What I’m Watching: NCIS: Los Angeles

NCIS: Los Angeles: Season 1, Episode 5 “Killshot” (B+)

This show really is extremely action-packed, and there are at least a few scenes each episode which really work to get the heart racing and provide some good thrills. It helps that Chris O’Donnell and LL Cool J happen to be good at putting on angry, intense faces while brandishing their guns as they burst into a room or chase down a bad guy. This episode is greatly enhanced by the presence of a fierce, compelling villain. She’s able to out-do LL Cool J in terms of angry facial expressions in the midst of her botched attempting sniping sessions. Her presence serves to give Director Vance a legitimate arch-nemesis, and, quite honestly, she is pretty impressive, far more so than Vance at least. Bailing out of her car while she was bleeding like crazy and managing to elude capture was a fairly awesome move, and hopefully she’ll be back soon. In a sense, she’s just as cool as Ari Haswari from the original “NCIS,” and it took the hardheaded Gibbs quite a while to track him down. Another hint of the other show pops up in this episode in the form of Abby, and her guest spot was entertaining. Calling the director Leon seemed a bit out of character for her, but it worked well to make Eric slip up and feel uncomfortable. Despite getting cold feet beforehand, Dominic does a commendable job on his first undercover assignment, and even though he and his contact almost get taken out by a sniper within a minute of his arrival, that part really isn’t his fault.