Has anyone here tried watching NCIS: Sydney?

It's a new Australian spinoff of the long-running NCIS franchise. Although, for a show which is supposedly meant mainly for viewers watching Down Under, it goes out of its way at times to explain certain things which might be unfamiliar to to a North American audience.

There's been three episodes aired in the U.S. and Canada thus far, so it shouldn't take too long to get caught up if anyone was so interested. Or, at least, if one was curious to see how it holds up compared to its stablemates being produced on this side of the Pacific Ocean...

By Mike Grafton (Mike_Grafton) on Thursday, November 30, 2023 - 08:23 am: Edit

Should be NCIS Perth or Darwin.

Drop Bears, Hoop Snakes and Vampire Kangaroos...

By MarkSHoyle (Bolo) on Thursday, November 30, 2023 - 09:57 am: Edit

Should be NCIS Perth or Darwin.

My understanding there is only one base in Australia and it's centered somewhere on the Continent...
It's a combined facility working National Level Intelligence...
Don't know why there would be an NCIS office in the country anyways....

By Douglas Lampert (Dlampert) on Thursday, November 30, 2023 - 12:23 pm: Edit

Mark, there's a much better reason to have an NCIS office in Australia than in LA.

In Australia you have USNavy personnel, and you are NOT only about two hours away from San Diego, where there almost certainly is an actual NCIS office.

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Thursday, November 30, 2023 - 12:27 pm: Edit

I will make simple.

One word.

MONEY.

Slang terms aside, Australia is a western democracy, with a healthy economy.

The N.C.I.S. Franchise (in certain respects, though it is not a perfect comparison, similar to the original JAG show)) is a “Cash Cow”.

Without getting into politics, CBS has been injecting “Woke” characteristics into most aspects of its programming.

As a result, revenues have declined, though not as bad as it has affected Disney. (See “Go woke, go broke” meme for details.)

N.C.I.S. Sydney appears to be an attempt to expand the audience, and hence, Revenues.

Perhaps the executives at CBS feel the Australia market will be more tolerant than the American market?

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Thursday, November 30, 2023 - 03:05 pm: Edit

I somehow missed the second episode of NCIS Sydney. I have seen the first and third episodes. On the first episode, I could not believe that the Russians got aboard a US Nuclear boat by posing as a team investigating radiation, that the crew was evacuated in toto except for a Petty Officer who was guarding the entrance. No questions how the team investigating the "radiation leak" got there before anyone could really comprehend the message. Further, there was no need for the Russian agents to commit "suicide" when the helicopter hovered over them. They could have given themselves up with the information they had learned and waited to be "traded" for American prisoners, even if they had killed three Americans (one by polonium poisoning, one by faked suicide, and. the Petty Officer guarding the sub (who despite his rating was obviously very Naive). Finally, what mischief will the leader of the Russian team get into in future episodes. That is only a brief discussion of the first episode.

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Thursday, November 30, 2023 - 06:17 pm: Edit

Time was, projects such as movies, tv shows, documentaries all had technical advisors.

Many movies in the 1950’s had active duty military (Army, Air Force Navy or Marine) officers who were supposed to correct obvious errors.

Tom Clancy submarine movie used active duty personnel as well as ships, aircraft, submarines and an Aircraft Carrier.

Earlier NCIS episodes even had a retired NCIS agent as technical advisor.

Sadly, with so many cast and crew dying and retired from the show, the replacements may not have the same depth of experience as the people they are replacing had.

Pity.

By Mike Grafton (Mike_Grafton) on Friday, December 01, 2023 - 08:30 am: Edit

"Alice Springs" isn't really a Military thingy. It's a civilian secret squirrel base.

Darwin on the other hand regularly hosts a passel of US Marines as part of the MEU Ashore concept. Marines are notorious for getting into mischief https://www.marforpac.marines.mil/MRFDarwin/

Darwin is also conveniently close to all kinds of interesting places in SE Asia. Like Thailand, PNG and Indonesia. And the RAS Hammersley patrols out of there.

By Garth L. Getgen (Sgt_G) on Saturday, December 09, 2023 - 02:54 am: Edit

"Army Men: Green army vs Grey army #stopmotion" Runtime = 8:05

I'm sure that SPP will be able to pick it apart for the tactics used.


Garth L. Getgen

By Garth L. Getgen (Sgt_G) on Sunday, December 24, 2023 - 01:07 am: Edit

I was bored enough to pop the Oppenheimer movie in the DVD tonight. Agree AND disagree with Ted Fey's assessment up-topic. The jumping around in the timeline was confusing (I wish they put a subtitle with the date), but otherwise I thought is was actually a good movie. Not the best movie, granted, but still a good movie. If you're looking for a docudrama about building the A-bomb, this is not that. It's about Oppenheimer the man, flaws and all.


Garth L. Getgen

By Mike Grafton (Mike_Grafton) on Sunday, December 24, 2023 - 03:12 pm: Edit

I want a movie about Feynman. Famous scientist, crash investigator, ladies man, Brazilian frigideira Musician, and Nobel Prize winner.

