NCIS:LA Episode Reviews

Okay, LA fans! Here's your official page to review the latest NCIS:LA. Pass off the URL to anyone curious and get 'em interested! Bad reviews, good reviews, ones that belong in Hetty's magic Iphone, they all go here!

Okay, LA fans! Here's your official page to review the latest NCIS:LA. Pass off the URL to anyone curious and get 'em interested! Bad reviews, good reviews, ones that belong in Hetty's magic Iphone, they all go here!

Reviews for 1.01 IDENTITY-

Reviews for 1.01 IDENTITY-

Overall, I thought the episode rated in at just about 6 stars, pushing for the seven, but not quite getting it. To be honest, I was just waiting for the song and dance routine (Youtube search Daniela Ruah and it won't seem so far fetched) to break out and make this teen-oriented cop show live up to just that. NCIS:LA features a beautiful, if not stereotyped view of the city of Los Angeles as a backdrop,complete with beach diners and terracotta condos. The gorgeous Office of Special Projects headquarters is a cross between an upscale New York penthouse and a full-blown vintage extravaganza, updated to include Smartboards on steroids. If that wasn't hot enough for you, the show's leads, Chris O'Donnell (you remember, Robin!) and LL Cool J are eye candy for the ladies, as well as the cover-worthy basement geeks, who despite being banks of trivia and l337 speak, look amazingly good. For the guys, there's Daniela Ruah (I wasn't kidding about the Youtube search) as Kensi Blye, who despite being played modest, is still sexy as all heck, and the tons of random beach chicks, of course. For everyone else, Linda Hunt (the Oscar winner) plays an incredible inside joke, but with the proper amount of dignity for her not be taken a fool. The dialogue is quick and snappy, although it suffers from being too much of that. In real life, banter does not make up 90% of your conversations, and it shows. The beginning shootout reeks of slick overproduction, losing all capability to shock veiwers or at least astonish us with good filmmaking. Later, an extended fight scene is more Naruto and less law enforcement. For the techies, the OSP is something like a dreamhouse, and the episode even has an accurate description of the latest smartphone, right off the box and given by someone you would have expected to be the dinosaur of the office, no less (but she's not!). The plot isn't nail-biting at all. It's a paint-by-the-numbers and completely predictable story, although the team, on and off camera, make the best of what they have. Also, maybe this is a good thing. All the cases NCIS handles can't have the universe as we know it on the line all the time. Perhaps a solid case is a good place to start. My biggest problem with the episode overall though, was how they handled the Kensi character, who is defintely one of my favorites, though it would be tough for me to make a case. Admittedly, the characters are obviously not trying to break their moulds here, the guys maintain their tough manliness throughout and Hunt's character isn't shown trying to be annoyingly hip with her much younger agents, but come on, just because she's the token girl doesn't mean Kensi has to be the token "girl". Being a woman doesn't mean all we do is give hugs and crazy bond to everyone. Though I'm sure she has feelings, there was no need to have Kensi tear up at the end. It's not as though she was hurt or verbally torn to pieces, for God's sake! To add to all that, she makes a moronic probie-level mistake just for the sake of the plot. Not good. Not good at all. sigh Overall, NCIS LA struck me as the type of mass produced flavour of the week television that will quickly rank among the favorites of teenage boy fans of high-octane blockbusters and girls who love stylish TV they can laugh at, but not feel as though they are being "typical kids" by watching something like 90210. It has a definite appeal for the demographic raised on the Disney Channel and MTV that are now the perfect age for a PG-rated (in Canada) CSI-lite that doles out more of the same. Knowing how loyal that age group gets to be to a brand (see Gossip Girl) NCIS LA at least has a niche they can build on to. Let's keep in mind, this wasn't the first season, it was the first episode, and not at all a bad start. If there wasn't NCIS original to compare this too, I would probably be singing it's praises. So I'll let it run for a bit, seeing as how long NCIS took to get to where it is now. Of course, if Shane Brennan and Co. are looking for a CSI:Miami of their own, that's okay too.

Overall, I thought the episode rated in at just about 6 stars, pushing for the seven, but not quite getting it. To be honest, I was just waiting for the song and dance routine (Youtube search Daniela Ruah and it won't seem so far fetched) to break out and make this teen-oriented cop show live up to just that.

NCIS:LA features a beautiful, if not stereotyped view of the city of Los Angeles as a backdrop,complete with beach diners and terracotta condos. The gorgeous Office of Special Projects headquarters is a cross between an upscale New York penthouse and a full-blown vintage extravaganza, updated to include Smartboards on steroids. If that wasn't hot enough for you, the show's leads, Chris O'Donnell (you remember, Robin!) and LL Cool J are eye candy for the ladies, as well as the cover-worthy basement geeks, who despite being banks of trivia and l337 speak, look amazingly good. For the guys, there's Daniela Ruah (I wasn't kidding about the Youtube search) as Kensi Blye, who despite being played modest, is still sexy as all heck, and the tons of random beach chicks, of course. For everyone else, Linda Hunt (the Oscar winner) plays an incredible inside joke, but with the proper amount of dignity for her not be taken a fool.

The dialogue is quick and snappy, although it suffers from being too much of that. In real life, banter does not make up 90% of your conversations, and it shows. The beginning shootout reeks of slick overproduction, losing all capability to shock veiwers or at least astonish us with good filmmaking. Later, an extended fight scene is more Naruto and less law enforcement. For the techies, the OSP is something like a dreamhouse, and the episode even has an accurate description of the latest smartphone, right off the box and given by someone you would have expected to be the dinosaur of the office, no less (but she's not!).

The plot isn't nail-biting at all. It's a paint-by-the-numbers and completely predictable story, although the team, on and off camera, make the best of what they have. Also, maybe this is a good thing. All the cases NCIS handles can't have the universe as we know it on the line all the time. Perhaps a solid case is a good place to start.

My biggest problem with the episode overall though, was how they handled the Kensi character, who is defintely one of my favorites, though it would be tough for me to make a case. Admittedly, the characters are obviously not trying to break their moulds here, the guys maintain their tough manliness throughout and Hunt's character isn't shown trying to be annoyingly hip with her much younger agents, but come on, just because she's the token girl doesn't mean Kensi has to be the token "girl". Being a woman doesn't mean all we do is give hugs and crazy bond to everyone. Though I'm sure she has feelings, there was no need to have Kensi tear up at the end. It's not as though she was hurt or verbally torn to pieces, for God's sake! To add to all that, she makes a moronic probie-level mistake just for the sake of the plot. Not good. Not good at all. *sigh*

Overall, NCIS LA struck me as the type of mass produced flavour of the week television that will quickly rank among the favorites of teenage boy fans of high-octane blockbusters and girls who love stylish TV they can laugh at, but not feel as though they are being "typical kids" by watching something like 90210. It has a definite appeal for the demographic raised on the Disney Channel and MTV that are now the perfect age for a PG-rated (in Canada) CSI-lite that doles out more of the same. Knowing how loyal that age group gets to be to a brand (see Gossip Girl) NCIS LA at least has a niche they can build on to.

Let's keep in mind, this wasn't the first season, it was the first episode, and not at all a bad start. If there wasn't NCIS original to compare this too, I would probably be singing it's praises. So I'll let it run for a bit, seeing as how long NCIS took to get to where it is now. Of course, if Shane Brennan and Co. are looking for a CSI:Miami of their own, that's okay too.

Sorgiña	Latest page update: made by Sorgiña , Jun 5 2010, 1:24 PM EDT (about this update About This Update Edited by Sorgiña view changes - complete history)
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