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.
NCIS: Sydney Season 2, Episode 8 Relies Too Much on Its Vampire Gimmick
The Episode Doesn’t Work as a Standalone 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.
NCIS: Sydney Season 2, Episode 8 Survives on Mackey and JD’s Banter
Olivia Swann and Todd Lasance Carry the Episode
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 guest characters — and they balance out the corny jokes coming from the rest of the team. The contrast between JD and Mackey’s banter and the remainder of “Blood Is Thicker Than Vodka” highlights why this episode doesn’t work at all. In NCIS: Sydney Season 2, Episode 2, “Fire in the Hole,” the pirate concept was a bit cheesy too, but what kept it from feeling gimmicky was that the underlying dynamic between Evie Cooper and DeShawn Jackson felt genuine. Mackey and JD don’t have any emotionally moving bits here, but at least viewers can tell how close they are, albeit through JD making a big mistake.
Michelle Mackey (to JD): I’m a cop. You should try it sometime.
In fact, it feels like there’s a missed opportunity for Dempsey. He makes an early reference to living in a friend’s garage, and that line is just begging NCIS: Sydney to circle back to the serious side of Mackey and JD’s friendship — the one that included her opening up to him about her son in the Season 2 premiere. These two characters can deeply connect with each other, and their partnership is the foundation of the show. But there’s no meaningful character development in Episode 8 amongst the collection of vampire archetypes and jokes.
NCIS: Sydney Desperately Needs New Character Dynamics
The Roles of Each Team Member Have Gotten Predictable
Between Season 2, Episode 7, “Breathless” and Episode 8, it’s very clear that the NCIS: Sydney creative team needs to further develop their core characters. Both episodes show an inability to write the team outside of specific lanes. Once again, JD and Mackey are riffing on one another. Once again, Evie is making jokes at DeShawn’s expense (this time teasing him about being scared of vampires). And again, Blue’s geeky awkwardness is mined for humor. Especially this late in the season — there are only two more episodes left — there should be room for growth or at least the occasional departure. None of these characters seem that much different from who they were in the season premiere.
Along similar lines, this is another episode that has skipped over the ongoing story about Colonel Rankin and who he may be working for. The start of Season 2 suggested that this serialized plot would form the backbone of the cyce, but aside from a few brief mentions, it’s pretty much faded away as the season has gone on. NCIS: Sydney just seems to be having an identity crisis. Does it want to be a more serialized TV crime drama? Or is it more of a light procedural where things are played mostly for humor?
The original NCIS is mostly a crime drama that then has humorous subplots and the occasional comedy episode. NCIS: Sydney is veering back and forth between the two — and it would be a stronger show if it had a clearer idea of its tone and thus could write consistently to that. Season 2, Episode 8 sends the show back over to the comedy side, and not very well at that.
NCIS: Sydney airs Fridays at 8:00 p.m. on CBS.