Thursday, January 23, 2014

5x18 Zero Days

Forgettable episode because it has no element of originality within NCIS LA. Glad that Andrew Bartels accepts in his tweet that there are lot of callbacks... 
  • Russians are dumb, working to keep cold-war alive.. Repeat of 5x08-Fallout. 
  • Chechans and their hate for Russians..
  • Eric is a smart Hacker.. Can we get some emotional connection for Eric and not just his skillsets? We see the same thing for Eric in every season, one or few episodes dedicated for him to show his skill, but it doesn't tell much about his character that we do not know before. If you ask me 1x03-Predator was far better episode for Eric Beale and that too because Nate Getz was paying attention  to Eric's response in his race against time.
  • Nell- as field agent, but also needed in Ops and she knows everything like Hetty and yet; cannot preempt that Ira will not wait at his house and instead go where action and Eric is, to satisfy his ego. This is exactly like Hetty seemingly knowing everything, sometimes is clueless as to why things have to happen that way..coz writers need her to be just mumbo-jumbo sometimes.
  • And Kensi once again mistakes and jeopardizes the mission by allowing herself to cloud her senses because of her love for Jack. She made the same mistake with Talbot in 2x11-Disorder, almost seeing Jack in Talbot and ruining the case until she is attacked by Talbot.
Seems Kensi is again going to be attacked in the next episode, just that we do not know, can she trust Jack?

Kensi's emotional outburst with Jack makes me ask and her appeal to him to return to her made me wonder if her commitment to Densi was real?!! Even if she presumed Jack as dead for 9 years and now sees him alive, how far is her reaction correct? Clearly Kensi is not ready like Deeks for any kind of relationship. Season 2 when Deeks was introduced, Kensi had Jack missing for 6 years. The last 3 years, sort of she had something going on with Deeks and all of a sudden, Kensi is back to the same frozen moment of someone leaving her and she being unable to move on. Basically 3 years of Densi never happened for Kensi, until someone snaps her out of it.

So this was the Shane Brennan shocker in EP 518 ? Or there is more to come?


Episode
5x18 - Zero Days
A zero-day (or zero-hour or day zero) attack or threat is an attack that exploits a previously unknown vulnerability in a computer application, one that developers have had no time to address and patch.[1] Industry experts have intimated that zero-day attacks may fetch prodigious sums from governmental agencies.
Writer
Andrew Bartels - LA Story
R S Gemmill - Afghan Story

First solo writing for Andrew Bartels. His previous one was with Frank Military for 5x13-Allegiance. Andrew Bartels this year has been promoted from junior writer to series regular writer. Cold War and Futility of war expressed. But its not impressive enough to take heart to. A forgettable episode only made funny through parody like this. The parody is much much better.
http://wingsofnight.tumblr.com/post/80880980086/ncis-la-photo-recapped
Director
Tony Wharmby for LA Story
John Peter Kousakis for Afghan Story
Two of our experienced directors with the series who know their characters in and out. Lot of action from Wharmby.
Editor
Eric Wilson

Episode Summary
Ira Wells is shot while playing an online game with Eric Beale is shot.
Ira Wells works independently as a hire for Neidra Systems, which is a Government Agency testing Zero Days for DOD and other companies. He is working on a Russian Missile system’s Zero Days when Chechans attack Ira wells. Ira is successful in retransmitting to his contact in Neidra Systems as part of security protocol under attack. However his contact for money tries to sell it off to Chechans who kill him. It then soon becomes a game about who is faster, the Chechans or the NCIS at winning the zero day. Chechans win and launch a missile targeting San Francisco so that US can blame Russia and go on war with them. The Russian Missile system is called Glanis btw and informed as GLONASS through a tweet message by Andrew Bartels. Eric gives an idea to add another Geo Satellite in the missile’s path to mess (or skew) its coordinates away from San Francisco. So the NCIS Agents of Callen, Sam and Deeks go to building holding the Geo Satellite,  for Eric to work on it. Unexpectedly Ira follows the team to that building to work along with Eric  bringing along the Chechans with them. Expectedly, NCIS LA team guns down the three Chechan shooters and the world is once again saved from another war break out between the two super-powers.
A bit lame story if you ask me…Very obvious happenings of the world, can be showed as commentary, or critique, or emotional pit-falls, but cannot be glorified under the garb of factual representation.
Afghanistan: Owen Granger and Kensi Blye, Taliban and Jack Simon

