NCIS: Sydney

The first ten minutes of episode 1 were painful - a combination of very wooden acting and a lot of over acting as the actors tried to inform you about the nature their characters as quickly as possible.

And they seemed to all be trying to imitate characters from the other NCIS shows to the point that they seemed to be intentionally being parodies of those other characters.

If you ignore the rather silly and cliched story line it did start to get a bit better for the rest of the episode, as the actors settled in to a less over the top approach to their roles.

It is a show that has potential if the writers can come up with original and interesting stories, and the actors stop trying to be other characters and get a chance (if the show lets them) to develop something unique.

But I'm not holding my breath...

I guess because I thought it would get better, AND since there is no NCIS on of any variety I would give it a chance, despite my better logic.

This show is terrible and I feel insulted as a viewer of the NCIS franchise that the writers, producers, all of the powers of this franchise would peddle this to us.

Here's what I do not understand. Why are the ratings for each individual episode in the 7's and 8's and the overall rating for this series is a 5.6...I think.

Where do I start?

*Maybe this is a subjective criticism and I have no issue with the Australian accent but the accents of all the actors is just way to severe. Maybe the producers could have softened it up a bit for us "yanks" to understand.

*Whomever cast the folks in this show did a horrible job. Almost every character is miscast...or maybe it's the writers. The character Michelle, the leader? Has no leadership abilities, her personality is blah, I just don't think she fits the role. I'm trying to figure out DeShawn but his role in this is terrible. Really, do guys in this job act like this, he thinks he's a player and strutting his stuff for Evie or any other female. Evie, she's the worse. Her clothing is totally inappropriate in this setting. She's playing a tough bad ass, oh come on. AND then there's Bluebird. Why do all the NCIS shows have to have someone like Bluebird. Her character/personality worked in the other shows, Buebird is just downright annoying. Doc is believable just difficult to understand and Jim is great, he leads by example.

I guess all the powers to be in this series just stole the NCIS name, there's nothing else familiar here.

Ducky is probably turning over in his grave, and Jethro I have no idea how he would feel but it can't be good with everything he put into this series. I guess that is why he went away...he saw the writing on the wall.

I'm done..

I always give a new show 3 episodes. Of course some are so good you can give a 10 right off the bat.

The best thing about this show, as in NCIS Hawaii, is the scenery! And the accents, as an American I love watching foreign shows especially from the UK and Australia.

The lead NCIS agent, who I don't know from anything else, is a bit of a dud. If you think of the leads in original and even New Orleans you had charismatic actors on well written roles.

Seems like since New Orleans ended they have trying hard to keep franchise going but not doing a very good job of it.

I will give it 2 more episodes but I am not holding out much hope.

The first episode is ok. I like the idea of it being in Sydney and having the opportunity to include Australian actors and to have some of the cultural differences.

I think it can be a good show, they just need time to develop the characters and their back story. The one issue have is with the Michele character, the actress just seems to be ether trying to hard or the writers are really off on who she should be. She's really stiff and uptight, they could be doing it because Sydney is her first command and are going to have her be more relaxed as the season progresses. I hope so, because like I said I think the show has potential.

You shouldn't expect it to be like the original. Mark Harmon isn't even involved in this one.

The stories are improving as they go. If it survives the first season it will be a miracle. We've watched all of the NCIS shows and this is by far the worst.

The lead, Olivia Swann, is AWFUL. She is wooden and what is meant to sound authoritative ends up sounding petulant and rude. She seems incapable of actual emotions. She definitely can't carry this show. Most of the cast are growing on me a bit after several episodes. Still not sure if we'll stick with it but PLEASE get that chick an acting coach.