- Network: CBS
- Series Premiere Date: Sep 22, 2009
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Critic Reviews
- Critic score
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- By date
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It’s all about the crimes, the technology, the guns, and, mostly about not having--or wanting--to think too much.
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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.
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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.
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The plot bats at logic like a cat toy, but the experience is still slickly entertaining.
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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?
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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?
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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.
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One could watch NCIS: Los Angeles. But one could also watch paint dry with far less pain and no less gain.
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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.
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It's an overused premise dressed up with new cars, bright sun, and cool shades.
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NCIS: L.A., like its parent, relies on a sturdy, mostly youthful cast, sporadic action, and sprightly dialogue.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 52 out of 107
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Mixed: 17 out of 107
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Negative: 38 out of 107
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JoanN.Sep 26, 2009Good actors, but characters and plot uninteresting. Work place too dark and undefined. Not entertaining.
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JudyTSep 22, 2009Just another average TV show. No imagination and generic characters. I don't suspect it will last long.
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Nov 5, 2010