Michael Weatherly Leaving NCIS

© by Gerald So | geraldso.blogspot.com | 8:00 A.M.

Weatherly, who has played Special Agent Tony DiNozzo since NCIS's backdoor pilot in 2003, announced yesterday he would leave the show at the end of this season.

The fact that DiNozzo has been fully fleshed out over thirteen years makes Weatherly's departure easier to take than say, Kate Todd's, who was killed off after two seasons. Then again, DiNozzo has been the spark of much of the show's humor as well as its younger man of action. I don't see McGee or Bishop filling the action void as Kate, Ziva, and Tony did. In those aspects, Weatherly is most difficult to replace.

Is it too much of a stretch to wonder if Weatherly's departure puts NCIS's renewal for Season 14 in doubt? If I were an executive, I'd want some assurance the show post-DiNozzo could still hit all the notes it does now.

Promoting a recurring humorous, physical character like Abigail Borin (Diane Neal) or recent DiNozzo ex Zoe Keats (Marisol Nichols) would be an easy transition, but there are also several episodes left this season that could introduce a new character.

What kind of sendoff would I like for Tony? What if he simply retires, as Ziva did, and reunites with Ziva as a bonus?

At The Five-Two: "Gunsels Need Not Apply"

© by Gerald So | geraldso.blogspot.com | 5:30 A.M.

First up in 2016 is Richard Manly Heiman's prose poem "Gunsels Need Not Apply" as read below by contemporary noir author S.A. Solomon:



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We have one more slot open in January. Write us a poem about a criminal resolving to go straight.

I've Finally Seen: THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. (2015)

© by Gerald So | geraldso.blogspot.com | 5:00 A.M.

As a fan of the TV series, I had anticipated an U.N.C.L.E. movie for years, various actors, writers, and directors becoming attached and detached. When the movie premiered in August directed by Guy Ritchie and starring Henry Cavill and Armie Hammer, I wanted to see it, but not so much I'd have gone to a theater alone.

At the family Thanksgiving party, a cousin raved about the movie on video, saying she enjoyed it more than the higher-profile James Bond movie Spectre. Yesterday, my brother mentioned the U.N.C.L.E. movie had come up on his Netflix queue. Not familiar with the TV series, he still enjoyed it, saying it was worth the $14.99 on Blu-ray I'd been thinking of paying, so we watched it together last night.

While not blatantly like the TV series, the movie strikes enough of the same chords that its inspiration is clear. Coming close to Robert Vaughn's playful cadence, Cavill plays the CIA's Napoleon Solo with a flair sadly missing from the current incarnations of Bond and Bourne. Hammer plays the KGB's Ilya Kuryakin not quite as David McCallum did, but with the same sense that his volatility could churn to the surface any moment.

The movie covers their getting to know each other as the United States and Soviet Union team up in pursuit of a missing nuclear scientist. It's really a race which superpower finds them first, and each man has orders to kill the other if necessary to win. Meanwhile, U.N.C.L.E. chief Alexander Waverly (Hugh Grant) has his own agent in place.

I found it a good mix of period tension and low-tech action. I regret that a sequel seems unlikely given its low box office total.