I’ve been with NCIS since ’05, when my dad walked into my room after the season two finale and said “you need to watch this.” I did, and since then have been hooked on the adventures of Gibbs and his ever-changing team. My love of the procedural genre has never been hidden, but NCIS is one that I love just a little more than the others, mostly because it’s one of the few that I get to enjoy with my dad every week…at least that’s what my phone bill says every 15 minutes between 8 and 9PM every Tuesday. But my affection for the show has not blinded me to the fact that it hit a plateau around season five. It’s not that the show got bad in any way, but it stopped improving. Basically, it found its voice and decided that it was a good place to stay. And you know what, the numbers agreed with that judgement as it’s still the highest rated scripted show on television across all demos. However, in yesterday’s season premiere, something happened. Something that made me wonder if Chas. Floyd Johnson and Shane Brennan walked into the writers’s room this season and said “you know what, they’re gonna tune in no matter what we do, so why don’t we have a little fun.” There’s an extremely fine line between pushing things to new ground and jumping the shark. And based on the season nine premiere, it appears that NCIS wants to try walking it.

Headstrong Sylvia (Tricia O’Kelley) loses it on-screen during her Wacky Weather Girl segment after finding her co-worker Sherry’s (Kaitlin Olson) panties in her live-in boyfriend and fellow colleague’s (Mark Harmon) dressing room. Unhirable in her profession, she is forced to start over by crashing with her brother and waiting tables until she gets back on her feet.