I have completely and totally thought the exact same things that you have stated. MH didn’t like how well MW’s Tony was received and decided to make sure that this problem would be fixed by ousting DPB. Exit brave, smart Tony – Enter idiot Tony. And yet no one is allowed to point out this rather obvious “coincidence” out loud and keep their job.

GG seems to like to give us papa Gibbs with an injured or needy McGee now. Now Tony can only have comical injuries like breaking his nose but only Gibbs or McGee can be seriously threatened. Don P. Bellasario obviously liked the papa Gibbs protective of Tony, but once he was gone we were not allowed to have a Tony story where he was the most in peril or injured party. The way Tony has been written makes me think that the writers are under some kind of orders to make Tony an unsympathetic character. I don’t think we’re supposed to like him. Luckily MW is such an appealing actor he hasn’t lost a lot of fans despite the abysmal and demeaning writing. I really don’t know why tptb don’t want us to like, worry about, or feel sympathy for this character but it’s obvious to me that this is an agenda.

No no not carpel tunnel, oh my no that could potentially mean surgery, that’s way too exciting – we’re talking Gary Glasberg under who’s tenure the team have suffered little more than a scratched nose. I think the best we can possibly hope for is a blister on his clicking finger! Back in the day Tony was drugged, chained to serial killer, beaten, sprained his ankle a couple of times, fell out of a plane, was trapped in a container truck, broke his arm and of course contracted pneumonic plague. Sadly even if GG had the ability to come up with such an amazing story as SWAK no doubt DiNozzo would have “gotten lucky” and would never have contracted the illness in the first place. Despite blowing up the Navy Yard and a more than impressive car crash, the best we’ve had from GG is the gunshot “wound” in ‘Nature of the Beast’ that was not a ‘wound’. I’m probably looking for conspiracy theories but recently I have begun to wonder if part of the reason that Don B was forced to leave was because MH thought Tony was becoming too popular. Even Michael Weatherly has said that DiNozzo started to change very early in season 5. Why would you turn the brave flawed hero who only two seasons earlier hid his fears and feelings behind a mask of fun and film references saying to Kate in SWAK “Have you ever seen me afraid?” into the scared individual he depicted in Chimera? And where once Tony was regularly the focus with even his own story arc across an entire season, from season five he started to take more of a back seat, for the most part (with just a few notable exceptions) only supporting other characters’ story lines and the competent, heroic flawed hero was turned into a fool. I’ve always wondered where Don B originally planned the Jeanne/la grenouille story arc to go, so hurriedly tied up by SB in the first episode of season 5. Sadly we’ll never know.

Well we get a steady diet of Gibbs, McGee, and Bishop in jeopardy. The only worry we can reasonably have about Tony is that he’ll develop carpal tunnel syndrome from excessive clicking.

I read this in my doctor’s waiting room. Made me laugh out loud. Thank you! Sad to say though you’re probably right. Tony fans have been ‘promised’ so much and been disappointed so often. I’m desperate for some plot lines that give both Michael Weatherly and us viewers something to get our teeth into. Hopefully season 12 might actually see some jeopardy for once. Someone should tell GG that if you blow up the Navy Yard, have a major car crash or hit McGee over the head with a – was it a baseball bat or a golf club? – then there has to be consequences otherwise there’s no jeopardy and if there’s no jeopardy it’s actually just plain boring.