Lots of twists and turns and a few real surprises. Fast pace. Very enjoyable.
9 Reviews
Great start to the season.
mfowke-1227729 September 2018
Destiny's Child
bobcobb30128 September 2018
Warning: Spoilers
The comedy did not work, but almost everything else here did. An action-packed way to start the new season.
I would've liked Vance to have been held hostage for more than one show, but we know they don't do that on CBS.
Good start, but let's see if they can keep it up 16 seasons in.
I would've liked Vance to have been held hostage for more than one show, but we know they don't do that on CBS.
Good start, but let's see if they can keep it up 16 seasons in.
not brilliant, but gave me a good laugh
ivko18 October 2018
Warning: Spoilers
So I should start by admitting I haven't seen this show in something like 10 years. But I was visiting my mom and she watches it so there you go.
The show, as I'm sure any viewer knows, is heavily formulaic. It starts with some scenario, usually the discovery of a body or the commission of a crime, typically in the presence of throw-away characters like some anonymous police officer or a jogger or whatever. Then it proceeds to the main cast being put on the case, an investigation that usually highlights a few interesting tidbits from real news stories, and ends with the team capturing the bad guy.
This episode was part of a cliffhanger from last season I didn't see. It involved a terrorist bent on blowing up the United States (of course) that took the NCIS director hostage (again, of course, provided it's sweeps) and used him as part of the dastardly plot.
Spoiler warning! So the basic shell of the plot is that the terrorist infiltrated an "Internet" company (the name is different but they are referencing the CDN provider Cloudflare) who apparently has a contract with a nuclear power plant to "turn off" the plants Internet access in the event of a lock down by: continuously sending them a bunch of information over the Internet. Yah, if you're confused don't feel bad, it makes no sense.
So I work in technology and to be frank, you get used to TV and movies just getting the technical stuff really wrong, but in this case they are really raising their game for sheer absurdity. First of all, they "shut down" the plants Internet by sending them "IP codes" every second, whatever the hell that means. But of course, these codes are carrying the virus that will destroy everything.
At this point I need to point out the "ripped from the headlines" portion of the show. Encryption, like that used to secure Internet traffic, requires random data to aid the process. Computers, which aren't typically great at generating true randomness, usually use various tricks to produce what is commonly referred to as pseudo-random data. Basically the output of operations considered hard to guess by an outsider like the exact temperature of the computers processor or the number of milliseconds since it was rebooted, etc.
Cloudflare has a somewhat unique method of generating random data. They have a wall of lava lamps running with cameras trained on them, and the random movements of molten wax is used to aid the generation of randomness. It's mostly a gimmicky kind of thing. You could achieve the same result by shaking colored sand or observing gas vapors or any one of a million different natural processes that exhibit complex interactions, but lava lamps make for a cute story for the press.
Fine, whatever, but you should also bear in mind that the lamps are just a very tiny portion of the process and truthfully not especially critical. Lose them and you *eventually* could get slightly less secure encryption. I say eventually because if you think about it they aren't going to let the whole company grind to a halt if a few lamps burn out or they lose power; they cache that information for days before they ever use it, and in any event could switch to the pseudo-random stuff in a pinch without anyone ever noticing.
Ok, back to the story. The terrorist tricks the government into activating the lock down, the Internet company sends the corrupted IP codes, and Bob's your uncle, nuclear meltdown. McGee, who is a "programmer", jumps onto the system to get rid of the virus, apparently using his super power of instantly understanding any program he sits in front of better than the actual administrators (who he muscles aside to take over for), but can't get rid of the virus because the corrupted code keeps bringing new copies every second.
This leads to what has to be the most hilariously child-like interpretation of how the Internet works since the Internet was "a series of tubes". The plants cooling is down courtesy of the virus, right, which will shortly cause the aforementioned meltdown, but luckily one of the team is at the Internet company. With 20 seconds before hell on earth Gibbs screams at his teammate "shut it down!"
Jumping into action, the teammate frantically looks for a big on/off switch but, finding none (the elders of the Internet removed most of them because people kept shutting down the Internet as a prank), grabs the wall of lava lamps and pulls it to the ground like Jesus overturning the money lender tables in the temple.
And what do you know, it works! And although at this point my mom is irritated because I'm laughing so hard, it is a relief that the nuclear power plant wont meltdown and end life as we know it. And yet, I can't help feeling that perhaps if the terrorists knew that simply destroying a wall of lava lamps could take down the Internet they might find that to also be an interesting target. But that's a problem for another day, I suppose.
The show, as I'm sure any viewer knows, is heavily formulaic. It starts with some scenario, usually the discovery of a body or the commission of a crime, typically in the presence of throw-away characters like some anonymous police officer or a jogger or whatever. Then it proceeds to the main cast being put on the case, an investigation that usually highlights a few interesting tidbits from real news stories, and ends with the team capturing the bad guy.
This episode was part of a cliffhanger from last season I didn't see. It involved a terrorist bent on blowing up the United States (of course) that took the NCIS director hostage (again, of course, provided it's sweeps) and used him as part of the dastardly plot.
