NCIS: Los Angeles - Breach

Network: CBS
Time: Tuesdays, 9:00-10:00pm
Cast: LL Cool J, Chris O'Donnell, Daniela Ruah, Peter Cambor, Barrett Foa, Adam Jamal Craig, Linda Hunt

Summary: When a petty officer is murdered, the team finds a link to Sam's past.  Meanwhile, Hetty examines how her agents are coping with the stress of the job.

Review: NCIS: Los Angeles has the unfortunate tendency to have one really great episode and follow it with a mediocre episode.  It's one of the hazards of a new drama--it's still testing the waters, seeing what it can get away with and what is just out of its reach.

This was an out of its reach day.

I don't know which part was the worst.  Perhaps it was the unnecessarily complicated storyline.  Perhaps it was the three or four names that sounded exactly the same, making it nearly impossible to tell who was responsible for what.  Perhaps it was watching the normally wonderful dialogue between the characters degenerate into something forced and uncomfortable.  Whatever it was, NCIS: LA was just not on its game this week.  I watched the episode twice before I wrote this review to try to understand the case, and I never quite got there. 

That's not to say this episode was without its merits.  I enjoyed the interaction between Callen and Hetty in the last five minutes of the episode more than almost any other moment on the show, even if it was a little corny.  And Sam had a nice storyline involving a Sudanese boy who he'd helped (even if that part didn't end exactly the way I'd have hoped).

I missed my characters.  Sure, they were still there, but this episode focused almost exclusively on the case, and not enough on the characters.  We're not at a point yet with the Los Angeles team where the writers can focus solely on a case.  Character development is important, especially in the first season.  If the characters aren't being affected by the case, why should I care about it?  And, in this episode, only Sam (if anybody) was affected at all, and even that was minimal.  I want them to develop the team more, especially the supporting characters (Eric, Kensi, Dom, and Nate).  I know enough about Callen and Sam right now, but I haven't really formed attachments to anyone else for reasons other than the ones I've created by having an overactive imagination and a lot of free time to think about them.

Overall, I had trouble focusing on this one because it was too complicated, and I didn't have a reason to care because the characters didn't seem to be personally affected by anything that was happening.  I've really liked NCIS: LA so far, but there are times when it's really hit or miss... and this week was a miss for me.

Rating:
[5] Excellent
[4] Good
[3] Average
[2] OK
[1] Bad

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