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Sometimes the pleasure of TV can come from the thrill of novelty, the attention-grabbing new show that’s unlike anything you’ve seen before. And sometimes the pleasure can come from the comfort of the familiar: a series that dutifully delivers exactly what’s expected.
NCIS, the enduring drama series about the investigation of crimes involving US naval personnel, sits firmly in the latter category. What it lacks in buzz-worthiness it delivers in the rock-solid reliability of a formula honed over decades that’s won a global following.
Mackey (Swann) and JD (Lasance) face off over who gets to investigate the death of a US sailor in NCIS: Sydney.
Arriving in 2003 as a spin-off from JAG, another military-themed crime series created by Donald P. Bellisario (Magnum P.I., Quantum Leap), NCIS has spawned spin-offs in Los Angles, New Orleans and Hawaii. The most recent offshoot, the first outside the US, is in Sydney, a city tailor-made for the role.
Neatly side-stepping a potential obstacle, that members of the naval criminal investigative service can only operate on US soil, creator Morgan O’Neill (Les Norton) has two American agents required to join forces on a case with officers from the Australian Federal Police. And with that, he also gives the writers a handy culture-clash element to play with. Which they do, early and often.
The opener introduces gung-ho Michelle Mackey (Olivia Swann) and her more empathetic offsider, DeShawn Jackson (Sean Sagar). They’re paired with the AFP’s Sergeant Jim “JD” Dempsey (Todd Lasance), a surfer with a laidback manner and a sharp mind, and Constable Evie Cooper (Tuuli Narkle), a sassy single gal relishing her “hot years”.
She’s also good at her job, as all the law enforcers on this show are: no slackers or slouches in this bunch. Technical back-up is provided by perky brainiac forensic scientist Bluebird “Blue” Gleeson (Mavournee Hazel) and gruff pathologist Dr Roy “Rosie” Penrose (William McInnes). Following a brief showdown between Mackey and JD over who gets control of what, they’re ordered to play nice and work together.
While some series thrive on unpredictability, NCIS relies on a rigid format that ticks along with Swiss-watch precision. Within minutes of an episode’s opening will come a left-field entry to a case: a couple of blokes fishing or a group preparing for a swimming lesson stumbling on a body, which will have some connection to the US navy. Or a member of the team caught in a volatile situation.
Then the crew swings into action armed with wisecracks and large chunks of technical talk pertaining to things like geolocation discoveries, phone-tracking data, CCTV footage, gun types and wounds. There might be shots of a corpse on a lab table. At some stage, some of the fit investigators could chase suspects down streets or through industrial areas, and perhaps race up stairs or leap over fences.
Finally, due to the winning combination of technical wizardry and cluey crime-busting, a knotty puzzle will be solved, a culprit apprehended, and the team will smile knowingly at each other and triumph to fight another day. A guarantee of closure, that this will be a self-contained story resolved within a TV hour, comes with the territory.
It’s possible that you could watch the same episode again in a year and have no memory about who did what or why, and it kind-of doesn’t matter. What does is the way that the team works together and the assurance that they’ll solve the case. These are not the kind of crime stories that keep you awake at night, troubled by depictions of people’s viciousness and cruelty.
William McInnes, Sean Sagar, Tuuli Narkle, Todd Lasance, Mavournee Hazel and Olivia Swann in NCIS: Sydney.Credit: Daniel Asher Smith/Paramount+
Little emotional investment is required. Viewers don’t know the victims before bodies are discovered and feel little attachment to them. They’re a necessary piece of the puzzle.
The compact, eight-part Sydney season could be seen as testing the water, taking advantage of the exchange rate and keeping things in the family as the Ten Network is a Down-Under branch of the Paramount-CBS empire. On the basis of the company’s crowing about the initial response to the spinoff, early signs are encouraging.
In Australia, it’s the most-watched local series since the Paramount+ launch in 2021. Given that viewers would’ve known what they were in for, it’s reasonable to assume that they’ll stay tuned because they’re unlikely to have been disappointed.
NCIS: Sydney is slick, pacey and faithful to the format. Shot in bright colours under sunny skies, the city looks snazzy and provides a spectacular setting. For the benefit of the US market, it’s depicted as beautiful, exotic and slightly scary, a foreign destination that’s comfortingly familiar as a version of English is spoken, yet also a place abundant with threat. Early episodes manage to squeeze in deadly snakes, a shark attack and talk of venomous spiders.
The harbour and beaches prove magnetic for the producers. Of course, there’s the iconic bridge and if you started a drinking game involving shots of it, you’d be blotto by the end of the first episode. Beyond that, early episodes take in Woolloomooloo, Bondi, Maroubra, Malabar, The Rocks and Watson’s Bay, while NCIS HQ is established at the Walsh Bay piers.
Much is made of the culture-clash. After the foursome is established, the initial wariness gives way to respect and the type of camaraderie necessary to sustain the banter that’s key to the show’s tone. JD dubs Mackey “Macca”, because he’s Australian and we habitually assign nicknames as a sign of acceptance and affection.
Meanwhile, the sometimes-bewildered Americans try to get their heads around the local customs, humour, dialect and coffee preferences, and the Aussie vernacular is laid on with a trowel.
JD remarks that someone’s “telling porky pies” and someone else is “taking the piss”. He also explains to Macca that “septic”, in the local rhyming slang, means American: septic = septic tank = Yank. This might also be news to some locals (I’m one of them).
NCIS isn’t a franchise famed for its subtlety or surprises, and fans know that. The Sydney spin-off delivers exactly what’s expected, albeit in a spiffy new setting and with jokes about white-tailed spiders.
NCIS Sydney is on Paramount+
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