NCIS was obviously a great success, lasting a whopping 23 years. It owed that success to things like fairly good character development, several likeable and charming characters (Gibbs, Mallard, Palmer, McGee, Bishop, Vance, and Torres, to name a few), and (mostly) believable Navy-oriented plot lines. Sure, it had a number of downsides, such as a few UNlikeable characters (Shepard (ugh!) and Sloane, for example), as well as the over-the-top goriness of the autopsy scenes. But, overall, it was a charming, entertaining show for most of its run. Two of the NCIS characters now star in the tie-in (and I use the term very loosely) show, NCIS: Tony & Ziva. In the original series, Tony was an urbanely suave, yet fun character. He injected a good bit of low-key humor into the show. Ziva, on the other hand, was not very likeable -- always too serious and wooden. The writers tried to make her more charming, mainly via "Isn't it hilarious how Ziva botches English idioms all the time?" -- but it rarely worked. In the new show, NCIS: Tony & Ziva" they are *both* rather wooden and humorless. They have very little of the chemistry that was given them in the original series. The plots seem contrived and the dialog poorly written. And don't get me started on the profane language that thankfully never appeared in the original show! I guess the show runners wanted to make it "edgy", but it falls completely flat and out of character. Paramount, you can do better! On the plus side, the new show exhibits some decent cinematography, exotic locations, and pretty good chase scenes. They add some interest. But overall, the new show is a flop -- almost painful to watch. It is more highly rated on IMDB than it deserves, but reading the reviews reveals that is primarily due to rabid fans of the original series who've been dying for another spin-off and will praise anything even vaguely related to NCIS. I've granted three stars mainly for the cool location shots.

See other user reviews