Six Sleeps To Christmas!
It’s six sleeps to Christmas! And therefore, it is time to spread some holiday cheer, because I had a pretty great week and full excitement has just hit me this weekend. I have my pyjamas on, Christmas songs playing on YouTube, and it’s been snowing! I love Christmas time!
Okay, so I love my boss. No, really, I do. I started my current job early this year, and I was pretty much terrified for the first three months, because my boss is like, the smartest person on earth. She’s always in control, knows everything there is to know about her line of work, and because I am a mere mortal with dubious observation skills and limited knowledge of, well, everything, she can also be incredibly intimidating. But she’s also one of those people who was clearly born to lead; she really makes you want her approval and praise. I go ridiculously DiNozzo-insane for her. And at our Christmas work do yesterday, she actually told me directly, to my face, that she was glad she’d hired me and that she loved me. She put the barrettes I got in my cracker in my hair for me. My boss played with my hair, and then when I had to go catch my train she hugged me for like, three whole minutes and told me she loved me. She called me “dear heart” and “darling girl.” For real. I could not be happier!
So, because I am pathetic and she really is that cool, I’ve been on a total high since, and today I’m immersing myself in Christmas - and by that I mean I’m listening to Christmas music and watching Christmassy TV and movies. My favourite is The Flint Street Nativity, which is a British comedy one-off that aired in 1999 - it’s available on DVD over here, but I’ve been watching it on YouTube because I lent my copy to my mate. She’s getting coal for her present this year if she forgets to bring it back from uni again.
It’s in seven parts, it’s extremely British, but very funny and really sweet and touching, at times. I cried at the ending. If you have an hour and a bit free, and want to watch something that will make you smile, this is it. It’s also a total who’s who of who was hot on TV back in the late nineties in Britain, and they’re all playing eight-year-olds in a nativity play. Cutest piece of TV ever.
Enough about my amazing boss, though, because NCIS’ amazing Christmas episode was what kickstarted my amazing week, even though I didn’t see it until Wednesday! I loved it. I could not have loved it more, I don’t think, except for possibly a little bit more Palmer. But I always think there should be more Palmer.
Gibbs and Jackson totally stole the show. I think I could watch these two try and sort out their relationship in their own spin-off and I’d be entirely satisfied, MH and RW were both incredible. I don’t think there’s ever been such an amazingly well-acted and realistic scene between two people on the show before, really. There was such a sense of history between them, and of tension and lack of understanding and miscommunication, but they were trying so very hard to reconnect. I started crying as soon as Jackson got out of the shuttle, and I haven’t yet found an accurate word for the sound I made at Gibbs’ face just before he hugged his dad. It was halfway between a wail and a squeal of happiness. And all the way through their scenes, I was like, moving around all over the place, and making these ridiculous noises, because I couldn’t watch the two of them try so hard and still not quite get it without physically getting delighted and upset all at once. This show has turned me into such a psycho, I love it.
The Tim/Tony and the Gibbs/Tony love was strong, too. Tim and Tony are just so cute together, now. I really hope they’re still having their dinners together after work and bitching about other staff members. I loved their agreement over Delores’s Grinchiness. Their individual stories might have been totally manipulative attempts to make viewers coo and squee, but I fell for them hook, line and sinker and adored them. McGee was so cute with the kid, and blah blah illegal-cakes, what he did was so cute it actually hurt my teeth. I don’t think I’ve read a single review on the episode yet that hasn’t mentioned how unrealistic Tony’s finding of the doll-anecdote in Delores’ file was, and it was badly explained, LOL, but is it not all made up for by the smile on her face, and the smile on his? His smile will never not make me happy, especially when it’s all genuine like that!
I was pretty much convinced, throughout the entire thing, that Gibbs and Tony were together. I haven’t felt like that since the early episodes of S1 and S2, where I was pretty much convinced they were fucking off-camera - and even then, it didn’t strike me as a particularly healthy relationship. The way I’m seeing them at the moment, and the different states that they’re in, emotionally, it’s still not perfect, but they just seem so in-sync and like they’re really trying to recover themselves, after all the crap they've been through over the past six and more years, and I think they’re doing that together. I love them.
I also really liked Tony and Ziva’s interaction, here. It felt like there was a lot less tension between the two of them than there has been in the past few episodes - and while I like what I think that tension represents in their relationship, and the fact that it shows they haven’t written off what happened during the Rivkin palava, it’s nice to see them being nice. I still want some kind of resolution between the two of them, but this felt much easier to watch than their tension-filled scenes up until now.
