I’m not gonna lie to you — it’s the former. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, so long as the buddy cops are enjoyable … that’s kind of where things get dicey for me.

They just lost me last night. I don’t know — something about the show just refuses to engage me. Which is too bad, because as its individual parts, the show has a ton of merit. It’s the sum of those parts that left me wanting for more.

The focus of the week was Special Agent Sam Hanna (LL Cool J) … really? He’s great, and all, but is that what they wanted to tell us about him? That as a former Navy S.E.A.L. he’s a closed book? I thought it could have been an interesting opportunity for Hanna to discover something about the new him who’s now an NCIS agent, but his self-exploration never got off the ground. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m proud to say that I went into last night’s premiere episode of NCIS: Los Angeles with absolutely no preconceived notions, or with my mind made up one way or another. Yes, I saw and did not enjoy the two NCIS spin-off episodes last season, but my feelings there were mixed in with the fact that I felt it was detracting from the original. But this stand-alone show will make its own survival decisions from now on.

In fact, the only thread back is Director Vance, who is of course the director of all of NCIS, so were he not to be included it would make no sense. Nice work by Rocky Carroll collecting two paychecks! The show added a number of additional cast for the premiere, including Linda Hunt as Hetty, quirky wardrobe master/guru/house mother/who knows what, and Adam Jamal Craig as a cooler version of NCIS’s McGee.

And away we go! Read the rest of this entry »

Strangely enough, in all these years, I’ve never caught a full episode of NCIS. I really liked JAG when it first came on and I generally like Mark Harmon, so I’m not sure why it never graced my screen. When I heard they were making a spin-off starring Chris O’Donnell (my gimme) and LL Cool J, I couldn’t wait to check it out (and now I’ve seen the pilot). With that star power, there had to be something good going on, right?

[What? You don't know what a gimme is? You all have them. In the event I meet Chris O'Donnell someday and he wants to sleep with me, I have permission to do so. He's been my gimme for about 15 years ... Keith's changes with the wind.]

It will be interesting to see what NCIS fans think of this show, but I’m hoping some non-fans will give it a try, because it works for me on a number of levels.

Read the rest of this entry »

They say that procedurals repeat really well, and after looking at the lineup for this evening, I wonder if that’s because they are the only shows that networks show in repeats. It’s Wednesday night and there’s no Lost, I just can’t get on board with that. I can’t be the only one that would watch the whole season again in repeats, right?

• CBS kicks off the night with repeats of The New Adventures of Old Christine and Gary Unmarried. They finish off Wednesday with a couple of those patented CBS procedurals: Criminal Minds and CSI: NY.
• NBC has two Law & Order repeats after I’m a Celebrity (boy networks throw that word around pretty liberally these days).
• If you love reruns of reality shows then the CW is the place for you tonight: America’s Next Top Model is followed by Hitched or Ditched, with the fun starting at 8.
• TBS has a run of Tyler Perry’s House of Payne starting at 8.
• TNT has two episodes of Bones followed by a repeat of Leverage (a very quotable episode, as Debbie pointed out in her review).
• If you didn’t have enough procedurals to choose from: USA has three repeats of NCIS starting at 8.

We all knew this was coming, right? Since the first spin-off launch episode a few weeks back, the inevitability of our NCIS agents tangling with the venerable Israeli intelligence agency was obvious. Particularly after last week’s ending, which saw DiNozzo (who, according to his own estimation, is “scrappy”), shoot and kill Mossad Officer Michael Rivkin (Merik Tadros).

I was kind of hoping that Oded Fehr (Sleeper Cell) would pop up and infuse the episode with some authentic Israelis; instead, we got the butchered accents of a bunch of American actors, Ziva (Cote de Pablo is Chilean), and Arnold Vosloo, the South African best known by me for his turns on Chuck, and 24. The show’s linguistic advisors have always been so so, and this time, when really pressed to make a go of both the language and culture of Israel … let’s just say there was a lot of hit or miss.

As there was with the title of the episode, “aliyah.” The word is used in reference to going to Israel; the idea that you literally “go up”, either because the country’s mountainous regions are so high above sea level, or, more spiritually, because you’re ascending in holiness. Last night, the word was used in reference to Ziva’s return to serving her country. While the term is used in reference to people who move to Israel, for they are retuning to their land, its not really applicable here. Okay. Read the rest of this entry »

A bit of a dicey question, that. Over the course of this past week, conversations have abounded about the new NCIS spin-off, a show that utilized the previous two episodes of NCIS to potentially launch itself onto the new CBS fall lineup.

Much of the discussion has focused on Grey’s Anatomy’s spin-off, Private Practice, as well as on NCIS itself, product of good old JAG. Which one did a better job? Forgetting about the obvious success of one over the other (not naming names), each show attempted to go about birthing their progeny in a different way.

For JAG, it was the old introduce new characters during an episode (Gibbs, Ducky and Abby), who will later helm the new series. For Grey’s Anatomy, it was send a character (Addison) to a new location and have them move there for their new show.

Read the rest of this entry »

First of all, let’s get this out of the way: to Dorv, Ryan, and cj, I have heard you. Actually, the entire neighborhood has heard you. For those of you not in the know, apparently to some I approached the first part of the NCIS spin-off launch episode from an already negative bias. I walked in convinced I wouldn’t like it, and I walked out proven correct.

Okay, I get it. So, over the course of the past week I did my penance. I searched deep within myself, to find that place in my heart where no outside influences reach, where even a bad experience last week couldn’t affect how I perceived the second half of the episode this week. And, I’m happy to report that I arrived at a better place; I found my Zen. It was hidden, but it was there. Somewhere behind the huge chunk that is my son (he’s about to turn one!), I found a sunny place that, most likely, has been reached by his giggles and waddles, and as a result, put me in a great TV-watching mood.

And you know what? Read the rest of this entry »