{"id":7929,"date":"2014-08-22T23:33:55","date_gmt":"2014-08-23T06:33:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/?p=7929"},"modified":"2014-08-22T23:37:18","modified_gmt":"2014-08-23T06:37:18","slug":"review-ncis-s11-dvd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/2014\/08\/review-ncis-s11-dvd\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: &#8220;NCIS&#8221;: The Eleventh Season DVD"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/2014\/08\/review-ncis-s11-dvd\/#more-7929\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" style=\"border: 1px solid #2f4f4f;\" src=\"http:\/\/www.moviemansguide.com\/images\/main\/2014\/ncis-s11-sm.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a>Eleven seasons in and <strong>\u201cNCIS\u201d<\/strong> is still going strong, being able to do the same old, same old and yet switch things up with multi-arc episodes as well as giving its characters, even if little by little, development. The only drawback is the production values seem to be limited but I can overlook it for solid storytelling and, of course, the chemistry between the core cast.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"*\" src=\"http:\/\/www.moviemansguide.com\/images\/main\/bar_blue.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"650\" height=\"3\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><span style=\"font-size: x-large;\">&#8220;NCIS&#8221;: The Eleventh Season<\/span><br \/>\n(2013-14)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong><br \/>\nREVIEW NAVIGATION<\/strong><\/span><strong><a href=\"#movie\"><br \/>\nThe Movie<\/a> | <a href=\"#features\">Special Features<\/a> | <a href=\"#video\">Video Quality<\/a> | <a href=\"#audio\">Audio Quality<\/a> | <a href=\"#overall\">Overall<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Genre(s): <\/strong>Crime, Drama, Thriller<br \/>\nParamount | NR \u2013 1034 min. \u2013 $64.99 | August 19, 2014<\/p>\n<table style=\"border-color: #120b78; border-width: 0px; ; width: 660px;\" border=\"0\" frame=\"border\" align=\"center\">\n<tbody>\n<tr valign=\"top\">\n<td width=\"300px\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/B00KB01Q4S\/moviemsguidet-20\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" style=\"border: 3px solid blue;\" title=\"Buy NCIS: Season 11 on DVD from Amazon.com!\" src=\"http:\/\/www.moviemansguide.com\/images\/reviews\/2014\/ncis-s11-dvd.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"426\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<td><b> <\/b><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">MOVIE INFO:<\/span><br \/>\nDirected by: <\/strong>Various<br \/>\n<strong>Writer(s): <\/strong>Donald P. Bellisario and Don McGill (written by)<br \/>\n<strong>Cast: <\/strong>Mark Harmon, Michael Weatherly, Pauley Perrette, Sean Murray, Brian Dietzen, Emily Wickersham, Rocky Carroll, David McCallum<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">DISC INFO:<\/span><br \/>\nFeatures: <\/strong>Episode Commentaries, Featurettes<br \/>\n<strong>Number of Discs: <\/strong>6<\/p>\n<p><strong>Audio: <\/strong>English (Dolby Digital 5.1)<br \/>\n<strong>Video: <\/strong>Anamorphic Widescreen 1.78<br \/>\n<strong>Subtitles: <\/strong>English SDH, Portuguese, Spanish<br \/>\n<strong>Region(s): <\/strong>1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a name=\"movie\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" title=\"*\" src=\"http:\/\/www.moviemansguide.com\/images\/main\/bar_blue.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"650\" height=\"3\" \/><br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" style=\"border: 2px solid #808080;\" title=\"NCIS: Season 11\" src=\"http:\/\/i.imgur.com\/4JsteuT.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" \/><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>THE SEASON<\/strong><strong> \u2013 4.0\/5<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The eleventh season of <strong>\u201cNCIS\u201d<\/strong> begins with a two-part, globe-trotting spy thriller centric storyline where a terrorist group, known as the Brotherhood of Doubt, attack a black-tie event which killed the Secretary of the Navy (aka SECNAV) and also targeting (former) NCIS team members Tony DiNozzo (MICHAEL WEATHERLY), Timothy McGee (SEAN MURRAY) and Ziva David (COTE DE PABL), each of whom had resigned from the agency to protect their leader, Leroy Gibbs (MARK HARMON) at the end of the tenth season.