Once upon a time there was no such thing as good TV. Now, it seems we are blessed with a treasure trove of great shows that should accommodate every taste, passion and appetite.
While I love to go to movies, the trouble is I just don't manage to find the time to go see them so, the next best thing is TV. The cable summer line up was fantastic. I started watching new programs like Hung and True Blood, Deep Blue and my standby favorites, Rescue Me, The Closer, Burn Notice, In Plain Sight, and Saving Grace. God love the inventor of the DVR because often I have several hours of shows taped and I watch them AFTER I’ve shut down writing for the day. I hated to see the season finale’s of those programs. Oh yeah, there were a few great fill ins that started and ended – like Project Runway and Design Star but it felt like my good buddies were moving out of town and hated it.
But THEN …. Oh Joy! The new fall shows started in earnest this week. Yeah, baby! My winter buddies are back! Bones, Castle, Dancing with the Stars, Criminal Minds to name a few and last night my all time hands down favorite NCIS started off with a bang! If you’ve never watched NCIS, oh, boy, I just feel sorry for you :o) Mark Harmon alone as Special Agent Leroy Gibbs is worth the time but when you add Michael Weatherly as the sexy and irreverent special agent Tony DiNozzo and Cote de Palo as an Israeli Mossad agent in the form of the mysterious and beautiful kickass Ziva David – well, you have an OMG dream team. And the rest of the cast is great too! Remember David McCallum from Man from U.N.C.L.E? Well he rocks as Dr. ‘ducky’ Mallard, the chief medical examiner assigned to the team. Add the quirky Pauly Perrette as the forensics specialist and Shaun Murray who is fast coming into his own as the straight-laced computer nerd Special Agent on the team and it’s a recipe for great drama with just the right amount of humor and romance thrown into the mix.
The things I love about NCIS are the same things I love in a good book. The originality of the story lines, the complexities of the characters and the dovetailing of action and romance that sizzles beneath the surface between DiNozzo and Ziva. Truth be told, DiNozzo was the inspiration for my Black Ops Inc. alpha man/boy, Johnny Duane Reed, the hero from WHISPER NO LIES. Like Johnny, DiNozzo is all smart mouth, macho ego and little boy ornery on the surface but what he doesn’t want people to see, yet is apparent to anyone who watches the show, is that he’s intelligent, has the courage of a lion and the heart of a romantic. Big sigh. I think I just officially admitted to a huge crush :o)
So, besides wondering what TV shows you're looking forward to start up again, I’m also wondering what draws you, specifically, to those shows or to a good book or a particular author. It takes a lot of parts to make up the sum total of something special. What is it, in your opinion, that pushes a TV show or a movie or a book to that ‘something special’ level? There’s a copy of FEEL THE HEAT, my October release, (that’s right – win it before you can buy it!) in it for one lucky commenter.
