| Welcome to Screen Gab, the newsletter for everyone whose favorite TV genre is the slow burn of middle-aged characters mixed with some espionage frills. (Let's be friends, btw.) |
| The "NCIS" franchise is certainly putting in the work to maintain its grip as one of television's biggest procedural universes. The seventh spin-off to expand the the original series (itself an offshoot of legal drama "JAG") arrived this week. "NCIS: Tony & Ziva" reacquaints viewers with the flagship series' beloved will-they, won't-they pairing, portrayed by Michael Weatherly and Cote de Pablo, and follows their lives since they left the team. The actors dropped by Guest Spot to fill us in on their adventures. |
| Also in this week's Screen Gab, our streaming recommendations include a culinary excursion guided by a Korean crooner and a Japanese actor, and a stop-motion animated getaway populated with Pokémon characters. |
ICYMI |
| Must-read stories you might have missed |
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| Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal in the movie "Hamnet." (Agata Grzybowska / Focus Features ) |
| The six best performances we saw at the 2025 Telluride Film Festival: Several Oscar races sharpened into focus as the Telluride Film Festival, an annual window into the state of awards season, delivered more than a handful of stellar turns. |
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| 'The Paper' is a spot-on commentary about the sad state of American journalism. But you'll laugh: Our critics discuss how 'The Paper' compares to 'The Office,' whether the show captures the current state of journalism and, of course, whether or not it's funny. |
| 'Wednesday' creators explain Season 2's finale, how Lady Gaga was cast and Thing's origin story: Creators and showrunners Al Gough and Miles Millar spoke about how Lady Gaga and "The Dead Dance" got on the show, Wednesday and Enid's friendship, and what we can expect for Season 3. |
| 'Saturday Night Live' announces new cast members for Season 51 after a series of departures: After a blockbuster 50th season, the sketch series added five new cast members to its ranks. |
Turn on |
| Recommendations from the film and TV experts at The Times |
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| A Trubbish in an episode of "Pokémon Concierge." (Netflix) |
| "Pokémon Concierge" (Netflix) |
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| Despite the lingering heat, September marks the end of summer vacation season for many of us. Luckily, we can still live vicariously through the happenings at fictional getaway destinations we watch on TV. My dream out-of-office break would happen at the Pokémon Resort featured in "Pokémon Concierge." Located on a remote island, the relaxation refuge boasts plenty of sunshine, beaches and adorable Pokémon as guests and staff. The cozy stop-motion animated series follows Haru, a recovering workaholic who gets a job at the resort seeking a fresh start. While the humans are nice, the main draw of the show is all the different Pokémon that pop up to be helpful, mischievous and more. The impressively crafted menagerie of puppet creatures are plenty cute even if you don't know your Pikachus from your Piplups. That the episodes also include lessons on self-care, friendship and teamwork is just a bonus. My only complaint is that even with the four new episodes that were released this week, the series, much like vacation, is much too short. —Tracy Brown |
| "K-foodie Meets J-foodie" (Netflix) |
| In this charming mix of "My Dinner With Andrew," "The Trip," "Somebody Feed Phil" and a home movie, sexagenarian Japanese actor Yutaka Matsushige and 40-something Korean pop singer (and onetime bakery student) Si-Kyung Sung meet to eat, learning about each other's food traditions, and about each other, in the process. Unlike many restaurant-based docuseries, which tend to be loud and hectic, letting a taste stand for a meal, this series — filmed mostly in Japan but with trips to South Korea — is slow and quiet and really is about the eating, which takes place in something like real time. Even if the food isn't on your own menu (I haven't eaten a mammal in years), or seems impossibly exotic and confusing, the essential pleasure of the show is in the pleasure the two take in each other's company, sharing favorite flavors. Unusually, the most recent episode features "Wednesday" stars Jenna Ortega and Emma Myers, who, waylaid from a Korean promotional tour, sit in for Matsushige. — Robert Lloyd |
Guest spot |
| A weekly chat with actors, writers, directors and more about what they're working on — and what they're watching |
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| Cote De Pablo as Ziva David and Michael Weatherly as Tony Dinozzo in "NCIS: Tony & Ziva." (Marcell Piti / Paramount+) |