Other things I loved, in numbered format because, well, we all know it rocks!
1) Ducky. He was pretty much the most adorable, sweet thing in this episode, and there was a ton of great Ducky/Gibbs interaction. I love how casually blunt he is with Gibbs about his lack of communication skills and ability to open up, and also how very spot on he is in his perceptions and Gibbs’ lack of anger at them. They have such a great relationship.
2) Tony’s shirt. I think pretty much everyone loved it, but it bears repeating. He looked really hot in it.
3) Bubblebutt.
4) The bar brawl. It was just quite cool! I liked that it wasn’t played as part of a PTSD reaction from Ziva, because that would make no sense given that I haven’t seen her flinch from contact once since returning to NCIS. I’m leaning towards thinking that most of her torture came from the fact that she was left alone - by everyone. I loved that Tony didn’t move to protect her; he knew what was going to happen, but he didn’t try to prevent it, he just let her do whatever, and then protected himself - and quite well! He was being awesomely scrappy.
5) Ziva’s softer attitude. The way she defended Delores seems to tie in with a new pattern of caring that she’s expressing. It’s quite a change, from earlier seasons, and shows she’s really thinking about feelings and expressing them and what might be going on with other people, IMO. She strikes me as someone who is in continuing therapy, and it’s doing her good. On the other hand, I disliked her waistcoat, and her hair was a bit meh, right up until the last scene with her and Tony.
I was just re-reading what I wrote and I totally forgot, I was watching Sex and the City last night and guess who popped up in the particular episode I watched? Only David McCallum! He looked adorable in it, and he was so cute and sweet despite having not nearly enough scenes. Also, he has totally sold his soul, he doesn’t look very much different at all now, and that’s like, about ten years later. I do ID card upgrades for the people at work every ten years, and OMG, some of them look like entirely different people. We had one this week that looked like a total Rasputin-esque Bond villain, I swear he planned his face in the mirror before the photo. It was hilarious. Anyway, yeah, DMcC was in it, and I went to IMDB to search him out because I couldn’t quite place the lady who played his wife (it was Valerie Harper, which was awesomely cool. I love her), and I accidentally typed in Ducky McCallum instead of his actual name. I really need to order the Man from U.N.C.L.E DVDs.
Also, I just read about the snow that Washington has been getting this week, which looks pretty bad - NCIS has turned weather forecast, too!
SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER
Okay, so I’ve also been keeping as up-to-date with spoilers as I can, especially for the 150th episode. I am still torn between excitement and dread, but I’m okay with that now, it’s obviously not going to change. But, but, right now I’m focusing on the excitement - and after the Jackson/Gibbs stuff they did in Faith, I’m so hopeful they’ll do some more awesome stuff with Tony and Daddy DiNozzo. These pics over at no_tiva are great, but not particularly facutally enlightening, except for the fact that it looks as though Gibbs is actually going to be interrogating, or at least interviewing him.
However, I’m a sucker for speculation, so here’s mine: Tony’s standing pretty close to DD in that first photo, so that might hint towards there being little to no physically abusive history between the two. I am probably going to completely wrong, which would be great, I love being surprised, but some of the hints and spoilers seem to be about Gibbs being worried that Tony won’t be able to avoid getting personally involved. I think it’s fairly obvious, by the laws of TV and family in general, that there’s no way Tony wouldn’t be able to avoid being personally involved, but I wonder if he’s actually going to be loyal to his dad, or torn between his biological family and his substitute one? In that last photo, with Abby and Ducky watching from the observation room looking all concerned, we can’t see who it is that’s being interrogated - what if it’s Tony, because he’s either suspected of covering up for his dad, or actually did - and if he did, did he need to, or was he wrong in his suspicions? There are so many possibilities, and I am so excited to find out what’s going to happen. And I’m dreading it, too, because whatever happens I’ll have to incorporate it into canon because I’m hopeless at ignoring it, and obviously I’ll be a total drama queen if it negates the characterisation I’ve chosen so far!
I really, really hope we find out what happened with Tony’s mother.
Anyway, I’m off to see if I can actually write some fic and to finish capping S2 - I am doing it, it’s just that I can’t seem to shut up. Have a fantastic Christmas, or any other winter holiday any of you might be celebrating!