The White Ghost that Kensi saw in 5x16-Fish Out of Water, turns out to Jack, Kensi’s fiance from 2x11-Disorder, who had disappeared on Christmas Day 9 years ago. Kensi meets Jack in the cave. It is surprising for the viewers that the White Ghost who is supposed to be helping Taliban are hitting him. Anyways, when Jack is tied and thrown along with Kensi, she emotionally meets Jack and reminds him of their days together as Fiance -Fiancee, people in love, ready to get married.. (Somehow it doesn't touch my heart as emotional, but completely dramatic development. It was not convincing enough. For me emotional would have been showing anger with questions like..."Where have you been? Why did you leave me? Why didn't you think of contacting me again? And then Jack's answers would have made sense to me..) But Jack tells her that man is gone and is no more. The man in front of her is a different man and now follows Islam, sees the futility of war, is married to a local woman and has a child. His wife is now dead. He asks Kensi why is she here. Kensi, tells him the truth that she is there to kill him as he is the White Ghost and that no one ones that she came alone this far to see him. The Taliban come and take him away after Kensi reveals that information. [Seemed to me that Jack had no further use for Kensi and had the Taliban take him away].

Clearly Kensi broke all rules. She just cannot reveal  classified mission’s information and that too her target. Where is her sense of integrity for the mission? Even if she knew Jack personally and trusts him, if she had planned to come to meet him all alone without any weapon, then she must have thought of what to tell Jack inspite of her total trust on him.

And going by her emotions, Kensi is not yet over with Jack. I am really surprised, how she thought she could have something with Deeks and why all that possessiveness. This is not a shocker to me for the Densi arc. This is like a show-stopper and mental rewind for all that Densi was ever. Its not that people cannot feel for their past loves. But there is that sense of distance of time expressed in mannerism and language. And that is missing. Kensi’s reaction shows as if she was frozen in that one moment of Jack disappearing on her. Then question is she is frozen on one point, was she ever responding warmly to Deeks ? What was her possessiveness about?

Granger leads a search and rescue team on trail of Kensi. He sees that she ditched her lifeline, the satellite phone. Granger in the evening calls up Hetty and asks her to come clean about Kensi’s role in the White Ghost Mission.
NCIS Personnel Highlights and Bull Pen Fun
Eric and Neric.
Callen and his time with Joel and how Sam cannot help gloating about how all this worked out for Callen, his only submissive listener being Deeks.
Eric Beale is the Smart Guy again. Read my post here. Neric is added a little more color with Eric behaving quite maturely all the time and also telling Ira off to stay away from Nell in a polite manner. You can read more on Neric this season here.
Callen is another highlight. His love story with Joel (Sam and Michell’s find in 5x14-The War Cries) is progressing. And Sam knows. And its becoming an acknowledged story with every one in Bullpen and Ops. They all know Callen is seeing Joel and that Joel is Sam and Michelle’s find blessed by Hetty.
Ops Manager
Hetty Lange
Hetty is again the tough boss today. And episode ends with her and Granger talk about missing Kensi. Nothing conclusive about Hetty. Just that she is writers puppet or spokesperson. Will make her know-all and know-nothing-at-all in the same token.
Partnership 1-
G Callen & Sam Hanna
Scallen. Short Banter. Not much as presumingly Callen lost his Scallen time because of his growing intimacy with blind-date Joel. And actually that is the only point of discussion between the two most of the time these days.
Partnership -2
Marty Deeks and Sam

Last week in 5x17-Between the Lines; Deeks and Callen paired together, when the three boys were working together. This week, we have Deeks working with Sam, right from the Bull Pen opening banter to case closing and leaving for the day banter alongside the trio working together.
Deeks also is sent in the capacity of an attorney to bail Eric out from Police Custody.
And I could not get what is Deeks middle name. Accent issues. I am Indian and cannot get ECO's accent sometimes...
Ops Room  Partnership
Eric Beale- Tech Operator
Nell Jones - Intelligence Analyst
Its Eric the Hackers story. It is Nell Jones story as well with her ability to work with Geeks. It could be Neric in making.We have a peep into Eric’s past when we meet Eric’s college buddy Ira Wells. As a free-lance hacker, Eric could have made a fortune like Ira does, but instead he chose to work for Government with much lower remuneration and continues to be proud about that. When Hetty does not allow Eric work with Ira, he feels dejected, but by the end of the episode, when situation reverses, Eric feels all grateful about the position he has in Ops and the support he provides to NCIS
Densi - Deeks and Kensi
Zippo. Seems like Densi was never there.

Kensi's emotional outburst about Jack and that feeling of a wait coming to an end, makes me ask and her appeal to him to return to her made me wonder if her commitment to Densi was real?!! Even if she presumed Jack as dead for 9 years and now sees him alive, how far is her reaction correct? Clearly Kensi is not ready like Deeks for any kind of relationship. Season 2 when Deeks was introduced, Kensi had Jack missing for 6 years. The last 3 years, sort of she had something going on with Deeks and all of a sudden, Kensi is back to the same frozen moment of someone leaving her and she being unable to move on. Basically 3 years of Densi never happened for Kensi, until someone snaps her out of it.
Others/GK
Zero Day Concept GLONASS
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======================================================================================
In crew's terms this is known as 517-114
The Production Crew has different numbers than what later became the air sequence. Season 4 Production Schedule had an extra episode shot which was telecasted as Unwritten Rule 5x05-101 in airing reality. This changed the sequence numbers for all the season 5 episodes either in terms of Season Episode number or actual episode number for show's grand total serial number. Zero Days realistically becomes 518-114 for Viewers.