| Absence makes the heart grow fonder, sure. But catching up with Tony DiNozzo (Michael Weatherly) and Ziva David (Cote de Pablo), the on-again, off-again former NCIS agents, will put it through its paces too. It's been more than a decade since the fan-favorite characters from the storied flagship series have appeared together on screen — Weatherly, an original "NCIS" cast member, departed the series after Season 13; De Pablo, whose first appearance was in Season 3, left in Season 11 — but "NCIS: Tony & Ziva" reunites the hard-to-define duo and finds them living a relatively peaceful life in Paris as they co-parent their 12-year-old daughter Tali (Isla Gie) — that is, until chaos strikes and they find themselves in the middle of an international espionage saga that sets them on a high-speed race through Europe. The drama premiered this week on Paramount+ with three episodes; a new episode will drop weekly until the finale Oct. 23. Here, Weatherly and De Pablo discuss revisiting their characters' action-packed lives as parents and how the spin-off compares to the flagship series. — Yvonne Villarreal |
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| What's it like to be working together again? And how did that first day of shooting together go — notice any new quirks in your scene partner? |
| Weatherly: Ahhhh, working together again — it was like a spy movie itself: You meet a conspirator from the past in some smoky Budapest café, only to discover she's learned a few new tricks since the last caper. And by the first day we were clicking (of course) and a little cautious about letting in the laughter that always lurks nearby … it found us soon enough. As for quirks — Cote has acquired a new way of arching an eyebrow that could cut a man in half. Devastating thing, that De Pablo eyebrow. Perhaps motherhood brought this on. Audiences will decide. |
| De Pablo: Honestly, it was like riding a bike. We like to have fun with our scenes, and filming this time around was no different. |
| You're returning to characters you lived in for more than a decade. How was it to get reacquainted with them and to see how they navigate risks with an observant child to now consider? |
| Weatherly: I did feel like some parallel dimension had opened up and there we were, navigating a dream house with a child magnifying the stakes. With Tali, every risk doubles in size and absurdity. You're balancing many perceptions and that, really, was the fun of it all. Perspectives abound on this series! |
| De Pablo: It was something Michael and I discussed a lot. We are both parents and we really wanted to capture the tension and dynamics that parents face in this show. |
| How is "NCIS: Tony & Ziva" different from "NCIS"? |
| Weatherly: If the original was the hearty stew, made with love, this new tale is like a brandy — sharper, hotter and liable to go up in flames at the table. And over-proof. Hence the P+. The + could also mean we've traded fluorescent lights for foreign skylines. |
| De Pablo: Besides the focus being specific to their story, you can really pick this series up without any context of the past "NCIS" stories. We take this internationally and you can really feel the emphasis on that with the locations we filmed in which runs throughout this story. It keeps the action, fun and romance of the original, while tackling heavier life lessons that we might not have had the dialogue and space for a decade ago. |
| Your characters are racing around Europe. The show was shot in Budapest, Hungary, and the Canary Islands, as well as Paris. What's a memory or experience that stands out from filming abroad? Did any place become a go-to spot for you when you weren't shooting? |
| Weatherly: In Budapest we got chased by robot murder cars for days down cobblestone streets (great for ankle flexibility) as the temperature hit oven-like degrees. Shed a few pounds during those episodes. And in the Canary Islands, the Atlantic itself seemed to whisper, "Under the volcano you are, come swim." I listened. I swam. I stayed in quite a few hotels around the island. Amazing days and nights with wonderful people! |
| De Pablo: Paris was the apex location of filming for me. Honestly, filming there among the other places stood out most and is one of the locations I'm most excited for everyone to see us in. The story really has its momentum there too. |
| What have you watched recently that you are recommending to everyone you know? |
| Weatherly: "Slow Horses" [Apple TV+]. "Landman" [Paramount+]. "Mobland" [Paramount+]. |
| De Pablo: I've been loving watching the interviews for "The Roses" and seeing the dynamic with Olivia Colman and Benedict Cumberbatch — them in comedy is such a refreshing watch! |