<\/p>\n<p>But throwing a wrench into a well-oiled machine, Cote de Pablo who had joined the cast in the third season, decided it was time to move on (the why is up in the air from salary to wanting to start a family). So with that, the second episode, \u2018Past, Present and Future\u2019, became her farewell with Ziva on the run in Israel and Tony tracking her down only to have her to decide to permanently quit NCIS realizing she needs to go on a different path thanks to the deaths that had occurred over the years, starting with her brother, Ari. For being what I assumed was quickly put together, it was a nice departure for a character fans either love or hate.<\/p>\n<p>This season also finds McGee with a new love interest, Delilah (MARGO HARSHMA), which flourishes but is tested when, in the episode \u2018Kill Zone\u2019, she is severely injured during a drone attack on a gala event in which McGee escapes with scrapes. It is nice to see McGee, who tended to get overshadowed by storylines with Gibbs and\/or DiNozzo\/Ziva, get some character growth outside of his dynamic with tech goddess Abby (PAULEY PERRETTE).<\/p>\n<p>We also get some nice return guest stars from Robert Wagner as Tony\u2019s suave father, Colin Hanks reprising his role as an IG Investigator, as well as Susanna Thompson, the late Ralph Waite as Gibbs\u2019 father and even Muse Watson comes back from the dead (in flashback form).<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cNCIS\u201d<\/strong> is more or less running on auto-pilot and being the #1 viewed drama, it\u2019s more popular than ever thanks in large part to the core cast. Even without Cote de Pablo, I still enjoyed this year and even like Emily Wickersham as the quirky Bishop and thankfully, thus far, she\u2019s not turned into a Wesley save the day kind of character&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Episodes:<br \/>\n<\/strong>1. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot<br \/>\n2. Past, Present, and Future<br \/>\n3. Under the Radar<br \/>\n4. Anonymous was a Woman<br \/>\n5. Once a Crook<br \/>\n6. Oil &amp; Water<br \/>\n7. Better Angels<br \/>\n8. Alibi<br \/>\n9. Gut Check<br \/>\n10. Devil\u2019s Triad<br \/>\n11. Homesick<br \/>\n12. Kill Chain<br \/>\n13. Double Back<br \/>\n14. Monsters and Men<br \/>\n15. Bulletproof<br \/>\n16. Dressed to Kill<br \/>\n17. Rock and a Hard Place<br \/>\n18. Crescent City (Part 1)<br \/>\n19. Crescent City (Part 2)<br \/>\n20. Page Not Found<br \/>\n21. Alleged<br \/>\n22. Shooter<br \/>\n23. The Admiral\u2019s Daughter<br \/>\n24. Honor Thy Father<\/p>\n<p><a name=\"features\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"*\" src=\"http:\/\/www.moviemansguide.com\/images\/main\/bar_blue.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"650\" height=\"3\" \/><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>SPECIAL FEATURES \u2013 3.75\/5<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>One of the only CBS TV titles to be consistent with the packaging, season 11 continues the trend of placing the 6-discs in 3 separate thin cases (2 discs each) which slide into a matted slip case.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Episode Commentaries<\/strong><\/span> \u2013 These sets never really had an exorbitant amount of commentaries, and this go around there are only three: \u2018Past, Present, and Future\u2019 with Actor Michael Weatherly, Director James Whitmore Jr. and Writers Scott Williams and Gina Lucita Monreal; \u2018Crescent City (Part 1)\u2019 with Star Mark Harmon and Writer Gary Glasberg; and \u2018Shooter\u2019 with Actors Pauley Perrette and Sean Murray and Co-Writer Frank Cardea. It\u2019s a nice range of participants so it\u2019s not a bad selection, but would\u2019ve liked more.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Celebrating 250 (3:49)<\/strong><\/span> chronicles the landmark 250th episode with comments by the cast and crew about its importance.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>NCIS in New Orleans (15:27)<\/strong><\/span> looks at filming the show on location and how the two-part episode served as a back-door pilot and features on-set interviews including Scott Bakula and Mark Harmon.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Game Change (23:57)<\/strong><\/span> \u2013 This is a fairly extensive featurette on the changes that occurred in the eleventh season with the various storylines, an actor\u2019s departure and a new character, etc.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Remembering Jackson Gibbs: A Tribute to Ralph White (5:20)<\/strong><\/span> is a poignant featurette on the late actor who played Gibbs\u2019 father.