Production Planning and Rollout - Prepping - 7 Business days days | Shooting -7 Business days | Post Production - 7 Business days | Promotions - 2 weeks before Air date

Story writing/Script :

Prepping - 22nd January to 30th January
  1. Concept Meeting - 
  2. Departmental Meetings : Video Effects Meeting, Stunts and Special Effects Meeting, Casting, Costumes 
  3. Location/Tech Scouting : 
  4. Table Read : End of Prepping and before shooting starts 
Shoot Schedule : 31st January to 11th February
Post Production : 12th February to 21st February
Press Release : Storyline - 10th March |Photos - 11th March
http://www.cbspressexpress.com/cbs-entertainment/releases/view?id=38318
http://www.cbspressexpress.com/cbs-entertainment/photos/?episode=3272
Promotions: CBS
CBS2 Air Date : March 25h 2014.
CBS2 Rating

http://www.cbspressexpress.com/cbs-entertainment/releases/view?id=38466
At 9:00 PM, NCIS: LOS ANGELES was first in viewers (15.48m), adults 25-54 (3.6/09) and adults 18-49 (2.4/07).  Compared to last week, NCIS: LOS ANGELES was up +6% in adults 25-54 (from 3.4/08), +4% in adults 18-49 (from 2.3/06) and added +1.27m viewers (from 14.21m, +9%).  NCIS: LOS ANGELES posted its best deliveries in these measures since Feb. 4. 

GUEST CAST:
Matthew Del Negro     (Jack Simon)
Tate Ellington     (Ira Wells)
Jim Holmes     (Lance Witten)
Jack Topalian     (Boris)
Ali Olomi     (Insurgent)
Jeronimo Spinx     (NCIS Agent Thompson)
Natalie Britton     (Receptionist)

Credits
Writer : Andrew Bartels
Director : Tony Wharmby

1st Assistant Director : Eric Pot
2nd Asst Director: Hillary Cohen

Co Producer: Christopher J Molnar, Chad W Murray, Jordana Lewis Jaffe
Producer : Joseph C Wilson, Eric Whitmyre, Kyle Harimoto, David Bellisario, Rick Tunell
Consulting Producer : Joe Sachs, Gil Grant
Supervising Producer : Dave Kalstein
Co-Executive Producer : Frank Military
Executive Producer : John Peter Kousakis, R Scott Jemmill
Assistants to Executive Producer : Chad Mazero , Samantha Chasse and Sarah K Mosse

Production Designer: Thomas Fichter
Director of Photography : Victor Hammer
Editing : Eric Wilson
Music : Jay Ferguson

Unit Production Manager : Rick Tunell
Casting : Suzanne Bluestein. CSA|Jason Kennedy CSA
Casting Associates : Meredith Forney and Krysty Baxter
Costume Designer: Darry Levine
Art Director : Anthony Parrillo
Set Decorator : Michele Poulik
Property Master : Steven B Melton
Make-up Artist : Chris Burgoyne
Hair Stylist : Brooks Stenstrom

Production Coordinator : Laura P Napoli
Assistant Prod Coordinator : Adam Rex

Set Production Assistant : Jimmy Ramirez
Production Accountant : Mathew Klipper
1st Production Accountant : Dana Micahaelsen
Art Department Coordinator :
Location Manager : Tony Salome
Stunt Coordinator : Troy Brown
Special Effects Supervisor : Don Frazee
Production Sounds Mixer : David M Schneider
Construction Coordinator: Mike Brooks
Construction Assistant : Krista Schoenbaum
Transportation Coordinator : Dave Bassett
Script Supervisor : Diana Valentine
Script Coordinator : Jimmy Donchey
A Camera Operator : Russell McEllhatton
B Camera Operator : Terence Nightingall
Gaffer : David B Jarell
Key Grip : Jeryll L Marshall

Assistant Editor : John McKnight
Post Production Supervisor : Dillom Gemmill
Sound Supervisor: Wilson Dyer MPSE
Post Production : Digital Film Tree
Post Production Sound : Larsen Studios
Re recording Mixer : Chris Haire CAS, Alexey Mohr
Online editor : Jacob Tillman
VFX Supervisor : Dylan Chudzynski
Colorists : Patrick Woodard
Music Supervisor : Mark Wiki
ADR Supervisor : Jay Keiser
Sound Effects Editor : Kevin Fischer
Theme by : James S Levine
Technical Advisor : Osama Shofani USMC (ret)
Multi Media Coordination : Justin Maradiegue
Specialized Imagery, Software and Promotional Consideration : Furnished by Lockheed and Pictometry International Corporation


Sponsored by Microsoft Corporation


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Twitter News

                                                                                                          Apr 4
Nothing like a Biker Beale Sandwich & Polar Bear Pajamas!

