NCIS: Sydney - Season 1

In my review of the first episode of NCIS Sydney, I wrote that the show showed promise, but wasn't quite there yet. The remainder of the season manages to reach some of that potential.

NCIS Sydney is the latest NCIS spinoff. Not produced by CBS (the American network that produces the rest of the franchise), but by the Australian Network Ten. This time, the main team consists of a mix of NCIS agents stationed in Sydney, and Australian Federal Police (AFP) agents. The AFP is represented by Jim ‘JD’ Dempsey (Todd Lasance, Spartacus) and Evie Cooper (Tuuli Narkle, Bad Behaviour) and NCIS by agents Michelle Mackey (Olivia Swan, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow) and DeShawn Jackson (Sean Sagar, Fate: The Winx Saga). These four field agents are supported by medical examiner Dr. Roy Penrose (William McInnes, The Time of Our Lives) and forensic scientist Bluebird ‘Blue’ Gleeson (Mavournee Hazel, Neighbours).

The first episode has the two groups working together on a high profile case, which leads to good results. The higher ups decide that they should continue like that, and NCIS: Sydney is born. In the episodes that follow, we get to know different sides of Sydney and get to know the team somewhat better. As in the original NCIS, most episodes start with a body being found, and end with finding the culprit(s).



I personally liked the middle episodes a lot better than the first and last one. The first felt a bit like they were trying too hard: they wanted to make clear who everyone is (in quite stereotypical ways), show how Australian everything is, and how cool helicopters are. The episodes that follow have less of that forced feeling. A bit less pressure, I suppose. Sadly, the pressure returns in the final episode, presumably because they wanted to have a really cool season finale. So they again pull every stereotypical ‘intense’ thing out of a hat and try to mix it into some type of episode. Sometimes less really is more.

Another case of ‘too much’ is the character of Blue. She is stereotypically both a brilliant scientist and insanely awkward. Her scenes are supposed to be funny or endearing but are just annoying. They tried to mix Abby and Eric (NCIS and NCIS: Los Angeles), and failed at both.

If they figure out what to do with Blue and worry less about being ‘cool’, this could find its place in the NCIS universe

Besides that pet peeve, there are some other minor nitpicks. Some of the acting is a bit wooden, although this improves as the season progresses. There is a sort of will-they-won't-they thing going on between two members of the team and they could have tuned that down a bit. The bickering is fun, the rest was not as necessary.

Besides these things, the rest of the season is quite enjoyable. The cases were interesting enough, especially when they related to Sydney or Australia. After all, that is what makes a crime show like this good; the same formula with some new gimmicks. I liked seeing a bit of the different sides of Sydney, while not forcing it too much; in a ‘show, don’t tell’ kind of way. The actors seem to be having fun, which helps a lot. It's not an innovative series, but it also does not pretend to be. The producers have said in interviews that they are trying to mimic the other NCISes as much as possible. As said before, this is more successful in some episodes than in others.

For a crime show it does perfectly well what it's supposed to do. If they manage to figure out what to do with Blue and worry a bit less about being ‘cool’, I could see this find its place in the NCIS universe.