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>On the Record (5:55)<\/strong><\/span> is a behind-the-scenes look at Michael Weatherly\u2019s singing skills.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Finding Ellie Bishop (7:45)<\/strong><\/span> is a closer examination of the casting process to replace Cote de Pablo.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>In the Stills of the Night (3:22)<\/strong><\/span> \u2013 Here we get a look at the still photos of the set crime scenes.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Background Check (4:22)<\/strong><\/span> \u2013 In even more interesting BTS footage, we get to see the work of the background actors.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Joe Spano: Fornell for Real (6:11)<\/strong><\/span> is an interview with the actor on playing the disliked\/liked FBI agent.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" title=\"*\" src=\"http:\/\/www.moviemansguide.com\/images\/main\/bar_blue.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"650\" height=\"3\" \/><\/p>\n<p><a name=\"video\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>VIDEO \u2013 3.75\/5<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><strong>\u201cNCIS\u201d<\/strong> never looked that good on television but I have to wonder if they either switched cameras or if the cinematography budget was cut because often times, exterior scenes especially, look incredibly cheap and have strange movements (kind of sped up). Colors aren\u2019t especially bright but that\u2019s the show\u2019s tone sticking with more natural tones which is why \u201cNCIS: LA\u201d is far brighter.<br \/>\n<a name=\"audio\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" title=\"*\" src=\"http:\/\/www.moviemansguide.com\/images\/main\/bar_blue.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"650\" height=\"3\" \/><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>AUDIO \u2013 4.0\/5<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The Dolby Digital 5.1 track is, as with previous seasons, pretty good with a spattering of depth in particular on the opening theme and dialogue levels are clear and sound effects are fairly decent though hardly expansive. It\u2019s a fine track that is more or less in keeping with how the show aired.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" title=\"*\" src=\"http:\/\/www.moviemansguide.com\/images\/main\/bar_blue.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"650\" height=\"3\" \/><br \/>\n<a name=\"overall\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>OVERALL \u2013 4.0\/5<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Overall, eleven seasons in and <strong>\u201cNCIS\u201d<\/strong> is still going strong, being able to do the same old, same old and yet switch things up with multi-arc episodes as well as giving its characters, even if little by little, development. The only drawback is the production values seem to be limited but I can overlook it for solid storytelling and, of course, the chemistry between the core cast.<\/p>\n<p><strong><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Brian Oliver, The Movieman<br \/>\n<\/em><strong>Published: <\/strong>08\/22\/2014<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Eleven seasons in and \u201cNCIS\u201d is still going strong, being able to do the same old, same old and yet switch things up with multi-arc episodes as well as giving its characters, even if little by little, development. The only drawback is the production values seem to be limited but I can overlook it for &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/2014\/08\/review-ncis-s11-dvd\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Review: &#8220;NCIS&#8221;: The Eleventh Season DVD&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[3105,3108,3106,1654,1655,409,3103,3107,3104],"class_list":["post-7929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dvd-reviews","tag-brian-dietzen","tag-david-mccallum","tag-emily-wickersham","tag-mark-harmon","tag-michael-weatherly","tag-ncis","tag-pauley-perrette","tag-rocky-carroll","tag-sean-murray"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7929"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7929\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7933,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7929\/revisions\/7933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}