Note: This post is a criticism of NCIS:LA as an episode, NOT of the actors which I respect.
Last year after falling in love with NCIS I decided to give NCIS:LA a try. It seemed interesting and as a spinoff of NCIS it simply had to be good. I watched the first few episodes and liked them at first but my liking very quickly developed into annoyance. The characters seemed so unreal, there were at least 10 people killed in every episode, the banter felt forced, the technic doo-dah was way too much, the action sequences were way too rehearsed, the storylines were way too unreal and the episodes didn´t leave anything behind.
Every time I watch an NCIS episode it leaves something behind, it keeps me wondering. I can watch NCIS over and over again but never NCIS:LA. Yet I decided to go through with the entire 1st season and I lived it through (in TV terms that is). I should have stopped watching but there was something about it as an TV show that kept me coming back.
I gave 2nd season a go and was pleasantly surprised to note that they had improved drastically. The banter was now fun to watch, the storylines were often intriguing and the characters were getting more nuanced and developed. I "fell in love" with Deeks the second he hit the screen and he´s now my favorite character. As a series it had spectacular cinematography and I love being able to get a view of LA. However, what pulled me to the series again was the fact that finally the characters were emerging on their own. Kensi finally stopped being only like a Superwoman and instead turned out to be a realistic woman with her own personality and stories to tell. She finally became interesting as a human being. Hanna and Callen toned down their Superman duo and became individual characters that had distinctive personalities. Deeks emerged as the glorious, incredibly human cop and kept my giggling with his offhand comments and felt genuinely interesting as a person. Hetty also turned out to be human (big surprise to me!). And Eric and Nell were still as human and relate able as ever.
The storylines were getting more and more interesting. The whole deal with the black book was curious and had me guessing. But the icing on the cake was the Deeks storyline where he gets shot. That episode was the first one that genuinely affected me and showed the character´s human side, especially Kensi whom I started to enjoy a lot more after that episode. And I started to love the humor in the series, it´s sparse but they definitely have their moments of great wit.
Right now the show is in it´s 3rd series, I am still following it and will continue to do so. The vast improvement that happened in season 2 has continued and now the series is genuinely enjoyable. It´s not deep, it´s not realistic but it´s enjoyable and infinitely better that most of the crap shown on TV these days (CSI
f.ex.). And as a series, it keeps me guessing and keeps me entertained.
So dear NCIS:LA. I am here to stay :)
And just to be clear - I respect the actors and enjoy their work. They do good with what they get.