He was an absolute hoot. I strongly recommend his autobiography https://www.amazon.com/Surely-Feynman-Adventures-Curious-Character/dp/0393316041

By Ted Fay (Catwhoeatsphoto) on Wednesday, December 27, 2023 - 11:44 am: Edit

I went to see the Godzilla Minus One movie in the theater.

Ted Fay Grade: A

It is, *very* surprisingly, a genuinely good movie. In fact, if you removed Godzilla and replaced it with another threat - it would still be a good movie. That being said they did a fantastic job on Godzilla itself - the level of CGI detail is as good as it gets in any modern movie.

Highly recommended. And I'm pretty picky about giving praise to modern movies.

-T

By Lawrence Bergen (Lar) on Wednesday, December 27, 2023 - 04:45 pm: Edit

I saw both Rebel Moon (netflix) and The Creator (hulu).

Both had flaws but were entertaining enough that I didnt wish I had the time back.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Wednesday, December 27, 2023 - 11:53 pm: Edit

I saw Rebel Moon and thought it was a bit choppy, and it turned out to be a two-hour cut of a three-hour first half of the movie. It is a rejected star wars script and a remake of Magnificent Seven, but not woke at all and worth watching. When they finally release the full three-hour director's edition it will be better.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Thursday, December 28, 2023 - 12:00 am: Edit

OBLITERATED, on Netflix, an eight-episode limited series. Basically a spy-commando romp.

A team of "best of the best" from multiple agencies (CIA, NSA, Navy Seals, some others) recovers a lost nuke in Las Vegas and decides to spend the rest of the mission budget on a wild party with sex, booze, and drugs. THEN they find out they got duped, the nuke is still loose, so (hung over and wearing party clothes) they have to go back into action to find the nuke, which gets stolen multiple times from under their noses.

WARNING: This movie is a rip-roaring spy thriller, and has some extremely funny moments, but it is not for everyone. The language is filthy (I don't think they went 60 seconds without using the F-word). Lots of nudity (including full frontal male nudity), casual sex that borders on outright porn, lots of drug use, and the torture scenes are disgusting (and funny).

By Ginger McMurray (Gingermcmurray) on Saturday, December 30, 2023 - 04:27 pm: Edit

Rebel Moon bored me to tears. It felt hacky and like everything in the plot was just there to tie together the action scenes. Unfortunately the action wasn't good enough to save it.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Tuesday, January 23, 2024 - 03:45 pm: Edit

Maybe someone can help me remember/find this movie. I saw it at a drive in with my parents sometime in 1956-62. It was about airplanes, big jet airplanes. The pilots (one was female) rode not in the cockpit but in an orange cargo pod under the fuselage. I slept through most of the movie but remember that much. Does anybody recognize it?

By Mark Faust (Mark_Faust) on Tuesday, January 23, 2024 - 08:04 pm: Edit

Maybe this one, with the "orange cargo pod" being the X-1?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jet_Pilot_(film)

By Terry O'Carroll (Terryoc) on Wednesday, March 27, 2024 - 10:06 am: Edit

I've been watching THE THREE-BODY PROBLEM on Netflix. It's very good. The basic story is solid and the acting, sets, etc are very well done. The original story, IIUC, was written by a Chinese national and it depicts the Chinese Communist government in a very negative (but truthful) light, and so has been banned in China.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Wednesday, March 27, 2024 - 03:02 pm: Edit

Leanna and I watched four episodes of 3BP and then she quit, saying it took too long to get anywhere. I watched episode 5 last night and it was incredibly good. The show is almost a reunion of GoT actors.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Wednesday, March 27, 2024 - 03:09 pm: Edit

Mark Faust: Thank you, that is exactly the film in question. I saw it at the drive in when I was 8 and probably slept through 90% of it. Now I get to watch it on Roku! Thanks again!

By Terry O'Carroll (Terryoc) on Thursday, March 28, 2024 - 03:24 am: Edit

Watching 3BP, they want to speed a probe up to 1% lightspeed. I'm guessing they'll use the carbon nanofibres to make a light sail and boost it with a honking big laser. We'll see.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Thursday, March 28, 2024 - 06:43 am: Edit

On 3BP, I think that the aliens must be coming from Alpha Centauri. It's the only think 4 light years away.

By Terry O'Carroll (Terryoc) on Thursday, March 28, 2024 - 07:58 pm: Edit

Yep, seems like it. The series is based on teh first book of a trilogy that has four books in it. So that's why it takes a bit of time to get rolling. I'm reading the second book "The Dark Forest" right now, while I wait for the second series of 3BP to come out. Pretty good so far.

By Terry O'Carroll (Terryoc) on Friday, March 29, 2024 - 11:49 pm: Edit

Just finished The Dark Forest. I have revised my opinion on it: I don't like it. The Chinese literary style is too long-winded and discursive for me. It means that it takes the author two books and 1,000 pages finally resolve the alien invasion with a solution that was slap-in-the-face obvious to any Western reader who was alive during the Cold War, or has even seen Dr. Strangelove. Maybe it wouldn't be obvious to a PRC citizen, since Mao didn't take the notion of mutually-assured destruction seriously. To me it was obvious and the author took forever to get there.