NCIS: Los Angeles

NCIS: Los Angeles (Naval Criminal Investigative Service: Los Angeles) is an American television series combining elements of the military drama and police procedural genres, which premiered on the CBS network on September 22, 2009.^[3] The series airs following NCIS on Tuesdays in the United States.^[4]

NCIS: Los Angeles is the first spin-off of the successful show NCIS,^{[5][6][7][8][9]} itself a spinoff of another CBS series, JAG. On October 7, 2009, CBS gave the series a full-season pickup, extending the first season to 22 episodes.^[10][11][12] The season was extended again on November 4, 2009, when CBS announced its order for an additional two episodes.^[13]

The second season began airing on September 21, 2010.^[14] On May 18, 2011, CBS renewed the series for a third season.^[15] On August 18, 2011, CBS announced that the series would crossover by having Daniela Ruah guest star as Kensi Blye on Hawaii Five-0.^[16] On January 11, 2012, CBS announced that the series would do a second crossover with Hawaii Five-0 by having Daniel Dae Kim and Scott Caan guest star on an episode in May.^[17]

On March 14, 2012, CBS renewed NCIS: Los Angeles for a fourth season.^[18] Deadline.com reported on November 5, 2012 a possible spin-off of NCIS: Los Angeles, which "will feature new characters who will be introduced in a two-part episode of NCIS: LA later this season".^[19] On February 6, 2013 Miguel Ferrer was promoted to a series regular for the next season.^[20] On March 27, 2013, CBS renewed NCIS: Los Angeles for a fifth season. The fifth season premiered on September 24, 2013.

Premise

The series follows the exploits of the Los Angeles–based Office of Special Projects, an elite division of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service that specializes in undercover assignments.

Production

The show was known as NCIS: Legend while in production (referring to the episodes of NCIS in which the spin-off was introduced), and other names considered included NCIS: OSP (Office of Special Projects) and NCIS: Undercover.^[9] Filming started in February 2009, with the characters being introduced in the two-part NCIS episode titled "Legend", the first part of which aired on April 28, 2009.^[9][21] This episode served as a backdoor pilot for the series, in a manner similar to the introduction of NCIS, which was introduced by way of a two-part episode of JAG.

Chris O'Donnell plays the lead character, G. Callen, the Special Agent in Charge of OSP, whose natural talent for undercover work is legendary.^[22] LL Cool J plays the role of Senior Field Agent Sam Hanna, a former Navy SEAL, who is fluent in Arabic and an expert on Middle Eastern culture.^[8] Daniela Ruah plays Junior Special Agent Kensi Blye. Adam Jamal Craig playing rookie field agent Dominic Vail was credited as a regular through the first dozen episodes of season one, but was subsequently written out of the show,^[23] and the character was killed off in episode 21. Eric Christian Olsen plays LAPD Detective Marty Deeks, the team's liaison with the Los Angeles Police Department. Olsen appeared in two episodes of the first season as a guest star, and joined the cast full-time in season two as Craig/Vail's replacement.

Peter Cambor plays Nate Getz, the team's operational psychologist, who supports their missions through surveillance and profiling of targets and ongoing monitoring of the OSP team members' mental health. Cambor was listed as a main cast member throughout the first season, but was downgraded to recurring status at the start of season 2 appearing in four second season episodes to-date: the first, third, fourteenth, and eighteenth episodes.

The cast is rounded out by Linda Hunt playing the OSP's operations manager Hetty Lange, a legendary former intelligence agent with a mysterious past, and Barrett Foa as Eric Beale, the team's tech operator and resident geek. Beale was joined by intelligence analyst Nell Jones (Renée Felice Smith) in season 2.

Louise Lombard, who had originated the role of NCIS operations manager Lara Macy in the back-door pilot, was not picked up as a regular in the new series, and the character was killed off during an episode of NCIS.^[24][25][26]

Rocky Carroll, who plays Director Leon Vance on NCIS, appeared in six of the first 13 episodes.^[27][28] He made a seventh appearance in "Hunted". Vance appeared in the season 2 finale and season 3 premiere.

Cast

Regular

Recurring

Other

Reception

"Identity", the show's first episode, garnered 18.73 million viewers with a 4.4/11 share in the 18–49 year old demographic and therefore won its timeslot. It was the second most watched show of the week, behind only the original NCIS.^[29]

Reviews for the show have been mixed. It has a score of 59/100 on Metacritic. According to Mary McNamara of the Los Angeles Times, "The crime is intriguing and multifaceted, its resolution requiring a nice balance of street smarts and lots of gunfire. But as with the original "NCIS," the emphasis is on the characters of the team... Los Angeles, meanwhile, looks fabulous, a pleasing mixture of noir and gridlock, and there's an air of stability that's comforting in these uncertain times."^[30] The New York Daily News reviewer, David Hinckley, was more critical of the show saying that although "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, ... a premiere episode shouldn't feel even a little like something we've already seen."^[31]

Tom Shales of The Washington Post felt that, "NCIS: Los Angeles gets the job done ... It's a procedural that follows strictly the established procedure, but it has likable characters, dislikable bad guys and the occasional flabbergasting shot of L.A."^[32] Robert Bianco of USA Today summarized it as 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."^[33] The Hollywood Reporter compared the show to The A-Team with "the same lighthearted approach to life-or-death situations. Maybe the biggest change is that 'NCIS: L.A.' achieves its inevitably favorable outcomes with a little more intellect and a little less testosterone."^[34] IGN stated that although "NCIS: Los Angeles doesn't exactly reinvent the police procedural... it's another above-average entry, aided by the fact that the people behind the show know what they're doing" and ultimately gave the episode a 7.7/10.^[35]

Ratings

Seasonal rankings (based on average total viewers per episode) of NCIS: Los Angeles on CBS.

Note: Each U.S. network television season starts in late September and ends in late May, which coincides with the completion of May sweeps.

Awards and Nominations

Episodes

Note

Spin-off

On November 5, 2012, Deadline.com reported the first news about a spin-off of NCIS: Los Angeles titled NCIS: Red. The new characters were introduced during a two-parter episode of NCIS: Los Angeles. The spin-off will feature a team of mobile agents, who travel around the country to solve crimes.^[19] TVline reported the five main characters on the spin-off on November 30, 2012: Paris Summerskill, Roy Quaid, Dave Flynn, Claire Keats, and Kai Ashe.^[65]

Edwin Hodge was the first to be cast in the role of Kai Ashe.^[66] On February 6, 2013, John Corbett was cast as Roy Quaid.^[67] That same day, it was reported that Miguel Ferrer would co-star in the spin-off as well as being promoted to series regular for the fifth season of NCIS: Los Angeles.^[20] On February 8, 2013, Scott Grimes landed a series regular role as Dave^[68] and Gillian Alexy was reported to play Claire.^[69] It was announced on February 9, 2013 that Kim Raver had been cast in the role of Special Agent Paris Summerskill.^[70][71] Filming began on February 13, 2013. The episode "Red" introduced the NCIS: RED team and aired on March 19, 2013. The second part, "Red-2", aired on March 26, 2013.

On May 15, 2013, CBS confirmed that NCIS: Red was officially passed on and will not be moving forward.^[72]

References

External links

• Internet Movie Database
• TV.com