They killed Kate (Sasha Alexander) off after two seasons of NCIS, and it is nice to see her back in the TV saddle as 1/2 of "Rizzoli & Isles" after five years of being away from acting as the wife of Sophia Loren's son Edoardo. But looking back at this recently aired early episode it is clear that like the title, she was the weakest link in the series.
Of course hindsight is 20/20 and her replacement Cote de Pablo is a dream -adding so much to the show. But THE WEAK LINK points up other fumbling around that occurred before Harmon & co. hit their Nielsen chart-topping stride.
The romantic banter and confusion between Pauley Perette and Sean Murray is clumsy in this segment, with latter not yet in command of his pivotal comic relief character. But it is the Michael Weatherly/Sasha relationship that stands out as faulty. As DiNozzo he razzes her in a way that is unappealing. My guess is that De Pablo's acting and her forceful physical appearance & personality can easily weather any taunting from Weatherly, while Sasha simply does not play off him well.
As a result, this episode seems remarkably thin, stuck with a rather perfunctory story of a secret mission led by always-reliable guest star Adam Baldwin in peril as the team investigates the death of one of his navy seals. I found the ending wholly unsatisfactory and the relentlessly inverted-red herring dangling into the plot of a priest (smarmily played by Doug Savant) quite annoying.
But Sasha as Kate just doesn't fit in. Her interactions with Harmon are almost ludicrously one-sided, as if the team's (and show's) boss can't stand her. I'm glad everybody lived happily ever after in her absence.
Of course hindsight is 20/20 and her replacement Cote de Pablo is a dream -adding so much to the show. But THE WEAK LINK points up other fumbling around that occurred before Harmon & co. hit their Nielsen chart-topping stride.
The romantic banter and confusion between Pauley Perette and Sean Murray is clumsy in this segment, with latter not yet in command of his pivotal comic relief character. But it is the Michael Weatherly/Sasha relationship that stands out as faulty. As DiNozzo he razzes her in a way that is unappealing. My guess is that De Pablo's acting and her forceful physical appearance & personality can easily weather any taunting from Weatherly, while Sasha simply does not play off him well.
As a result, this episode seems remarkably thin, stuck with a rather perfunctory story of a secret mission led by always-reliable guest star Adam Baldwin in peril as the team investigates the death of one of his navy seals. I found the ending wholly unsatisfactory and the relentlessly inverted-red herring dangling into the plot of a priest (smarmily played by Doug Savant) quite annoying.
But Sasha as Kate just doesn't fit in. Her interactions with Harmon are almost ludicrously one-sided, as if the team's (and show's) boss can't stand her. I'm glad everybody lived happily ever after in her absence.