{"id":5550,"date":"2026-05-06T04:11:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T04:11:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/5550\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T04:11:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T04:11:07","slug":"ncis-sydney-season-3-episode-18-review-setupy-setup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/5550\/","title":{"rendered":"NCIS: Sydney Season 3, Episode 18 Review: Setupy Setup"},"content":{"rendered":"

NCIS: Sydney<\/a>\u00a0Season 3, Episode 18 \u2018Rough Diamond\u2019 is another one of those episodes of the show that\u2019s okay, moves the plot along a little, but ultimately probably won\u2019t make any Top 10 lists. On procedurals such as this one, you need these kinds of episodes to build up characterization, and we do get a fair bit of JD\u2019s dating life and Mackey\u2019s relationships with everyone on the team, but there\u2019s very little else outside of that.<\/p>\n

Well, except for that ending and what it sets up for the final two episodes of the season, which will air together.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s actually not that surprising to learn we\u2019ll go back to Mackey and this Lee Meyers business. In fact, I was kinda surprised we got into it earlier in the season, because I was sure it was going to come to a head in the finale. Apparently, I was still right. We just got the Trey part out of the way. Now comes the team part?<\/p>\n

MORE:\u00a0Is\u00a0NCIS: Sydney\u00a0going there with Mackey and JD<\/a>?<\/p>\n

SETUPY SETUP<\/p>\n

As mostly a setup episode, \u2018Rough Diamond\u2019 works pretty well, if nothing else, because we already like these characters. Of course, the problem with having a longer season for this show is that, inevitably, we end up with many more episodes that feel like filler than previous seasons had.<\/p>\n

Of course, I\u2019m on the record as being a fan of these kinds of episodes, in general. There\u2019s a lot of character building that goes on in these kinds of hours, and in this case, team building. The show has the tall order of making sure we understand not just the dynamics between the partners, but the dynamics of the entire team when they\u2019re all together. Without hours like this one, we don\u2019t have that. And when we don\u2019t have that, the individual episodes don\u2019t hit nearly as hard. <\/p>\n

But that doesn\u2019t mean I\u2019m not ready to get into it, particularly after a couple of \u201cfiller\u201d episodes back to back. And though I\u2019ve enjoyed this show having more episodes, if there\u2019s any show I believe can actually tell a good story in 10 episodes, it\u2019s this one. So, I\u2019m not taking the reduced order as a bad sign. We started Season 1 with 8 episodes, and here we are! And this still plenty of story to tell.<\/p>\n

MORE:\u00a0Here\u2019s\u00a0how to watch every\u00a0NCIS\u00a0show in order<\/a>!<\/p>\n

Things I think I think:<\/p>\n

Do Mackey and JD come to work together? Where do they meet up? They\u2019re always walking in at the same time! How do they time it?<\/p>\n

I\u2019m even more lost in this emoji conversation than the characters. Maybe I\u2019m old.<\/p>\n

Who breaks up via emoji? Truly, who does? Are you a monster?<\/p>\n

JD doesn\u2019t actually seem that broken up about being dumped. A hit to the ego and nothing else?<\/p>\n

I like it when Mackey calls JD \u201cJim\u201d because she doesn\u2019t do it all the time, and she doesn\u2019t do it to everyone.<\/p>\n

Blue, baby, I love you, but please stop giving advice based on your one class.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour life will be so much happier with no one else in it.\u201d OUCH.<\/p>\n

\u201cGood cop or bad cop?\u201d<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s be honest, Mackey is bad at good cop.<\/p>\n

\u201cD, grab E.\u201d Again, Mackey with the nicknames.<\/p>\n

But JD gets to be Jim sometimes.<\/p>\n

\u201cGet it out of our system?\u201d You mean you still haven\u2019t? What are we doing here?<\/p>\n

Go away, FBI lady.<\/p>\n

Agree? Disagree? What did you think of NCIS: Sydney\u00a0Season 3, Episode 17 \u2018Rough Diamond\u2019? Share with us in the comments below! And if you have your own opinion on the show, leave a review\/rating on our\u00a0NCIS: Sydney\u00a0hub<\/a>!<\/p>\n

NCIS: Sydney\u00a0airs Tuesdays at 10\/9c on\u00a0CBS<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NCIS: Sydney\u00a0Season 3, Episode 18 \u2018Rough Diamond\u2019 is another one of those episodes of the show that\u2019s okay,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5551,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[6917,6918,247,6919],"class_list":["post-5550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sydney","tag-cbs","tag-ncis-sydney","tag-sydney","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5550\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}