NCIS: Los Angeles
CBS | Release Date: September 22, 2009
CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
59
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 24 Critic Reviews
Positive:
13
Mixed:
9
Negative:
2

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
Los Angeles TimesMary McNamara
Season 1 Review: Writer and executive producer Shane Brennan has worked on "NCIS" for years; he knows what he's doing and how to do it well; the casting is solid, the crimes international. What's not to like? Read full review
75
People WeeklyTom GliattoMar 10, 2011
Season 2 Review: Both shows [NCIS and NCIS: Los Angeles] have an old-fashioned but relaxing simplicity, with an upbeat emphasis on the value of being a team. It's family entertainment. [21 Mar 2011, p.43]
75
Entertainment WeeklyLeah Greenblatt
Season 1 Review: The plot bats at logic like a cat toy, but the experience is still slickly entertaining. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesPaige Wiser
Season 1 Review: The nonstop action lulls you into kind of a pleasant daze--as if Cool J were saying to the screen, "Sit back and relax, ma'am, you're in good hands." It's certainly not brain food, but I'll be back for a second helping. Read full review
70
VarietyBrian Lowry
Season 1 Review: The series can at best be lauded for its efficiency and at worst be chided for resorting to the convenient fallback of Mexican drug lords as its initial heavies. Read full review
70
Boston GlobeMatthew Gilbert
Season 1 Review: It’s all about the crimes, the technology, the guns, and, mostly about not having--or wanting--to think too much. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterBarry Garron
Season 1 Review: NCIS: L.A., like its parent, relies on a sturdy, mostly youthful cast, sporadic action, and sprightly dialogue. Read full review
70
The New York TimesMike Hale
Season 1 Review: While the new series may not stand out at this point, it’s already a better-than-average cop show, well paced, with reasonably snappy and believable dialogue. Read full review
70
Pittsburgh Post-GazetteRob Owen
Season 1 Review: O'Donnell and LL Cool J form an easy alliance that's filled with lighter moments of humor even as they investigate a plot that's decidedly obvious and unsurprising. Read full review
70
TV Guide MagazineMatt Roush
Season 1 Review: An efficient if predictable procedural that arrives on the scene after last spring’s two-part “backdoor pilot” with plenty of fistfights and gunfights and the sort of jovial camaraderie that endears classic NCIS to its millions of fans. Read full review
70
Washington PostTom Shales
Season 1 Review: It isn't innovative or brilliant, but there's some kind of joy to be had from watching the parts of the machine fit together just right and operate slickly and smoothly. Read full review
70
Philadelphia Daily NewsEllen Gray
Season 1 Review: I've seen just enough of "NCIS" to appreciate its appeal, which I suspect lies in casting and character development (combined, of course, with occasional explosions of action). Those elements appear to be part of the DNA for NCIS: Los Angeles. Read full review
63
USA TodayRobert Bianco
Season 1 Review: It's a serviceable hour that takes the NCIS formula--a light tone and a lot of banter wrapped around a fairly rudimentary investigatory plot--and transfers it to a special, undercover NCIS division in Los Angeles. Nothing more, but also nothing less. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsDavid Hinckley
Season 1 Review: It all adds up to an hour of decent entertainment, and there's room for enough character development to give NCIS: Los Angeles a personality of its own. Read full review
58
Entertainment WeeklyDarren FranichOct 25, 2010
Season 2 Review: It's business as usual--sun-drenched cinematography, mysteries solved by security cameras, and characters so paper-thin that one angry glare from Mark Harmon's blue eyes would tear them in half. [22/29 Oct 2010, p.105]
58
NewsdayVerne Gay
Season 1 Review: It's a Pre-Cambrian specimen that crept out of the primordial ooze of TV past, with a rhythm so profoundly familiar that if you happened to fall asleep during the first few minutes and woke up for the last, you'd be able to mentally reconstruct the entire program from scratch. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleTim Goodman
Season 1 Review: What NCIS: Los Angeles does well is what all CBS procedurals do well--bring mostly believable, semi-pulse-pounding justice to bad guys by the end of the hour with some action, a dose of humor and the weekly, methodical unpeeling of each character's private onion skin. Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerJonathan Storm
Season 1 Review: It's slightly less entertaining than the moderately entertaining original, with a far-fetched connection that these undercover wonders somehow have something to do with the Navy, which is the "N" in NCIS, and who really cares what the "CIS" is? Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMaureen Ryan
Season 1 Review: I have nothing against procedurals per se, but all this rather soulless copy has going for it is the jaunty performance of LL Cool J and a fairly efficient tick-tock plot. Depending upon your mood or preference, that may be enough. Read full review
40
Miami HeraldGlenn Garvin
Season 1 Review: It's a drab third-generation clone (a spinoff of the original NCIS, which in turn was a spinoff of JAG) of a show from the shallow end of the TV gene pool. Read full review
40
Newark Star-LedgerAlan Sepinwall
Season 1 Review: Most of the humor feels like a show that’s trying too hard, except when we’re watching the great-yet-tiny character actress Linda Hunt as the boss of NCIS’s Los Angeles field office. Read full review
40
Wall Street JournalNancy DeWolf Smith
Season 1 Review: Ms. Hunt gets some humorous lines, and the banter between partners Callen and Hanna can make them seem like a new-age Starsky and Hutch. Read full review
25
Slant MagazineKris King
Season 1 Review: It's an overused premise dressed up with new cars, bright sun, and cool shades. Read full review
20
PopMattersLesley Smith
Season 1 Review: One could watch NCIS: Los Angeles. But one could also watch paint dry with far less pain and no less gain. Read full review
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