‘NCIS’ season 11, episode 9 preview: Mark Harmon, Emily Wickersham’s Bishop meet
The moment that at least some fans of “NCIS” have been waiting for is set to come up on Tuesday night’s new episode, when we see the meeting take place between Agent Gibbs, Agent DiNozzo, and NSA Special Analyst Ellie Bishop, a woman who is far and away different than any who we have met before on the show. While Abby has her share of quirks, Ellie reminds us a little bit more of Jessica Day from “New Girl” meets Temperance Brennan from “Bones.” (So basically, she’s the middle child of the Deschanel family!)
We’ll start here with what we are slightly troubled with from the sneak peek, and that is that the show may be trying a little too hard to push the quirky angle for this character right now. Anytime that you have someone like this entering a show, the temptation is to come out strong straight out of the gate. We get that right away in this context, given that you’ve already lost Ziva and you desperately want to create someone new that the audience can get behind.
On the positive side, Emily Wickersham seems to be a solid enough actress to pull off the part, she is not just a carbon copy of Ziva, and she does reference one of our favorite breakfast cereals of all time while also having some sort of Carrie Mathison-like talent of using music to help her focus. We really want this character to be good, mostly because any longtime fan of TV history knows that just one wrong person can tip the apple cart, and suddenly you’re in a situation where the audience is starting to turn against you in a way that you don’t want. For the Ziva fans that are still out there hoping for her to return someday, the good news about Bishop’s arrival is that she will fill a different void in the team, and the two are not mutually exclusive.
What do you think of this brief introduction to Bishop, and are you willing to give the character a chance? Be sure to share your thoughts below, and click here if you want to read some more scoop about what is coming a little later on down the road.
Photo: CBS
rls
November 20, 2013 @ 4:19 am
I do like the character. Radically different from Ziva which is necessary. More of a Tim/Abby type so we will have to wait to see how her brilliance merges with Tim’s in IT world. Hard to see how or why an NSA analyst would be street force so much yet up in the air.
brenda
November 20, 2013 @ 1:57 am
I don’t like this Bishop character at all. She’s to over the top and comes on extremely to strong. a Miss- Know- It -All. She can’t replace Ziva. You’ve got to doi better or bring back Cote to play Ziva. I know you are trying something new but lets not go overboard.Mark Harmon’s,Gibbs is still the BOSS.