NCIS Hawai'i Review

Hi World,

Okay, four episodes in, I am not very impressed with this show. So far, the show feels like filler. Filling the hole left by NCIS: New Orleans - in the franchise - and by Hawaii Five-0, in the studio facility. And frankly, I'm not that invested in the characters either. I liked the New Orleans team, I cared about them and wanted them to be survive. Taking a closer look....

• Tennant: Somebody on the staff is a closeted Doctor Who Fan.
  
• Brooks: Sigh. Waiting for the reason why he left Washington DC. Feels like it's going to be a Grover clone. Some horrible mistake, some horrible disaster.
• Kai: The whole "I don't want to be here, but I have to be for my family." motivation is cloned straight from Danny Williams. Mix in Junior Reigns family problems and you are done.
• Ernie: Cliche, techno guy. Box ticked (To keep the social justice crowd happy.)
  
• Lucy: Mandatory lesbian character. Box ticked. I have no zero issue with lesbian characters. As long as the writers don't use the lesbian part as a get-out-jail free card for sloppy and one-dimensional writing. (For a well written lesbian character, see Tammy G. from NCIS: New Orleans.)

It also doesn't help that the show is trying very hard to deny that it is part of the larger Lenkov/NCIS-verse. It's like a child sitting at an embarrassing Thanksgiving dinner, with it's fingers in it's ears, going "La, la,la, I'm not part of this family, I'm not part of this family, I'm not part of this family !!!" And not fooling anybody. 

How To Fix it

1. Character Development, character development, character development ! If by the end the of Season 1, these characters have not gone from their current raw state to more fleshed out, this show is o...v...e...r. (It'll go the CSI: Cyber route and burn after two seasons. At most.)
   
2. Embrace the fact it is set in the Lenkov/NCIS-verse. Do cameos and guest appearances. And not just from the NCIS shows. Do that Magnum PI crossover. Have Five-0 characters appear. Maybe score some point with MacGyver fans - who are still pissed that their show was cancelled - and have the Phoenix Foundation team appear. 
3. Compensate for the lack of a backdoor pilot by doing a flashback episode to show Tennant arriving/taking charge. And explain what happened to that NCIS Agent Emma Warren. (From Hawaii Five-0 episode 9x06.)
   

Regards,

Ruben A. Hilbers