Television Reviews

NCIS: Origins – Enter Sandman

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  • Title: NCIS: Origins – Enter Sandman
  • IMDb: link

NCIS: Origins - Enter Sandman

The two-part opener to NCIS: Origins introduces Austin Stowell as Leroy Jethro Gibbs on his first day working for NIS (which would eventually get rebranded into NCIS). Still shaken from the loss of his wife and daughter (shown in flashbacks), Gibbs is far from the cocky veteran seen in the NCIS opener, but the journey to how he gets there should be half of the fun. While we do get present day narration and cameos from Mark Harmon foreshadowing the importance of the case, and some dark secret he never shared, along with his relationship to one of the agents in particular, they are few and far between and it doesn’t appear (at least from this) that he will have a large part in the series.

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The Old Man – XIII

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  • Title: The Old Man – XIII
  • IMDb: link

The Old Man - XIII

As Harold (John Lithgow) tracks down Morgan Bote’s (Joel Grey) dying message to Julian Carson (Gbenga Akinnagbe) and an unexpected face from his past, Dan Chase (Jeff Bridges) and Zoe (Amy Brenneman) search for Hamzad’s lawyer (Rowena King) who has disappeared. Zoe learns a little more about tradecraft as Dan applies pressure to the lawyer’s assistant (Ana Mulvoy Ten) and the pair find more than they were searching for as the series continues to take some unexpected paths. 

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Doctor Odyssey – Plastic Surgery Week

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  • Title: Doctor Odyssey – Plastic Surgery Week
  • IMDb: link

Doctor Odyssey - Plastic Surgery Week

“Plastic Surgery Week” is about putting characters in emotional situations to further explore their characters. For Max (Joshua Jackson) that means meeting, and the losing, a reality-TV star (Justin Jedlica) who meant quite a lot to him during his time in quarantine. The oddity of the friendship is remarked on by both his subordinates, but the flashbacks make it work well-enough. At the same time Tristan (Sean Teale) is surprised by his mother’s arrival and once again confounded the cruelty of her affection. While also odd, this too works well enough and the pair’s separate experiences do allow them to do some further bonding.

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Murder in a Small Town – A Chill Rain

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  • Title: Murder in a Small Town – A Chill Rain
  • IMDb: link

Murder in a Small Town - A Chill Rain

Notable for downplaying the romance into a subplot separate from the latest murder, “A Chill Rain” gives us Zoe Strachan (Stana Katic) whose brother is found murdered after arriving in town begging for money to pay of loan sharks. It’s not a bad episode, but there’s little surprise that Zoe is the killer (and just what is that accent from Katic?). Zoe is smart enough not to incriminate herself but acts incredibly recklessly in lying to the police and bullying her nephew when a little kindness, even faked, would likely have led her to getting away with murder. Her recklessness makes you wonder how she remained out of jail for so long.

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Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft – A Single Step

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft – A Single Step
  • IMDb: link

Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft - A Single Step

A mopey Lara Croft (Hayley Atwell) isn’t exciting and we get far too much of that version of the character in the opening episode of Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft. We start we an adventure in the jungle and the recovery of an artifact with Roth (Nolan North). However we quickly jump years ahead to a self-destructive Lara ostracized from her friends for vaguely described events which she also blames herself for Roth’s death. Returning home for some spring cleaning, Lara decides to hold an auction giving away much of the Croft trinkets and treasures only for a thief to steal one, that box she and Roth acquired in the opening scenes, from the mansion.

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