User Reviews

They tried, and for the first Ep under these circumstanes I think they did ok. At least they didn't resort to "ripping from the headlines" and just bombard us with depressing covid, racial, violence and fear that's coming at us all day in real life. I did think they very end was pretty bad though - Callen's line to the 2 Russians - about "let's go and order tacos - for 3" - so bad it made me laugh - and that's really not such a bad thing, these days.

A decent start to the new season, but I feel like given the premise there was potential for a lot more action around the whole Russia issue. They just didn't live up to the expectations I had.

My wife and I love this show, and so happy to see original program instead of reruns. A great deal of effort went into making this production mask free... almost like covid doesn't exist. Not everyone will think this is good, but I for one is tired of masks everywhere. Remember, the show is fiction.

Great to see everybody back. And I love this show normally. But not this one. The main plot, the missing Russian Bear, is not well developed in this first episode of the new season Why did the plane go down in the first place? Why was it so close to American air space? Who was the "defector"? And why? Why the father and son? Why was that part important? Whole thing was like a bunch of tiles thrown on the table, not well connected at all. Disappointing

I was expecting to see the "...to be continued..." end card at the conclusion, but no. so many unanswered questions...why was the crew except the pilot knocked out? why were members of the crew shooting at each other? callen's remark that "it was a training flight" explaibs nothing. the ep waaay below standards.

and..can we puhleeeese dispense with, eliminate and otherwise drop the Arkady Kolcheck character from the cast? he never added much but he's become a cartoon character.

I realize the studios are dealing with a lot to try to get new episodes back on the air, but this episode was just a mess. Some of the issues:

1.Time wasting scenes. For example, the scene with Arkady. It served no purpose to the plot beyond provide an improbable name and code word for the team to bribe a Russian operative, and the scene was a way too long time waster. Obviously its main purpose was to fill air time. The idea that they could bribe a Russian operative for the information about the crew of the bomber with just a 3 minute conversation with a homeless man is absurd.

Second example, the long, over long, helicopter search looking at mountains and valleys with nothing happening.

2. The main plot element was the Russian bomber crew passing out, and the plane dropping below radar, and finally found having landed in a remote area. And yet, this plot was never resolved. The reasons, etc., were merely speculated on by our heros, but nothing resolved. Why was the Russian crew engaged with a gun fight among themselves? Again, speculation, but no resolution.

And, what's with bringing back Nell, no longer an employee of NCIS, and yet she is in charge? Ridiculous. And, we are to believe that the Russians would buzz US airspace with a novice crew on a training mission? Again, ridiculous.

I got the distinct impression the script was unfinished, had no ending, was rife with absurdity that should have been corrected in re-writes, but was rushed into production anyway with time-wasting scenes used to consume the required air time.

This was pretty close to the worst episode in this series, and I've seen them all.