NCIS Origins, Tournament of Champions Christmas, Longmire & NFL Talk: Fan Zone
Hello everyone and welcome back to Fan Zone!
Today we’re jumping into:
- our latest TV obsession: NCIS: Origins
- some delicious chaos on Tournament of Champions – Christmas Edition
- a throwback binge suggestion: Longmire
- and a quick hit of NFL updates and TV drama with ESPN & YouTube TV
NCIS: Origins – The 90s Gibbs Era We Didn’t Know We Needed
If you know our Nanny, you know this:
She is hardcore obsessed with NCIS.
She has:
- Binged NCIS from start to finish twice
- First time: solo
- Second time: with Kashmir’s mom
- And that’s how we all got pulled into the universe
But now there’s a new chapter to love: NCIS: Origins.
Why We’re Loving NCIS: Origins
Even if you weren’t super into the original NCIS (🙋♀️ guilty), NCIS: Origins is so good.
- It follows a young Gibbs
- It’s set in the 1990s, which gives it a fun throwback vibe
- We get to meet:
- Lala, a strong female agent who is constantly pushing back against the old-school boys’ club
- A young Ducky, played perfectly to match the original character’s energy
- Gibbs’ boss (we think his name is Stan), who’s hiding a big secret
- The show also takes time to highlight:
- How women were suppressed in the workplace
- How much harder it was back then for them to move up or be taken seriously
There’s already been a huge scare with Lala (they made it look like she might die), and we were not okay with that. She and Gibbs have amazing chemistry, and at one point it almost looked like they might be love interests. But now Gibbs is with Diane, who he later marries in the original NCIS.
We’re also seeing:
- Gibbs processing his family’s death
- Emotional moments with his dad (played by the same actor from Longmire, which we’ll get to 😏)
- Subtle hints that he might be heading toward that whole building a boat in the basement era—right now it’s just wood and tools in his apartment, but we see you, writers.
📺 Where to watch:
NCIS: Origins is streaming on Paramount Plus.
And honestly, you don’t have to be a hardcore NCIS fan to get into it. It stands on its own.
Tournament of Champions: Christmas Edition – Food, Chaos & Savage Judges
Next up in the Fan Zone:
Tournament of Champions – Christmas Edition on Food Network / streaming on Max (HBO Max).
Kashmir got Jackie hooked on this show.
This special version is:
- Team-based – chefs are paired up
- You get duos like:
- Michael Voltaggio and his brother
- Jet Tila (“Yeti love”) finally getting some good team energy backing him up
The Legendary Randomizer
The chaos machine of this show is the Randomizer, and for this Christmas edition they’ve turned it up:
Each round, the chefs have to deal with:
- A savory and a sweet requirement
- A surprise ingredient
- A wildcard ingredient that must be used in both dishes
- A specific piece of equipment
- And a cooking style they have to follow
All while racing the clock. It’s intense.
The Judges: “Gluttons With Standards” 😂
The judges are brutal in the funniest way. They’re like:
“I needed just a *dash more salt.”
“The dish was creamy, but it didn’t feel nutty enough.”
“This texture was right, but the style wasn’t fully there.”
They nitpick every detail, and that’s how the final scores come down.
From what we understand, the winner gets:
- A cash prize (usually around $100,000 in the regular season)
- Plus a donation to charity
This Christmas team format has us wondering:
- Will they still do the usual individual bracket in January/February?
- Or is this replacing it this time around?
Either way, we’re locked in.
📺 Where to watch:
- Food Network
- Streaming on Max (HBO Max)
New episodes drop on Wednesdays.
Longmire: Small Town Sheriff, Big-Time Drama
Nanny recently ran out of NCIS episodes (again), so Kashmir told her:
“You have to watch Longmire with Mom.”
And of course, we had to bring it to Fan Zone, because it’s one of those shows that sticks with you.
What Longmire Is About
Walt Longmire is a sheriff in rural Wyoming. Think:
- Vast land
- Rivers, mountains, and open sky
- Small-town drama with big consequences
The show dives into:
- Life in the sheriff’s department
- The nearby Native American reservation
- Power struggles over a casino
- Old loyalties and buried secrets
Key Characters We Love
- Walt Longmire – quiet, old-fashioned, carrying a lot of grief and guilt
- Vic (Victoria) – his deputy, fiercely loyal, with a lot of unspoken love for Walt
- Henry Standing Bear – played by Lou Diamond Phillips
- Henry is Walt’s best friend, deeply tied to the reservation
- Side note: he plays a Native role here, but in real life he’s Filipino, which cracks us up because people ask the same thing about “Papa” all the time.
We also see:
- The casino being built by Nighthorse
- Walt’s wife, who fought against the casino being controlled by “the wrong” people
- A deputy who works for Walt but is also running against him for sheriff, with a powerful dad backing him
- Walt’s daughter becoming a lawyer and representing the reservation
- Crime, corruption, FBI pressure, and some truly dark villains like Malachi Strand
We joked that just like there’s Trump Derangement Syndrome, Walt has “Nighthorse Derangement Syndrome” because he blames everything on Nighthorse. 😅 But the dynamic between them is part of what makes the show so compelling.
The show also does a great job of highlighting:
- The plight of Native communities
- Complicated jurisdiction issues
- Questions about justice, power, and survival
Without spoiling too much:
The story does wrap up well and feels satisfying.
📺 Where to watch:
- Originally aired on A&E, then was picked up by Netflix
- You can watch it now on Netflix and also find it on Paramount Plus
Quick NFL & Sports TV Updates
We wrapped the Fan Zone episode with a quick hit of football talk and TV relief:
🏈 Note: these comments reflect the standings and news at the time of recording, not current rankings.
- The Patriots were sitting at 9–2, and we were wondering:
“Is the Patriots dynasty back?”
- The Eagles were starting to flounder a bit
- The Rams and Seahawks were looking solid
- Joe Burrow might be coming back to face them on Thanksgiving
- Lamar Jackson had a sore knee but still seemed to be doing well overall
On top of that, we finally got good news on the TV front:
ESPN & YouTube TV Make Up
There had been a dispute where ESPN and YouTube TV weren’t playing nicely, and viewers were stuck without:
- SportsCenter
- First Take
- And other ESPN content
But they eventually worked things out, and we got our sports coverage back.
Kashmir was struggling without First Take. 😂
👉 Want to stay In the Know?
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