Also, three inches of snow have fallen outside my house while I was writing this. I’m so excited!
Okay, so I love my boss. No, really, I do. I started my current job early this year, and I was pretty much terrified for the first three months, because my boss is like, the smartest person on earth. She’s always in control, knows everything there is to know about her line of work, and because I am a mere mortal with dubious observation skills and limited knowledge of, well, everything, she can also be incredibly intimidating. But she’s also one of those people who was clearly born to lead; she really makes you want her approval and praise. I go ridiculously DiNozzo-insane for her. And at our Christmas work do yesterday, she actually told me directly, to my face, that she was glad she’d hired me and that she loved me. She put the barrettes I got in my cracker in my hair for me. My boss played with my hair, and then when I had to go catch my train she hugged me for like, three whole minutes and told me she loved me. She called me “dear heart” and “darling girl.” For real. I could not be happier!
So, because I am pathetic and she really is that cool, I’ve been on a total high since, and today I’m immersing myself in Christmas - and by that I mean I’m listening to Christmas music and watching Christmassy TV and movies. My favourite is The Flint Street Nativity, which is a British comedy one-off that aired in 1999 - it’s available on DVD over here, but I’ve been watching it on YouTube because I lent my copy to my mate. She’s getting coal for her present this year if she forgets to bring it back from uni again.
It’s in seven parts, it’s extremely British, but very funny and really sweet and touching, at times. I cried at the ending. If you have an hour and a bit free, and want to watch something that will make you smile, this is it. It’s also a total who’s who of who was hot on TV back in the late nineties in Britain, and they’re all playing eight-year-olds in a nativity play. Cutest piece of TV ever.
Click to viewEnough about my amazing boss, though, because NCIS’ amazing Christmas episode was what kickstarted my amazing week, even though I didn’t see it until Wednesday! I loved it. I could not have loved it more, I don’t think, except for possibly a little bit more Palmer. But I always think there should be more Palmer.
Gibbs and Jackson totally stole the show. I think I could watch these two try and sort out their relationship in their own spin-off and I’d be entirely satisfied, MH and RW were both incredible. I don’t think there’s ever been such an amazingly well-acted and realistic scene between two people on the show before, really. There was such a sense of history between them, and of tension and lack of understanding and miscommunication, but they were trying so very hard to reconnect. I started crying as soon as Jackson got out of the shuttle, and I haven’t yet found an accurate word for the sound I made at Gibbs’ face just before he hugged his dad. It was halfway between a wail and a squeal of happiness. And all the way through their scenes, I was like, moving around all over the place, and making these ridiculous noises, because I couldn’t watch the two of them try so hard and still not quite get it without physically getting delighted and upset all at once. This show has turned me into such a psycho, I love it.
The Tim/Tony and the Gibbs/Tony love was strong, too. Tim and Tony are just so cute together, now. I really hope they’re still having their dinners together after work and bitching about other staff members. I loved their agreement over Delores’s Grinchiness. Their individual stories might have been totally manipulative attempts to make viewers coo and squee, but I fell for them hook, line and sinker and adored them. McGee was so cute with the kid, and blah blah illegal-cakes, what he did was so cute it actually hurt my teeth. I don’t think I’ve read a single review on the episode yet that hasn’t mentioned how unrealistic Tony’s finding of the doll-anecdote in Delores’ file was, and it was badly explained, LOL, but is it not all made up for by the smile on her face, and the smile on his? His smile will never not make me happy, especially when it’s all genuine like that!
I was pretty much convinced, throughout the entire thing, that Gibbs and Tony were together. I haven’t felt like that since the early episodes of S1 and S2, where I was pretty much convinced they were fucking off-camera - and even then, it didn’t strike me as a particularly healthy relationship. The way I’m seeing them at the moment, and the different states that they’re in, emotionally, it’s still not perfect, but they just seem so in-sync and like they’re really trying to recover themselves, after all the crap they've been through over the past six and more years, and I think they’re doing that together. I love them.
I also really liked Tony and Ziva’s interaction, here. It felt like there was a lot less tension between the two of them than there has been in the past few episodes - and while I like what I think that tension represents in their relationship, and the fact that it shows they haven’t written off what happened during the Rivkin palava, it’s nice to see them being nice. I still want some kind of resolution between the two of them, but this felt much easier to watch than their tension-filled scenes up until now.
