Guardian

I think I've commented in the past something to the effect of an episode being written by Middle Schoolers. This one is another of those, maybe worse. Unfortunately, NCIS: Hawaii is going the same direction.

For starters, there is no reason for Vance ever to have been a target of this gang for any reason. Could the mole have been more obvious, and given who the mole is, that should have been enough to close the deal. And why do what they did to Lena, especially at that particular time? Why didn't they beat the good guys to the prize given practically a day or even more head start?

I have thought that the writing for this series has been bad at least since the season before Gibbs left. To me, shooting McGee was jumping the shark.

I enjoyed this episode quite a bit. The story involves Vance and Parker in Berlin tracking down some bad guys with support coming from everyone else at the Navy Yard. With those two out of the office, McGee gets to be Acting Director and, plot twist: he likes it!

My one ongoing complaint about NCIS is that Northern Virginia and the Shenandoah looks an awful lot like Riverside County or, maybe, San Bernardino. In this case, however, the interiors for a hotel, hospital, and warehouse look and feel like Germany. I'd love to know where they found the house, though, because it does not look like anything I've ever seen in the San Fernando Valley.

Apart from that, I do not speak German, but I could hear the fading in and out of the actors speaking German. I will say NCIS does this much better than Murder She Wrote with the bad fake English, Irish, and Aussie accents. And, to be honest, I think the producers' choice to spend money on salaries and production value over time spent abroad is a good one.

One last thing: I hope by the time you read this that whoever left a rating after watching 10 mins of the episode has changed what they initially posted. Don't review a show if you haven't watched it, please!

Text: The opening scene was good showing Vance taking care of business. I liked that it was highlighting his past boxing experience. Was nice that the whole team came out to support him. Then everything went off the rails with Parker treating Vance like a twelve year old! Really lame writing. The trip to Berlin was nice, suggesting Vance had a New Romantic side to him. And things just got weirder with Parker. I couldn't get past the first 10 minutes. I hope the story got better. I may go back and watch the ending, but could not stomach the whole Parker as the wiser and stronger protector of Vance. What were the writers thinking????

Summary: Poor storyline.