Spoiler warning! So the basic shell of the plot is that the terrorist infiltrated an "Internet" company (the name is different but they are referencing the CDN provider Cloudflare) who apparently has a contract with a nuclear power plant to "turn off" the plants Internet access in the event of a lock down by: continuously sending them a bunch of information over the Internet. Yah, if you're confused don't feel bad, it makes no sense.
So I work in technology and to be frank, you get used to TV and movies just getting the technical stuff really wrong, but in this case they are really raising their game for sheer absurdity. First of all, they "shut down" the plants Internet by sending them "IP codes" every second, whatever the hell that means. But of course, these codes are carrying the virus that will destroy everything.
At this point I need to point out the "ripped from the headlines" portion of the show. Encryption, like that used to secure Internet traffic, requires random data to aid the process. Computers, which aren't typically great at generating true randomness, usually use various tricks to produce what is commonly referred to as pseudo-random data. Basically the output of operations considered hard to guess by an outsider like the exact temperature of the computers processor or the number of milliseconds since it was rebooted, etc.
Cloudflare has a somewhat unique method of generating random data. They have a wall of lava lamps running with cameras trained on them, and the random movements of molten wax is used to aid the generation of randomness. It's mostly a gimmicky kind of thing. You could achieve the same result by shaking colored sand or observing gas vapors or any one of a million different natural processes that exhibit complex interactions, but lava lamps make for a cute story for the press.
Fine, whatever, but you should also bear in mind that the lamps are just a very tiny portion of the process and truthfully not especially critical. Lose them and you *eventually* could get slightly less secure encryption. I say eventually because if you think about it they aren't going to let the whole company grind to a halt if a few lamps burn out or they lose power; they cache that information for days before they ever use it, and in any event could switch to the pseudo-random stuff in a pinch without anyone ever noticing.
Ok, back to the story. The terrorist tricks the government into activating the lock down, the Internet company sends the corrupted IP codes, and Bob's your uncle, nuclear meltdown. McGee, who is a "programmer", jumps onto the system to get rid of the virus, apparently using his super power of instantly understanding any program he sits in front of better than the actual administrators (who he muscles aside to take over for), but can't get rid of the virus because the corrupted code keeps bringing new copies every second.
This leads to what has to be the most hilariously child-like interpretation of how the Internet works since the Internet was "a series of tubes". The plants cooling is down courtesy of the virus, right, which will shortly cause the aforementioned meltdown, but luckily one of the team is at the Internet company. With 20 seconds before hell on earth Gibbs screams at his teammate "shut it down!"
Jumping into action, the teammate frantically looks for a big on/off switch but, finding none (the elders of the Internet removed most of them because people kept shutting down the Internet as a prank), grabs the wall of lava lamps and pulls it to the ground like Jesus overturning the money lender tables in the temple.
And what do you know, it works! And although at this point my mom is irritated because I'm laughing so hard, it is a relief that the nuclear power plant wont meltdown and end life as we know it. And yet, I can't help feeling that perhaps if the terrorists knew that simply destroying a wall of lava lamps could take down the Internet they might find that to also be an interesting target. But that's a problem for another day, I suppose.
Underwhelming at best.
harrykivi24 January 2021
Warning: Spoilers
When it comes to "Destiny's Child", the premiere of the 16th season of NCIS, it's a semi-watchable episode. It has mostly good performances, solid direction and action scenes, but unfortunately its script is a mess.
The story-telling's often convoluted (especially the "lava lamp" part of the story), characters (like Leon Vance) make such dumb decisions (the director of NCIS falls for the CIA- trick. It's one of the most known cliches in the book) and the humor as well doesn't land most of the time.
Overall, a very disappointing season premiere to one of my favorite shows.
4/10 HK
Overall, a very disappointing season premiere to one of my favorite shows.
4/10 HK
A poor beginning to the season
LittleStorpingInTheSwuff26 September 2018
Warning: Spoilers
Gibbs and McGee look like they are just going through the motions of acting.
As for Vance. Seriously? His smug look and comment about his 'close up' not only put the terrorists on alert, it nearly got his daughter killed as well. Not very smart for the director of NCIS. And don't try to bush it off as if he was 'under stress and not thinking clearly'. He was thinking clearly enough when he blinked out his message. Oh, and he also fell for the fake CIA agent trick as well.
Like a previous reviewer, I'm wondering if this will the final season.
As for Vance. Seriously? His smug look and comment about his 'close up' not only put the terrorists on alert, it nearly got his daughter killed as well. Not very smart for the director of NCIS. And don't try to bush it off as if he was 'under stress and not thinking clearly'. He was thinking clearly enough when he blinked out his message. Oh, and he also fell for the fake CIA agent trick as well.
Like a previous reviewer, I'm wondering if this will the final season.
It forgot to go away after season 12
fjmetro19 March 2019
Hmmmmm.........................
colinshallcross27 September 2018
this series was over several years ago
sandcrab27711 January 2019
Trite, overdone and very stupidly directed ... i dl'ed the first episode of season 16 to see if there were cast changes ...not so this series is now in the toilet for real fans... producers and writers have lost their minds along with the audience ...farewell
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