Other things I loved, in numbered format because, well, we all know it rocks!
1) Ducky. He was pretty much the most adorable, sweet thing in this episode, and there was a ton of great Ducky/Gibbs interaction. I love how casually blunt he is with Gibbs about his lack of communication skills and ability to open up, and also how very spot on he is in his perceptions and Gibbs’ lack of anger at them. They have such a great relationship.
2) Tony’s shirt. I think pretty much everyone loved it, but it bears repeating. He looked really hot in it.
3) Bubblebutt.
4) The bar brawl. It was just quite cool! I liked that it wasn’t played as part of a PTSD reaction from Ziva, because that would make no sense given that I haven’t seen her flinch from contact once since returning to NCIS. I’m leaning towards thinking that most of her torture came from the fact that she was left alone - by everyone. I loved that Tony didn’t move to protect her; he knew what was going to happen, but he didn’t try to prevent it, he just let her do whatever, and then protected himself - and quite well! He was being awesomely scrappy.
5) Ziva’s softer attitude. The way she defended Delores seems to tie in with a new pattern of caring that she’s expressing. It’s quite a change, from earlier seasons, and shows she’s really thinking about feelings and expressing them and what might be going on with other people, IMO. She strikes me as someone who is in continuing therapy, and it’s doing her good. On the other hand, I disliked her waistcoat, and her hair was a bit meh, right up until the last scene with her and Tony.
I was just re-reading what I wrote and I totally forgot, I was watching Sex and the City last night and guess who popped up in the particular episode I watched? Only David McCallum! He looked adorable in it, and he was so cute and sweet despite having not nearly enough scenes. Also, he has totally sold his soul, he doesn’t look very much different at all now, and that’s like, about ten years later. I do ID card upgrades for the people at work every ten years, and OMG, some of them look like entirely different people. We had one this week that looked like a total Rasputin-esque Bond villain, I swear he planned his face in the mirror before the photo. It was hilarious. Anyway, yeah, DMcC was in it, and I went to IMDB to search him out because I couldn’t quite place the lady who played his wife (it was Valerie Harper, which was awesomely cool. I love her), and I accidentally typed in Ducky McCallum instead of his actual name. I really need to order the Man from U.N.C.L.E DVDs.
Also, I just read about the snow that Washington has been getting this week, which looks pretty bad - NCIS has turned weather forecast, too!
SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER
Okay, so I’ve also been keeping as up-to-date with spoilers as I can, especially for the 150th episode. I am still torn between excitement and dread, but I’m okay with that now, it’s obviously not going to change. But, but, right now I’m focusing on the excitement - and after the Jackson/Gibbs stuff they did in Faith, I’m so hopeful they’ll do some more awesome stuff with Tony and Daddy DiNozzo. These pics over at no_tiva are great, but not particularly facutally enlightening, except for the fact that it looks as though Gibbs is actually going to be interrogating, or at least interviewing him.
However, I’m a sucker for speculation, so here’s mine: Tony’s standing pretty close to DD in that first photo, so that might hint towards there being little to no physically abusive history between the two. I am probably going to completely wrong, which would be great, I love being surprised, but some of the hints and spoilers seem to be about Gibbs being worried that Tony won’t be able to avoid getting personally involved. I think it’s fairly obvious, by the laws of TV and family in general, that there’s no way Tony wouldn’t be able to avoid being personally involved, but I wonder if he’s actually going to be loyal to his dad, or torn between his biological family and his substitute one? In that last photo, with Abby and Ducky watching from the observation room looking all concerned, we can’t see who it is that’s being interrogated - what if it’s Tony, because he’s either suspected of covering up for his dad, or actually did - and if he did, did he need to, or was he wrong in his suspicions? There are so many possibilities, and I am so excited to find out what’s going to happen. And I’m dreading it, too, because whatever happens I’ll have to incorporate it into canon because I’m hopeless at ignoring it, and obviously I’ll be a total drama queen if it negates the characterisation I’ve chosen so far!
I really, really hope we find out what happened with Tony’s mother.
Anyway, I’m off to see if I can actually write some fic and to finish capping S2 - I am doing it, it’s just that I can’t seem to shut up. Have a fantastic Christmas, or any other winter holiday any of you might be celebrating!
Also, three inches of snow have fallen outside my house while I was writing this. I’m so excited!