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| TV Reviews | |
boys will be boys CBS spinoff is about two buddies goofing around Oct 13, 2009
If that recipe doesn’t seem to add up, neither does the new show. But the cast is decent company, and the mysteries move along so quickly that viewers will probably let the implausibilities slide. Whereas “NCIS” tends to focus on the ensemble’s interaction as they solve cases involving U.S. Navy personnel, the spinoff, airing Tuesdays at 9 p.m. on CBS, spends more time on its two main characters, both agents in the Naval Criminal Investigative Service’s Office of Special Projects in Los Angeles. G. Callen (Chris O’Donnell) is a wisecracking charmer who always needs a shave; Sam Hanna (LL Cool J) is a former Navy SEAL who shaves his head. Fortunately, both actors prove to have enough TV-star power to fill in the blank spaces in their characters or to cover up the inconsistencies. In the premiere, which aired on Sept. 22, Callen seems to be having a difficult time recovering from physical and emotional wounds he suffered in the line of duty; we also learn he had a troubled childhood. His superior, Hetty (the Oscar winner Linda Hunt), after alluding to the fact that Callen grew in the welfare system, asks him what his first initial stands for. “No one ever told me,” he replies. But by episode 2, Callen is all smiles. If he’s not in actual hot pursuit of a criminal or involved in gunplay, he tends to be teasing his colleagues, especially Hanna. Their banter may remind viewers of the ’70s buddy-cop classic “Starsky and Hutch.” When Hanna threatens to end their partnership, Callen says, “You’d miss me. I complete you.” Later, Callen says to Hanna, “You know your ears wiggle when you try to avoid a conversation? It’s kind of adorable.” Since in the three episodes aired so far, neither character has given a woman a second look, it sometimes seems that Callen wants to be more than just good friends. But the show is basically presexual: Most of the excitement revolves around the stuff of the average 10-year-old boy’s fantasies: fast cars, explosions, hand-to-hand combat and cool technical equipment—the team’s computer and surveillance skills put the CTU guys on “24” to shame. The staff features the obligatory babe, an agent named Kensi (Daniela Ruah), but the only time she has come near to having an intimate moment with a male colleague is when she was on a long stakeout with a junior agent, Dom (Adam Jamal Craig), and she told him she was going to relieve herself in the backseat of the car. Linda Hunt’s boss-lady role is an odd combination of Judi Dench’s M and Yoda, if you can imagine either one of them alluding to a liaison with Frank Sinatra. Again, the character is good company thanks to the actor’s star power, but it would be nice if Hunt had somewhere to put it to better use. Logic be damned, the team’s headquarters is a picturesquely decaying Spanish-style mansion (“we’re hiding in plain sight,” a character says), and in two of the first three episodes, drug dealers live in mansions set on hilltops with ocean views. At one point, when it seems clear that Hanna and Callen could just go and arrest a bad guy, they instead set up a sting operation near a water hazard on a golf course. Someone needs to tell this show’s producers that “location, location, location” is the most important thing in real estate, not TV.
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