                                                                                                                          Mar 26

                                                                                                       Mar 26
Lotta callbacks to previous S5 eps in this one. Neidra, Witten, Russian consulate...

                                                                                                      sMar 26
There was a lot of laughter over the pronunciation of GLONASS at the table read of .

                                                                                                       Mar 25
Just watched on . That guy's hilarious. He should be on TV. Watch tonight and learn his middle name!

                                                                                                               Mar 25
Do you think can trust Jack?

                                                                                                               Mar 25
What is going through Beale's mind right now as he watches Nell with Ira?

                                                                                                               Mar 25
Someone lands in hot water on 2nite's . Get extras like this when u Sync

                                                                                                              Mar 25
A blast from 's past rocks . Get behind the scenes photos & more when you Sync

                                                                                                Mar 25
Countdown: 0 Days, 15 Minutes till on EST and CST. Brace for impact!
 Retweeted by 
                                                                                              Mar 25
's Eric Beale wouldn't last long in jail...

                                                                                                   Mar 25
Get a few more answers on tonight's ep of ... Excited to watch it!
 Retweeted by 
                                                                                               Mar 25
Write a caption for this photo taken from tonight's : (cc )

                                                                                                          Mar 25
Why is Callen late for work tonight on ? And what has Sam smiling? Sneak Peek:

                                                                                            Mar 25

                                                                                                        Mar 25
Be sure to check out tonight. SOLO writing debut of Staff Writer || If ya dig and you'll dig.

                                                                                                             Mar 25
is small in stature, but not much else. New tonight at 9/8c. Sneak Peek:

 Retweeted by 
                                                                                 Mar 25
Hey LA kiddie katz! and me are on talking bout tonight's episode at 12:15! !

                                                                                                Mar 25
Fresh episode of on tonight!
 Retweeted by 
                                                                                                  Mar 25
Find out why Tuesday's is "a game-changer" for Eric and Nell.


 Retweeted by 
                                                                                           Mar 25

                                                                                              Mar 25
Tune in 2 the #2 Drama tonight for one very exciting and telling episode of 9pm PDT, 8pm Central.

 Retweeted by 
                                                                          Mar 25

                                                                                                         Mar 24
What did Beale do to get locked up? sneak peek!:

                                                                                             Mar 22
. Clarity in the cave. It will impact every followers senses. What is the rocks purpose? Tuesday, 9pm-8CDT.

                                                                                                                 Mar 21
A missile in flight, Eric in the field, and no time left on the clock. The stakes are high Tuesday on :

                                                                                                   Mar 21
This ep's dir, Tony Wharmby, is an old friend, genuine artist, and a true inspiration. Thanks for all.

                                                                                                               Mar 20
New episode of next Tuesday! Will Kensi be okay? First Look Photos:

                                                                                                                           Mar 18


                                                                                                        Mar 8
. Will Callen connect with his blind date again? Does Sam have something cooking? I suspect potential!

                                                                                                    Feb 11
2Kmm lens..,longest we've ever used on our series Afghan morning shoot. The story unfolds soon.
                                                                                                          Feb 11
Guns, Goats, and Granger.

                                                                                                          Feb 11
3 episodes of shooting in "Afghanistan" today. Feels epic!


                                                                                                                               Feb 7
Today in OPS.... Linda Hunt @reneefelicesmith Tony Wharmby

                                                                                                     Feb 6

                                                                                                                  Feb 6

                                                                                                            Feb 4
All together has 68 stories. And I don't mean narrative.

Morning after not-so-super bowl. On the roof, again. Tony Wharmby directs ep#517

Will Hetty send Nell and Eric into the field to help solve a case?


Finishing the day work, getting ready to start the night work


Congratulations to on a very successful first (solo) Table Read.
Talking about reflections. Scouting with Mr. Wharmby, ep#517.

The wheels on the bus go round and round

reading checking twitter making script revisions E517(18)
Monday meetings ep#517. Making it better.
Up on the roof! Downtown LA. Scouting for upcoming Ep.
waiting for his morning pick up E517
It's just one of those days when you need a double
The writer E517(18) on his first solo location scout
It may look like I'm asleep, but I'm totally working on the script. Honest.

bartelsand just dropped his first solo script. Let's hear it for the boy...

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