'NCIS' star Michael Weatherly is having a very good year - andreikirilenkotattoo on TV

In today's column, I interview Michael Weatherly from "NCIS" about his unexpected run of good fortune on the show (and about what he's brought to the show, so it's not all exactly about luck).

It occurs to me, by the way, that between last night's "Chuck," the second "Human Target" and tonight's "NCIS," there's been an awful lot of episodes over the last week in which characters spend most or all of the hour dealing with intrigue aboard a commercial jet liner. Fienberg tells me you still need at least three items for a trend story, even in this age of Twitter. Well, we're at three (that I know of). Did the WGA have a bad flight together or something?

NCIS, "Faith": Merry Christmas, DiNozzo

Been a while since I did an "NCIS" post, but the sweet Christmas episode feels like a good opportunity to take the temperature of the room on both the episode (featuring the return of Pa Walton as Gibbs' dad, Gibbs and McGee both doing a great job at playing Santa, an entertaining bar brawl with Tony and Ziva, and Blue October's "Kangaroo City" over the closing montage) and how the season's been thus far.

What do you guys think?

NCIS, "Reunion": Just one kid

Not a whole lot to say about last night's "NCIS," save that I'm pleased that the singing of "Chad Gadya" (a staple at the andreikirilenkotattoo household at Passover-time) seems to be turning into a running gag. Because of "American Idol," my "NCIS" viewing tends to fall off late in each season, so I missed a lot of the Tony/Ziva/Gibbs issues that were being resolved in this one. Glad to have the team back together (not that there was any suspense about it), and a decent case.

What did everybody else think? And is anybody sticking with "NCIS: LA" so far? Feel free to talk about that in this post if you want.

NCIS, "Truth or Consquences": The chair

Every now and then, I'll mention that "NCIS" is the show I watch the most while blogging about the least. Belatedly watching the season premiere tonight (one of the advantages of having seen so much in advance is that I can catch up on the DVR backlog), it occurred to me that that's kind of silly. "NCIS" isn't deep enough to get the kind of weekly scrutiny I give to "Mad Men," or even "House" (the other procedural in my regular viewing rotation), but there ought to be things worth discussing on at least an irregular basis, right? And since I don't watch the Tuesday reality shows on NBC, ABC and Fox, nor the two CW soaps, I'll have a bit of time on my hands that evening this fall. So a few thoughts on the season premiere coming up just as soon as I get you to be my home theater guy...

The thing that always impresses me about "NCIS" is how easily it shifts from the goofy banter to the deadly serious - a knack that former showrunner Donald Bellisaario developed on the likes of "Magnum, PI" - without the intrigue undercutting the jokes, or vice versa. And no character typifies that more than DiNozzo. He can be tied to a chair, under threat of torture or death, still making stupid jokes and random movie references, and the danger feels as real as the jokes do. Whenever I talk with Michael Weatherly at one of CBS' press tour parties, he makes like he's just a guy who picks up a paycheck for being handsome, but what he does - being a light comedian who can be credible when things get dark - takes skill. I don't know that he was this good when the series started (though as I recall, he was the one part of "Dark Angel" that I liked before I kicked that show to the curb), but he's clearly learned from Mark Harmon, who's skilled in both areas.

Nice to see Tony and McGee pull off the rescue mission, and to see Gibbs show off his famous sniper skills in the process. A strong episode, and a reminder of why this is one of the most popular shows on TV.

Even though I virtually never post about it, I know from the "NCIS: LA" discussion that the original has fans here, so what did everybody else think?

NCIS, "Legend, Pt. 1": The man of one face

"NCIS" is, as I've said before, the show I watch the most while blogging about it the least. (In fact, going through the archives, I couldn't find a single actual episodic review, though I mentioned it in passing a bunch of times.) It's light, it's entertaining, it does the retro job it sets out to do, and I never have much of anything to say about it beyond that.

However, having watched the first half of the two-parter setting up the spin-off with Chris O'Donnell and LL Cool J (just as "NCIS" itself spun off from a "JAG" two-parter), I have to again ask: Who thought it would be a good idea to build a weekly TV show around Chris O'Donnell? More importantly, who thought it would be a great idea to cast him as a brilliant chameleon of an undercover agent? Sure, he can fake a Russian accent if he absolutely has to, but he has two expressions at most and is as lacking in the charisma department as any actor I can think of who (briefly) was considered a bankable movie star. O'Donnell sucked most of the life out of the episode, and Louise Lombard sucked out whatever was left.

Did anybody else watch? Are you more optimistic than I am about the spin-off?