| NCIS: Los Angeles | |
|---|---|
NCIS: Los Angeles logo |
|
| Also known as | NCIS: OSP NCIS: Undercover NCIS: Legend NCIS: LA |
| Genre | Police procedural Military Action Drama |
| Created by | Shane Brennan |
| Starring | Chris O'Donnell Peter Cambor Daniela Ruah Eric Christian Olsen Adam Jamal Craig Barrett Foa Renée Felice Smith Linda Hunt LL Cool J |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 3 |
| No. of episodes | 60 (List of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Shane Brennan[1] |
| Location(s) | Los Angeles, California |
| Production company(s) | Shane Brennan Productions CBS Television Studios[2] |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | CBS |
| Picture format | 480i (SDTV), 1080i (HDTV) |
| Original run | September 22, 2009 – present |
| Chronology | |
| Related shows | NCIS JAG |
| External links | |
| Official website | |
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] In the USA, the series airs following NCIS on Tuesdays.[4] In Canada, the show is simulcast on the Global Television Network.[5]
NCIS: Los Angeles is the first spin-off of the successful NCIS,[6][7][8][9][10] which itself was 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.[11][12][13] The season was extended again on November 4, 2009, when CBS announced its order for an additional two episodes.[14]
The second season began airing on September 21, 2010.[15] On May 18, 2011, CBS renewed the series for a third season.[16] On August 18, 2011, CBS announced that the series would cross over with Hawaii Five-0 by having Daniela Ruah guest star as Kensi Blye on the latter series.[17]
Contents |
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.
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.[10] 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.[10][18] 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, a lead agent whose natural talent for undercover work is legendary.[19] LL Cool J plays the role of Special Agent Sam Hanna, a former Navy SEAL, who is fluent in Arabic and an expert on Middle Eastern culture.[9] Daniela Ruah plays an agent named 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,[20] and the character was killed off in episode 21. Eric Christian Olsen plays Marty Deeks, the team's liaison with the Los Angeles Police Department. Olsen appears in two episodes of the first season as a guest star, and joins 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 former agent with a mysterious past, and Barrett Foa as Eric Beale, the team's technical analyst and resident geek.
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.[21][22][23]
Rocky Carroll, who plays Director Leon Vance on NCIS, appeared in six of the first 13 episodes.[24][25] He made a seventh appearance in "Hunted". Vance appeared in the season 2 finale and season 3 premiere.
| Actor | Role | Occupation | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chris O'Donnell | G. Callen | OSP Supervisory Special Agent | Regular | Season 1–presenta[›] |
| Peter Cambor | Nate "Doc" Getz | OSP Operational Psychologist | Regular | Season 1a[›] |
| Recurring | Season 2–presentb[›] | |||
| Daniela Ruah | Kensi Blye | OSP Junior Field Agent | Regular | Season 1–presenta[›] |
| Eric Christian Olsen | Marty Deeks | NCIS / LAPD Liaison Officer | Recurring | Season 1 |
| Regular | Season 2–present | |||
| Adam Jamal Craig | Dominic "Dom" Vail | OSP Junior Field Agent | Regular | Season 1c[›] |
| Barrett Foa | Eric Beale[26] | OSP Tech Operator | Recurring | Season 1a[›] |
| Regular | Season 1–presentd[›] | |||
| Renée Felice Smith | Nell Jones | OSP Intelligence Analyst | Recurring | Season 2 |
| Regular | Season 2–presente[›] | |||
| Linda Hunt | Henrietta "Hetty" Lange | OSP Operations Manager OSP Special Agent in Charge |
Regular | Season 1–present |
| LL Cool J | Samuel "Sam" Hanna[27] | OSP Senior Field Agent | Regular | Season 1–presenta[›] |
| Actor | Role | Occupation | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Louise Lombard | Lara Macy | OSP Operations Manager | Character transferred before series start; found dead in NCIS episode "Patriot Down"a[›] |
| Actor | Role | Occupation | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rocky Carroll | Leon Vance | NCIS Director | Recurring special guest star | Season 1-presenta[›] |
| Pauley Perrette | Abby Sciuto | NCIS Forensic Specialist | Special guest star | Season 1a[›] |
| Brian Avers | Mike Renko | NCIS Special Agent | Recurring | Season 1a[›] |
| David Dayan Fisher | Trent Kort | CIA Field Officer | Guest star | Season 1 |
| Kathleen Rose Perkins | Rose Shwartz | LA Coroner | Recurring guest star | Season 1-present |
| Ronald Auguste | Moe Dusa | N/A | Recurring guest star | Season 1-2f[›] |
| Claire Forlani | Lauren Hunter | OSP Operations Manager | Recurring special guest star | Season 2-3 |
"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.[28]
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."[29] 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."[30]
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."[31] 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."[32] 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."[33] 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.[34]
Seasonal rankings (based on average total viewers per episode) of NCIS: Los Angeles on CBS.
| Season | Episodes | Timeslot (EST) | Original airing | Rank | Viewers (in millions) |
||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season Premiere | Season Finale | TV Season | |||||
| 1st | 24 | Tuesday 9:00pm/8c | September 22, 2009 | May 25, 2010[35] | 2009–10 | #9 | 16.08[36] |
| 2nd | 24 | Tuesday 9:00pm/8c | September 21, 2010 | May 17, 2011 | 2010–11 | #7 | 16.54[37] |
| 3rd | TBD | Tuesday 9:00pm/8c | September 20, 2011 | Spring 2012 | 2011–12 | #5 | 17.01[38] |
| Season | Episodes | Originally aired | DVD release date | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season premiere | Season finale | Region 1 | Region 2 | Region 4 | ||
| Introductory | 2 | April 28, 2009 | May 5, 2009 | August 31, 2010 (includes introductory episodes) |
August 2, 2010 (includes introductory episodes) |
August 19, 2010 (includes introductory episodes) |
| 1 | 24 | September 22, 2009 | May 25, 2010 | |||
| 2 | 24 | September 21, 2010 | May 17, 2011 | August 23, 2011 | August 22, 2011 | September 1, 2011 |
| 3 | N/A | September 20, 2011 | Spring 2012 | N/A | N/A | N/A |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||