Identity

I'm not sure if this spinoff is going to match the consistent quality and viewer appeal of the original NCIS, but Chris O'Donnell is making his mark as Callen. He has firmly grasped the character, putting behind him the golden-curled ingenue whose integrity and human sensitivity we saw playing against Al Pacino in "Scent of a Woman". That was a a career-defining performance, since the film was essentially a solo piece for Al Pacino, but two supporting actors, Chris O'Donnell and Gabrielle Anwar, were sufficiently strong in their support that their efforts were as memorable as Pacino's. (Can anyone who has seen the film hear the tango "Por una Cabeza" and not see immediately in their memory that beautiful scene where Anwar dances with the blind Pacino?) But maybe Chris O'Donnell hasn't changed much after all. That previous character was marked by integrity and human sensitivity: perhaps the change is just that he is no longer an ingenue.

One of the best pilot episodes I've seen. The show didn't go over how the individual members met just got right into the case. The story was well written and the cast is good and the show was great. NCIS Los Angeles I think is better than the original.

Yes this is one of the best "pilots" I've seen, although I would argue that the real pilot occurred on the flagship series introduction of the Los Angeles team.

The writing was mostly strong, but one of my first impressions from this debut is the characters. I would definitely not fool around with Callen or Hanna or Kensi for that matter. And Hetty is just Hetty. Nate is good but not quite the same class as the others.

One of my complaints with the original NCIS is how completely they almost always devolve into juvenile behavior. What happens in the office remains in my mind when they go into the field. Gibbs and Ziva are the only ones I really respected, although Knight is close. This debut kept the juvenile stuff a little more subtle. I actually like the interplay between Sam and G because I don't feel like it distracts them from the danger, at least not yet.

For a while in this episode it seemed like it was only going to be serious crime drama, but later in the episode the family humanity vibe that NCIS always has became clearer.

My only criticism is that I never bought into how they were going to approach the bad guy. A twist explains some things and is actually pretty good.

Acting A- Characters A+ Story A- Dialog A-

Looking back at the beginning of this extremely successful series, it's impressive how NCIS, courtesy of screenwriter/showrunner Shane Brennan so quickly and efficiently establishes the members of the crime-fighting team that will get the job done for 14 years.

The emphasis on technology is clear, moreso than in Mark Harmon's original series, and the distinctive use of black & white stills montages to snappily punctuate the end of a sequence (heading into commercials) is fun, reminiscent of but more realistic than those great "Wild, Wild West" transitions.

The actual case chosen for #1.1 is hardly earth-shaking, but a TV perennial has begun. Only sad note: I checked and per IMDb Brennan's only new TV project since was a 2017 broadcast series version of Sly Stallone's "The Expendables", which never happened.