What I’m Watching: NCIS: Los Angeles

NCIS: Los Angeles: Season 1, Episode 16 “Chinatown” (B+)

While the case here is certainly a quality one and far more engaging and accessible than some of the recently-featured ones, it’s still the banter that kills me every time. From the first post-credits scene, where Callen claimed to be working out and Sam responded first with his observation of Callen only running when people are shooting at them and then putting on a very high-pitched motherly voice, this episode was full of hilarious one-liners. I particularly enjoyed how they decided to let Nate out for once and how his partnership with Kensi didn’t quite pan out as he might have hoped. His rush to cuff the suspect’s feet elicited an especially negative reaction from Kensi. Hetty saying no to his question before he even had a chance to ask it then staring him down until he went away was funny, but even better was her subsequent answer, letting Nate know that an operational psychologist who became an agent was killed in the second week or maybe even the second day on the job. The little-seen Eric got a chance to get a zinger in there when asked what he knows that the rest of them don’t: “the words to every TV theme song.” Hetty’s seemingly serious explanation that “this video was caught by some bachelorettes” was extremely entertaining just because of the way she said it. I did burst out laughing once in this episode, when Sam asked Callen “do you know what today is” and Callen said, “Wednesday,” only to have Sam angrily respond, “no, it’s Tuesday!” The way these guys talk is just flat-out hilarious, even if their conversation was a run-up to a reference to the still-missing Dom.