SPOILER ALERT: The following contains spoilers for NCIS: New York Season 1, Episode 1.
The new NCIS spinoff NCIS: New York is clearly a star vehicle for Sam Hanna as LL Cool J, and in that sense the CBS show’s premiere works. As a new addition to the franchise, the jury’s still out. The pilot very much looks and feels like a pilot, with no sense yet of what this show has to offer that NCIS: Hawai’i or any of the other spinoffs didn’t.
The Hawai’i comparison is relevant with Sam having been added to that show shortly before its cancellation. CBS has been working to find a place for him, and that’s become giving him his own series. The NCIS: New York pilot thus has to pick up where NCIS left off in explaining why Sam comes back to his home state, which logistically means everything else bends around him. That approach works better here than in the NCIS Season 24 premiere, because this is supposed to be Sam’s story. That’s the biggest hook for NCIS: New York at the moment.
What “Pilot” does not successfully do is establish why Sam—and by extension the audience—should care about the newly created characters. None of them stand out beyond typical crime drama archetypes; that’ll hopefully change in Episode 2 and beyond. But the first impressions aren’t strong, except for Power Book IV: Force star Shane Harper getting to flex his range by playing a character completely opposite to Vic Flynn. Scott Caan gets the most screen time as the episode focuses on setting up a double act between him and LL Cool J, yet his character Nick Schaeffer is similar to the characters he’s played in Hawaii Five-0 and Alert: Missing Persons Unit. Jacqueline Byers’ character Addy Ross is another “tough female” character, and Jennifer Beals is underused as supervisor Robyn Wells. Anyone who watched The Chicago Code knows that Beals can play an incredibly poised and powerful cop, but in “Pilot” she’s mostly just giving orders.
It’s particularly frustrating to see the character of Sean Sullivan, the team hacker. Not only does the character fall right into the “tech geek” stereotype, being literally described as “weird,” but the other characters speak to him as if talking to a child. It’s not clear if either Sean has some sort of extenuating circumstance that affects how he interacts with people—which would further play into the archetype that tech expert characters are socially abnormal—or people are just talking down to him. Either way, the character sticks out like a sore thumb.
Again, it’s entirely possible these criticisms get rectified in a few episodes, now that the exposition about how Sam joins the team is out of the way. This is not the first pilot to feel more like an explainer, and it won’t be the last. Even the scene in which Nick convinces Sam to stay with the squad feels clunky; it seems more like a casual conversation than a potentially life-changing moment. But there’s more potential here than NCIS: New York lets on. It has to find a reason to exist beyond Sam Hanna—what can the franchise do in New York that it couldn’t do in any of the other cities? Or is it a style or writing choice, similar to how NCIS: Origins is more character than case-driven? Something has to pop, but this premiere is more of a blueprint for the rest of the season than an exciting debut.
NCIS: New York airs Tuesdays at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT on CBS. Photo Credit: Courtesy of CBS.
Article content is (c)2020-2026 Brittany Frederick and may not be excerpted or reproduced without express written permission by the author. Follow me on Twitter at @BFTVTwtr and on Instagram at @BFTVGram. For story pitches, contact me at tvbrittanyf@yahoo.com.
