medical facilities are the size of a baseball park and the engine room is the size of the Grand Canyon. Someone has 'blue screen' mania.

Discovery may have had its augmentation disasters (i.e. The Klingons) but at least the ships internal design was credible. Enterprise as is now is just absurd.

As much as I berated Discovery it stands head and shoulders above SNW so far and neither show is fit to be compared in any realistic way with its predecessors. I get the feeling that whoever is driving this show really hasn't much of a clue about Star Trek as a brand and what this show should try to be, other than, that is, a superficial caricature of TOS. If thats all it can be then its hardly worth it.

Still hopefully the next Star Trek movie will stop the rot. Its got better actors in it for a start.

PS And someone seriously needs to sort out the Uhura character. She was dreadful in this last episode. 'Like a Princess in a Peapod'

So what is it you ask that the latest episode of Lame Jane and the rest of the Neurotic Children's Insecurity Society (Hawaii) have for us this week? Yep Apex predators and smuggled engineered bio-weapons. Exciting you'd think?

Don't be silly. Because this show is not an action drama but a perfunctory soap opera and such storylines are mere fashion accessories to the tedium of the petty traumas and hardships of the female existence and the mandatory requirement that all male bit part players run around desperately trying to support these female's fragile egos.

That all this is achieved through unrealistic narratives, immature characterisations, pitiful dialogue, scenes of over indulgent and gratuitous gut churning soul baring and sycophantic mutual admiration topped off by abysmal acting make this the most hilarious faIlure of the year.

Still its that bad it makes you wonder what absurdity they might come up with next week? Maybe ridicule and humiliation is the new best seller?

PS It crossed my mind as I watched this farce that the main character 'Lame Jane' might be more credible if Vanessa Lachey's facelift had not left her both wrinkleless and at the same time with a permanent look of an irritated 1st grade school ma'am no matter what emotion she might actually be trying to portray? There again I'm not sure anything could improve her acting?

In this weeks episode of the 'Lame Ones' the scriptwriters desperation plumbed new depths . Yes this week we were treated to the delightful nugget that the new one (you know thingy) uses a plastic battery powered 'toy' in her spare time much to the embarrassment of her 'sisters' who accidentally walk in on her having a play with it.

In the history of gratuitous unnecessary unwanted undignified detail in a TV show that is of Oscar Winning cringeworthiness. Otherwise there were the same tedious bouts of neurotic soul baring that are becoming the shows trademark and that make it so unwatchable and that tell us that the scriptwriters have run out of ideas (it happened exactly in the same way in 'Stupour Girl' too albeit they at least kept their dignity).

Beyond that the dialogue was dreary, the acting naively poor, the storyline unstructured and lacking coherence (even the villains are unconvincing) and the continuity bizarre (the idea that Labelle's Lady Marmalade would have been playable let alone greeted with rapturous applause in a 1920's Speakeasy, for the magical or not was absurd).

All one can hope now is that now Julian McMahon has left the FBI stable he might return as 'the Source' for one last swansong and do away with the 'Lame Ones' for once and for all because this show definitely needs putting out of its misery. Its become a sad tawdry parody of the original.

A close up of a submerged black plastic bath duck blowing black liquid into a fountain sums up this car crash of an episode

The Charmed reboot has never lived up to its predecessor but every now and then during the first three seasons it was decidedly watchable.

However with the departure of its best actor Madeleine Mantock (as well as the demotion of Rupert Evans and Jordan Donica to bit parts) and seemingly the departure of the script writers too it like so many other CBS connected shows is plumbing the depths.

Imagine three hapless female teenage Jerry Lewis type characters constantly navel gazing about their latest neurosis tinged feelings through cliche ridden dialogue against a background of tacky 1950's style special effects, bad acting and cardboard cut out villains and that is Charmed season IV.

Of course in the best comic tradition the hero always wins in the end. Its just you cannot believe that they did.

This is now a parody of the original series that seems to have given up trying to celebrate it. It like so many of its 2022 contemporaries seems to be there purely to fill slots in the TV schedule to stop peoples TV screens being blank in between the adverts.

Broken? NCIS Hawaii sure is!

Let's just take stock of the previous 'season ending' episode.

Tennent discovered her mentor and best friend of almost two decades was a traitor whose Chinese son was the most wanted Chinese agent by western nations on the planet. Her traitorous friend claims she was coerced into betraying her country because the Chinese authorities threatened her son's life.

Having been discovered and caught, the traitor pleads with Tennant to let her son go because he was not the real mastermind, she was, and if her son is allowed to escape (to go back to China...) she will fully co-operate and tell all she knows about her former spy masters (anyone spot the inconsistency there yet?).

Tennent then without referring to the Secretary Of Defence, National Security Advisor, Attorney General, Secretary of The Navy, Director Of The CIA or even the Director of NCIS decides off her own back to trust the word of her treasonous friend. Tennant then orders that the most wanted Chinese spy by the western alliance on the planet be allowed to escape .

Despite her friend deceiving her for more than a decade, despite the Chinese having a track record of using the traitor's son as leverage over her, despite the fact that her traitorous friend had a track record of submitting too such leverage and despite the fact that letting the son go would likely cause the most almighty row between not only the USA and its allies but between NCIS and rest of the US's various security agencies, Tennant's judgement was that she could, without seeking approval, trust the woman who'd lied to her for years, assume that the Chinese would not use the son as leverage as they had previously, trust that the traitor would suddenly go against her instincts and her Chinese masters and put her son's life at risk? Now that's 'empowerment' for you

If nothing else such a decision by Tennant, in real life would have demonstrated her unfitness for the role she was fulfilling. Who did she think she was? The Vice President?

Surely the best way to ensure the traitor came clean about everything was to capture the son and use him as leverage just as the Chinese had?

Now moving on if you ask me this current episode should have begun with Tennant in some unspecified CIA location being interrogated as to whether she was also a Chinese asset before being handed over to the Justice Department to face her own treason charges having been summarily kicked out of the military. It didn't.

Instead all that is not even considered (despite being a far better storyline than the one actually profered by the show) and instead the minimal inquiry (in a nice shiny boardroom) focusses on a far less significant security aspect. Even better one of Tennant's dim underlings forthrightly states in a preceding scene ' No way has she done anything wrong' .or somesuch.

Seriously? I nearly choked on my drink when I heard him say it (followed by ROFL).

Such a farcical storyline is as credible as the dismally dull and predictable acting that this one dimensional identity obsessed infantile caricature of a drama show has become. It beggars belief that CBS extended it's first season.

If the actual US Security services were as incompetent as this show implies then US citizens should be extremely worried (in fact the whole western world should!).

I know, if you don't like the show you shouldn't watch it but as a long time NCIS fan, I am just transfixed and incredulous at how dire the franchise has become this season and in particular fascinated and increasingly amused by the awfulness of this woeful substitute for the far superior NCIS NOL.

How bad can they make it? Tune in next week to find out (unless CBS are messing with the schedule yet again, that is?)!