NCIS: Los Angeles

Time for a quick TV review. I just couldn’t resist.

I am a big fan of NCIS! Big fan!

Now, NCIS: Los Angeles is a whole different story. 

I just watched the second episode of its first season (after the first one, I wanted to see one more, just in case it was a one time fluke). Oh my!

Ever since the amazing Jerry Bruckheimer (the producer of the CSI franchise, among other hit series) proved that spin offs can actually work and work pretty well at that, the well oiled TV production machine started running on overdrive.

Yet, NCIS LA proves that gold doesn’t just lay around to be picked up.

Here’s how Tuesday nights on CBS are shaping for this season – a big entertainment sandwich where the bread tastes much better than the patty. So, we’ve got NCIS (the original) – still a hit after so many seasons – from 8 p.m. and The Good Wife, which does live up to the original hype – at 10 p.m. And in between comes NCIS Los Angeles. OMG, I just missed my dinner!

For starters, NCIS Los Angeles lacks suspense, intrigue, that spark that makes drama interesting. I am really not sure if this is because of the story line (or the lack of such) or the ridiculous characters that ooze cheese all over the place.

It’s nothing new to see tricky plots – what we think is a clear-cut case starts twisting and continuously leaving us wondering if we, the viewers, know or guessed right who’s the guilty party.

Then there’s the other type of obvious cases when the actual story is about the characters themselves and their interactions with each other.

Either one is fine and they can be as powerful and as engaging as any mystery NCIS: Los Angeles is nothing more than a lame attempt to deliver both suspense and drama that ended up giving us neither.

I am not sure that I even want to mention the, dare I say it, acting!

Excuse me if I am supposed to know some of the “talent” on the show, but their their acting is a lot more becoming of a Dinsey teen movie (sorry Disney), than a prime time crime drama.

I can only give them the benefit of the doubt and suggest that it’s not their acting, but it’s the lines that they have to deliver.

There’s one exception and it’s not L.L. Cool J. – it’s Linda Hunt, starring as the no nonsense office manager/mother Henrietta “Hetty” Lange.

Everyone and everything else is really well below the level that we’ve come to expect from NCIS.

Let’s hope that it gets better as the season goes, but excuse me if I don’t have my hopes up high. Someone has to really let me know if the show improves, because I am not convinced that I neither will nor should spend time to watch it. Maybe a couple of more episodes – for NCIS’s sake.

Disappointing, really.