ROBERT B. PARKER'S BUZZ KILL by Alison Gaylin

© by Gerald So | 6:30 PM

Thanks to Putnam Books, I got to advance review Alison Gaylin's September 10 second Sunny Randall sequel.

NCIS: "A Thousand Yards"

© by Gerald So | 5:30 AM

The NCIS franchise marked 1,000 episodes across its five series with a case of the original that deftly recalled its first. I haven't seen all 1,000 episodes nor all 464 of NCIS itself, but I did watch every episode the first seven seasons. In the middle, sameness set in. How many stories could you tell with Gibbs, Tony, Ziva, and McGee after all? I tuned back in when Bishop joined in Season 11, then again when Knight and Parker joined in Season 19.

One reason the show has run 21 going on 22 seasons is the cast changes. Another is the show has always had characters who span generations and personalities—Gibbs the gruff, taciturn leader; Ducky the garrulous grandfather; Tony the quippy man-of-action; McGee the computer geek; Abby the goth—all working together.

As a BONES fan, too, I was happy to see T.J. Thyne this episode in a guest role. I recently caught a Thyne-specific BONES nod in the NCIS Season 14 episode "The Tie that Binds." Fornell's daughter Emily says she has a boyfriend, Jack, studying to be an entomologist.

O.J. Simpson Dies

© by Gerald So | 8:00 AM

I'm too young to have seen O.J.'s football career, but I admired his sportscasting so much I didn't want to believe he murdered Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman. I say that as someone who, in the course of O.J.'s trial, accepted that he did murder them and get acquitted due to various technicalities his Dream Team of lawyers exploited.

I'm still realizing how much of his image O.J. cultivated banking on fans' admiration, never really telling the truth. As recently as two months ago on X, he denied rumors he was in hospice care, saying he hoped to be back on the golf course soon. Good luck with that.

Even in the wake of his death, people are going easy on O.J. because he was a great athlete, saying there were two O.J. Simpsons. No. There was one O.J. He should've lost all his glamour when he killed Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman, when he went to prison for crimes associated with trying to retrieve memorabilia. However, famous people get the benefit of every break you can imagine. It's why the justice system and the political system are having such difficulty processing Donald Trump, too, who committed enough crimes before our eyes and ears to supposedly have the book thrown at him.