NCIS: Los Angeles - Episode 4.18/4.19 - Red - Review

Since we have now been introduced to the NCIS: Red team, I feel it apt to give a review of the introduction to the fourth generation spinoff in the NCIS series (JAG to NCIS to NCIS: LA to NCIS: Red).

In Part One, we were introduced to a whole new line of characters. The introduction of Paris Summerskill (Kim Raver), Dave Flynn (Scott Grimes), Claire Keats (Gillian Alexy), Kai Ashe (Edwin Hodge), Danny Gallagher (Kenneth Mitchell and Roy Haines (John Corbett) was incredibly interesting. Already we know some backstory to Paris and Roy, much more of which is likely to be revealed providing CBS pick it up for the 2013-14 season.

The episodes we saw here gave the new team a lot of the screen time. In part one, much of said screen time was alongside the Los Angeles team, or at least some of the team. However, in the second part, Red team got most of the episode by themselves. Despite the show obviously being NCIS: LA, I actually rather enjoyed this presentation. It was much different to 'Legend', which was the NCIS episode that introduced the Los Angeles series. In that episode, there was a whole other storyline going on with Ziva, which took some focus away from the Los Angeles team. Whereas with 'Red', the new Red team got all the focus. I really liked this focus, as it actually meant that we got to know the characters, and they included the type of hilarity and interaction that we may expect from our current set of NCIS teams.

One of the things that I loved, even before these episodes aired, was the return of Kim Raver. I'm not a Grey's Anatomy fan, and so have not seen her in anything since her days as Audrey Raines on 24. And she is still as awesome as she was then. The NCIS LA writers have put a nice spin on her, as she obviously has a complicated backstory. As Hetty said, "Will Paris ever be able to trust herself?". It is likely that this refers to the shooting of Roy, however there may be other events in her history before Red team that would cause this distrust in herself. Despite how much I enjoyed her return, there is a problem I have. She does not look AT ALL confident with a gun. I would hope that Raver can sort that out if NCIS: Red does get picked up by CBS.

Her relationship with Callen has already become interesting. As he pointed out in part one, he hadn't previously met Paris, but the two of them hit it off very nicely. In the first part, Callen seemed to be more interested in her than she did in him, however, in their scene at the end of part two, they seemed to be equally interested in each other, and you could have cut the sexual tension with a knife. Had Roy not come out to tell her that they had a case, and Sam hadn't turned up, I have every reason to think that they may have kissed. As we well know, Callen is a very singular person, and Paris appears to be presented in the same way, making them a good match for each other.  I'm not sure how, or if a possible Callen-Paris relationship would work, but I'd like to see them try. Even Hetty thought something may happen between them, with constant check-ins with the pair to see how they were getting along, and even a slip of the tongue, mistaking Callen for Roy.
 
Then there's Roy. He seems like a nice guy, despite his obvious negative history with Paris. As much as he (and Paris) emphasised that he was only going to be around until Danny recovers, it seems pretty clear that he'll be back no matter what. Going back to his history with Paris, the writers have done quite well to limit how much of the event we have seen. So far, we've witnessed Paris running towards a shot Roy, Paris shooting a hostile who was wearing a bulletproof vest, and Roy, despite being injured, has to save Paris' life. As she told Callen, "It's complicated". I think it's nice that it will play out until the series starts to air, but if it does, I hope they get this out of the way quickly. It would be difficult to have the two work together when we don't really understand why there is all this tension between them from that night.

Now I come onto Scott Grimes and his character, Dave. I really like him. He's sort of similar to Deeks in a way, likes to joke around a bit, with jokes sometimes put on him, but when it comes to it, he can be very serious. This links me well into Claire, as the two seem to work very well together, similarly to Kensi and Deeks. The one notable thing about Claire was her faint Australian accent. Gillian Alexy is an Australian, and so it stands to reason that her character's accent would also be that of an Australian. I liked this addition, as it gives a bit of a change-up from the usual American accent.

Two people we didn't see that much of were Danny and Kai. Obviously Danny was severely injured in the first episode, and so there wasn't much of him to be shown. Personally, I think Kai was underused. When they announced the character names/roles, they portrayed Kai as a computer geek. However, it was very notable to see that Roy gave the GPS information to Dave to figure out. If Kai is meant to be this computer geek, why not task him with this? I thought that was the only flaw in these double episodes.

Overall, I really enjoyed these episodes. It was a big difference from the usual week-to-week episode style, and definitely peaked my interest.

What did you think? Tell us in the comments, or you are welcome to let me know on my Twitter.


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