After five seasons in which NCIS garnered ever better ratings, someone [CBS? NCIS: LA creator Shane Brennan] had the bright idea, “Why don’t we make a spin-off/companion series?” And so, in the fullness of time [or about a month before the end of the seventh season, take your pick], NCIS ran a two-part story, Legendary, that introduced an east coast-based team out of the NCIS Office for Special Projects – which would’ve been highly rated and made that spin-off happen even if the two-parter hadn’t ended with one of the LA team riddled with bullets in the final few minutes.
Now, we’re through the first season of NCIS: Los Angeles and the series has shown itself to be a worthy companion to its mother series. Unlike the mothership, NCIS: LA deals less with procedural matters and more with undercover work and surveillance. This team isn’t confined solely to dealing with Naval and Marine matters – its very nature leads into opportunities to deal with international terrorists, for example. There is also more opportunity for action set pieces – especially car chases, though there are more than a few gunfights and more personal physical confrontations.
All of these are components in a puzzle that is surprisingly deep. Take that nigh-unto-mortally wounded operative from the NCIS cliffhanger, G. Callan [Chris O’Donnell]. That he’s a tough sumbitch is apparent – he did survive having his chest stitched with gunfire. As the series progressed, we learned that he’s a multi-lingual chameleon, slipping into any role as easily as we might change jackets. Then we learn why he’s so good at that – he has not idea who he is! In a very real sense, NCIS: LA is about G.’s search for his identity. No wonder G. is a pessimist…
Then there’s G.’s partner, Sam Hannah [LL Cool J], and ex-Navy SEAL. As much as G. needs to know who he is, that’s how completely sure of his identity Sam is [as Brennan points out in the features, when you want to be the kind of man who can handle being a SEAL, you have to really know who you are, just to survive!]. Because of this, Sam is also a much more positive guy than G.
The rest of the team includes psychologist Nate Getz [Peter Cambor], tech wizard Eric Beal [Barrett Foa], multi-linguist Kensi Blye [Daniela Ruah] – who knows more languages than G. [and is just as good in a fight] and rookie agent Dominic Vail [Adam Jamal Craig]. Overseeing the operation is Henrietta “Hetty” Lange [Kinda Hunt] – who might be even more of a mystery than G.
The first season was notable for several reasons, not the least of which was this: most series take the better part of a season to find their legs; their identities, while NCIS: LA was rolling almost be the end of their first season premiere. Another noteworthy decision was to kill one of the team during the season, thereby establishing their mortality and disrupting the kind of surrogate family that the team had become.
Episodes dealt with many of the same topics we’ve seen before – drugs, murder, terrorism – but they all arose organically out of the nature of the NCIS Office for Special Projects and the unique combination of characters that formed the nucleus of the series.
In a way, the characters can be distilled to their essence thanks to a quote from G., “Sam sees the glass as half-full; I see it as half-empty – that’s why we make a good team. Kensi, on the other hand, just drinks right out of the bottle; Nate wonders why it has to be a glass, and Eric usually breaks the glass by putting his feet up on the table.”
NCIS: Los Angeles works – almost as well as its mother series. I enjoyed it as much as NCIS! Not bad for its first season.
Features: Audio Commentary [One, singular – give more next year, Me. Brennan!] – series creator/showrunner Shane Brennan for Identity; Seven CBS Promos; LL Cool J Music Video [NCIS: No Crew is Superior]; Making of NCIS: No Crew is Superior; Inspired Television: NCIS: LA; The LA Team: Meet the Cast and Crew; Inside the Inner Sanctum: The Set tour [actually a very good tour – no two-minute drive-by here]; Do You Have a Visual? Inside the Ops Center, and Lights, Camera… ACTION! The Stunts of NCIS: LA.
Grade: NCIS Los Angeles: The First Season – A
Grade: Features – A
Final Grade: A