NCIS: Los Angeles



NCIS: Los Angeles is an American television drama that aired on CBS since September 22, 2009. This was a spin-off series of NCIS.

On May 6, 2020 CBS renewed the series for a twelfth season

Summary
In the first spin-off of "NCIS," the show is about undercover surveillance agents at the Office of Special Projects division of NCIS apprehend dangerous and elusive criminals that pose a threat to the nation's security.

Main

 * Chris O'Donnell as Special Agent G Callen
 * LL Cool J as Special Agent Sam Hanna
 * Daniela Ruah as Special Agent Kensi Blye
 * Barrett Foa as Eric Beal
 * Eric Christian Olsen as Marty Deeks (Season 2-current)
 * Renee Felice Smith as Nell Jones (Season 2-current)
 * Linda Hunt as Henrietta "Hetty" Lange
 * Miguel Ferrer as Assistant Director Owen Granger (Season 5-8, recurring previously)
 * Peter Cambor as Operational Psychologist Nate "Doc" Getz (Season 1, recurring thereafter)
 * Adam Jamal Craig as Special Agent Dominic Vail (Season 1)
 * Nia Long as Shay Mosley (Season 9-10)

Extended/Recurring

 * Claire Forlani as Lauren Hunter (season 3)
 * Rocky Carroll as Leon Vance
 * Andrea Bordeaux as Harley Hidoko

Development
Special Agent G. Callen was initially a CIA operative created by Shane Brennan for a series that was never produced. After taking over show runner duties previously held by Donald P. Bellisario on NCIS, he used the potential of a spin-off to bring his story to fruition.

Brennan intended for the series to hold a Miami Vice-esque vibe through its two co-leads, Callen and Agent Sam Hanna. However, the character of Lara Macy was written to serve as a parallel for Gibbs, the lead of the original NCIS team. Macy was portrayed by Louise Lombard in the backdoor pilot, but she was not featured in the actual spin-off, and Brennan was able to produce the show as he originally envisioned it.

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 OSP: Office of Special Projects, NCIS: OSP and NCIS: Undercover. 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. This episode served as a backdoor pilot for the series, in a manner similar to the way NCIS was introduced by way of a two-part episode of JAG.

Critical response
"Identity", the series' first episode, garnered 18.73 million viewers with a 4.4/11 share in the 18- to 49-year-old demographic and therefore won its timeslot. It was the second most watched show of the week, behind only the original NCIS.

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." 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."

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." 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." 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." 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.