Cliffhanging

Last night I was forced to flip between NCIS and Bones. I had planned to watch Bones and tape NCIS because I figure Bones could use the ratings help (I don't have a Nielsen box, but I like to pretend I do). Anyway, I occasionally forgot which show I needed to watch live, but Bones was basically a wrap-up of last season's storylines: Angela and Hodgins try to locate the man Angela married in Fiji. Brennan has been acting more reclusive since Zack went to Iraq. She resists going into the field and stalls hiring Zack's replacement. Fortunately or unfortunately, Zack returns, deemed a detriment to unit cohesiveness by the military. All in all, it felt like the last episode of the second season, not the first of the third.

This was even more true of NCIS's fifth season premiere, "Bury Your Dead". It picks up just after Tony has gotten into a limousine with Jeanne and Le Grenouille. Jenny's attempt to run her op without Gibbs's knowledge continues to unravel. Shortly after Le Grenouille reveals he knows Tony's true identity, a car bomb destroys Tony's car with the team watching from MTAC. There's some suspense as the team members react to Tony's apparent death, but it turns out Jeanne was the intended target, and Le Grenouille suddenly seeks NCIS's protection from his unknown enemy.

Finally on House, without help from a team, the good doctor treats a woman badly injured in a building collapse. The sudden dissolution of House's team felt arbitrary. Like House's faceoff with Michael Tritter (David Morse), it was more "Hey, what if we did this?" than a naturally-occurring event. I'm curious to see how each team member comes back. I guess they are important to House's success, but how much bigger will their heads be knowing they are?