Tonight, we finally get to meet the characters that would lead that NCIS spinoff we’ve been hearing about for months. NCIS exec producer Shane Brennan gave EW.com an inside look at the two-part episode "Legend" (CBS, April 28 and May 5, 8 p.m.), which finds McGee and Gibbs heading to Los Angeles for a joint investigation with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service’s Office of Special Projects (OSP). Its agents, led by Chris O’Donnell and LL Cool J (pictured, filming with Sean Murray and Mark Harmon), specialize in undercover ops. Check out our photo gallery and Brennan’s commentary, which includes detailed character descriptions and, of course, a teaser for the "Tiva" story arc that will carry through the season’s final four episodes (and season 7 opener).
We (and Brennan) won’t know if the sister series is a go until CBS announces its fall schedule on May 20. In the meantime, we thought we’d guage your interest in the spinoff before tonight’s episode (vote in the poll below), and again tomorrow morning when we meet back on PopWatch to dissect "Legend (Part 1)." As of now, I’m hoping for a greenlight. Brennan assured us the spinoff would be different than NCIS: "There’s no Ducky. There’s no Abby. They don’t find a dead body at thebeginning of every episode. This is about life undercover; surveillanceand countersurveillance." He also said there’s a mystery with O’Donnell’s character, Special Agent G. Callen, that we’d only get to explore in the spinoff: ”It’s Special Agent ‘G.’ Callen. We don’t know what the ‘G’ standsfor. Callen doesn’t know what the ‘G’ stands for. He doesn’t know hisfirst name. He doesn’t even know who his family is. Only a few peopleknow the truth about Callen. Anyone who calls Callen ‘G’ must besomeone that he trusts.”
Vote now. Dissect tomorrow.
this show sucks just like every other drama on CBS… for years, I thought this was JAG.
I love how everyone forgets about the fact that NCIS is, in fact, a spinoff of JAG.
I followed NCIS when it was spunoff from JAG and am willing to do the same for this new show. The premise actually looks interesting. At least Shane Brennan is avoiding the CSI: *insert city here* trap. It’ll be military related just like JAG and NCIS, but NOT the exact same formula. Kind of refreshing actually.
I’m with Pam! People forget that NCIS is itself a spin-off! Personally, I’m happy to give this new show a chance! I hope it’s as good as NCIS is.
COOL J HELL YEAH!!! FINALLY!
Oh God, that premise sounds like a horrible juxtaposition of everything that clicks in the ratings. It’ll be a huge hit.
My insane love of LL Cool J, plus nostalgia for Chris O’Donnell(remember when he was in the 3 Musketeers? I loved that movie) makes me hope this 1)is good and 2)gets picked up.
I love NCIS so hopefully the new show will be just as exciting. Spin off or not it should be given a chance.
Don’t know about everyone else, but I loved the spin-off!!! Thought the characters were all great, and were completely different from the all too fabulous NCIS!!!
I was a little disapointed at the lack of Abby, I think they could have incorporated her a little more.
I loved when Tony went to Ducky and was talking about Ziva and there was that professional vs. personal question moment…
Is it just me or did Tony look…idk…hurt maybe? when he stared at that screen of Ziva going into the ambulence? anyone else see that or am I just imagining TIVA??
The (sort of) ending was awsome!!!!!!!! Could it be that Micheal was actually under cover himself, that’s why he came up as… what banker? acountant? anyway… during the photo search thing, and maybe mossad and NCIS are going to clash making Gibbs and Ziva go to Isreal to sort something out?
Anyway… to summarize this all… I was very impressed with the spin off.
I thought the spinoff cast and the episode with them the other night was crazy boring! Usually I love NCIS, but was kinda disapointed! Maybe I just need to watch it again!
Last night was boring – great effects with finger operated TV’s (just like the weather channel) an loads of monitoring cameras and mic’s but no sublety, no mind games – NCIS by itself is far superior. Too much directed at younger people using games machines who cannot think for themselves.
Paige, Paige, Paige, NCIS is a spinoff of JAG, but I don’t have any idea how you thought NCIS was JAG, they are so different from each other. Although JAG was a good show, NCIS is a much better show.
Yes I would love to see this spinoff. JAG was great, and I had my doubts about NCIS. Now I know NCIS is better than JAG was and it better come back!!!! Anxious to see the spinoff!!
There’s no option for “Don’t really care” on the poll? I’m an NCIS fan, but the reason I love it is the chemistry of the cast/characters. I will watch the spin-off for at least a few episodes to see if it can capture that chemistry, but if it doesn’t make the schedule, I’m fine with that as well.
It’s very hard to do yet another show about shadowy government agents who are too cool for the rules because they’re too young to know that all this crime-fighting and counter-espionage is the same few plots over and over. Like men boasting about practically anything (football, fishing, fighting), it’s not “look, I caught a fish” or “I scored a touchdown,” it’s HOW the INDIVIDUAL did it. It’s the story and the characters that provide the sizzle in the steak. It the narrative about hitting a WALK-OFF grand slam in the bottom of the ninth, with two outs and a full count in game 7 of the world series. It can even be about seeing your first pro baseball game when you were 8, and first laid eyes on one of the heros of the game, in a stadium that was so big, it took your breath away. You can get those stories from actors like Mark Harmon and others who have some real life experience to draw on. The sense I got from the intro to the new people is that they’re too green to be convincing.