NCIS: Sydney Season 2, Episode 8 Review: A Murder Mystery That Literally Sucks
JD Dempsey wearing a black suit and Michelle Mackey wearing a black leather jacket from NCIS: SydneyImage created by Morena Perez Vitale/CBR
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NCIS: Sydney Season 2, Episode 8 Relies Too Much on Its Vampire Gimmick
NCIS: Sydney Season 2, Episode 8 Survives on Mackey and JD’s Banter
NCIS: Sydney Desperately Needs New Character Dynamics
The following contains major spoilers from NCIS: Sydney Season 2, Episode 8, “Blood Is Thicker Than Vodka,” which debuted Friday, April 11 on CBS.
NCIS: Sydney Season 2, Episode 8, “Blood Is Thicker Than Vodka,” would’ve been fine if it had aired in October. In April, though, it looks like the NCIS spinoff is trying far too hard to be funny. This tale of modern-day vampires works as a Halloween episode, when viewers would’ve expected the spooky angle as well as the cheesy humor. Without the holiday context to cushion it, it’s just the weakest installment of the second season.
“Blood Is Thicker Than Vodka” is about the murder of Petty Officer Third Class Ezra Stokes, drained of his blood before being found in a coffin. The team only have one set of a suspects: a family who proclaim themselves to be vampires. What follows is the show leaning too hard into its own gimmick, and not spending enough energy on telling a fully developed procedural story.
“Blood Is Thicker Than Vodka” feels like an episode written without looking at the calendar. That’s because it would have been more successful as a Halloween episode. Halloween is when audiences look for stories about vampires and other spooky things, and in general, viewers know that holiday-themed episodes are a little looser and more obvious than normal episodes, because the writing has to bend in order to fit into the theme. Most Thanksgiving and Christmas episodes, for example, jump through some hoops to be especially heartwarming — and no one minds because that’s what they’re expecting to see.
This NCIS: Sydney episode has that same feeling, except it’s several months out of time. And that matters, because the writers go so hard at the vampire concept that it’s incredibly difficult to take this story seriously. There are so many moments that are laughable, and it’s not always clear if they’re intended to be funny or not. When Michelle Mackey and JD Dempsey first go to interview prime suspect Dawn Lazar, she’s at an organ playing the Bach piece typically associated with vampires. In that same scene, the show plays very obvious creepy music as Dawn is talking to each agent, heavy-handedly suggesting that they might be feeling her thrall. And those are just two examples of the script being so on the nose that it gets old fast.
The other problem is that once audiences strip back the vampire idea, there’s not much left. Episode 8 is a fairly flat story about jealousy, as Dawn’s son Nicholai and her “manservant” Atticus are arrested for Ezra’s murder — each unhappy about the attention that Ezra received from the women of the Lazar family. And all of the guest characters are written just as over the top as the jokes, so there’s no reason to care about anything except whether or not the NCIS team closes the case.
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NCIS: Sydney Season 2, Episode 8 Survives on Mackey and JD’s Banter
Olivia Swann and Todd Lasance Carry the Episode
Mackey wearing an olive bomber jacket and JD in a black blazer, walking together in NCIS: SydneyImage via CBS
The sole reason to watch NCIS: Sydney Season 2, Episode 8 is the back and forth between Mackey and JD. Fans of Olivia Swann and Todd Lasance’s characters will enjoy their latest banter, as the subplot is about a practical joke JD plays on Mackey that does not go over well. He digs up an old photo of Mackey as a Goth teenager and the image of “Count Mackula” is shown to the entire group. Though Mackey says otherwise, everyone knows she’s not fine, and so viewers keep waiting to see how she’s going to get back at him. The team somehow digs up an old cardboard standee from JD’s family’s salon, thus equally embarrassing him.
Swann and Lasance have perfected their double act over two seasons, and it shows because their interactions are the best scenes in this episode. Even as the plot gets more and more strange, the way that they react to it at least keeps their characters grounded. They essentially serve as the “straight men” to the outlandish
