NCIS: LA - Season 1, Episode 2

This show continually gets the "little things" wrong. As the "little things" are common-sense based, they cannot be swept aside. This show only needs writers and consultants, the talent is there. The direction/writing is NOT.

Season 1, Episode 3 treated us to a good special ops hit ruined by the actor wearing a white shirt and slacks as he slit a throat and then walked out of a crowded restaurant.

NCIS was once lauded by none other than Jim Werdell, chairman of Mensa International, as one of the smartest shows on Television--and he's a guy who knows about smart stuff.

I began watching the newest addition to the NCIS Franchise - NCIS: Los Angeles tonight. Only the second episode of the series--the first I have been exposed to--and I was shocked five minutes into it. Actor LL Cool J, playing NCIS Special Agent Sam Hanna, a former Navy SEAL, was watching a video footage of unknown assailants taking out a drug dealer using military tactics who then swam away from a double homicide and theft. Partway through the playback, he stopped and said that he had identified one of the assailants by his use of hand signals, that "everyone does it differently," and that he was able to positively ID the suspect.

The reason I did a double-take is because not only was this statement patently ridiculous, it defies the very nature of military training. Not only do all Navy SEAL teams use the exact same hand signals, they use the same hand signals that the Marines, Air Force, Army, and even the Coast Guard use. In fact, I would bet SWAT teams use the same system as well. The current group of hand signals employed by the military was developed during WWII and hasn't changed much since. The system was codified in FM 21-60: Visual Signals - (my copy is the September 30, 1987 edition), pictured in the upper right and linked to below.

As I alluded to above, all branches of service use this manual, without it, many joint operations would be impossible. Everyone is required to use the same signals, and in the same way to maintain the usefulness of the system. If deviation were allowed, even amongst the branches of service, it would make hand and arm communication impossible--as they would essentially be speaking different (sign) languages. That could result in the deaths of those confused by the signal or those relying on its relay. I can tell you from experience, the military cares little for individualism and variation--everyone does a lot of the same things the same ways, from the way we roll our socks, to the way we are taught to march using a thirty inch step, to how we line up in formation.

One mistake, however blatant, I could overlook, but later in the episode, while SA Hanna is revisiting the crime scene, he runs across an undercover cop and both draw their weapons on each other. The officer identifies himself as "LAPD" and lifts his shirt with one hand to show his badge. LL claims to be NCIS, but makes no move to show ID. Apparently in Los Angeles, a man is still as good as his word, because both stand down. I sure hope the Austin PD requires more than a claim offered at gunpoint to allow armed men to run about through the neighborhoods at night. But while it seemed ridiculous, I can't claim to be an expert at police procedure.

Though there were other bits (such as obvious police brutality in violation of the Uniformed Code of Military Justice that went unpunished) that I had issues with, the biggest goofs were in the last scene. For one, Special Agent G. Callen (Chris O'Donnel) was at a golf course, where they knew a man was coming with an intent to kill him while the rest of the team moved in to take out the dirty cop's accomplice. SA Callen was not wearing a bullet proof vest during this part of the operation. After SA Callen's team took down the sniper, killing him, they just kind of wandered off in order to make the last shot of the scene--leaving the body to be happened upon by whomever. While I will admit admit it was a pretty camera shot, the two twenty-somethings pictured against the lush greens, and while again, I'm no expert at police procedure, both of these actions seem to defy common sense, which doesn't bode well for the series.

It's not the casting, O'Donnel and LL have a decent amount of on screen chemistry and Linda Hunt is absolutely charming, but if ever there was a series in need of a military or police procedure adviser, this is it. The show isn't damaged goods, yet, but if they don't start paying more attention to the obvious, and less to the fancy gadgets and cool scenery, this show won't make it to the end of this season, much less into the next.