TL;DR – This is a clunky yet interesting start to NCIS Down Under.

Disclosure – I paid for the Paramount+ service that viewed this series.

NCIS: Sydney Review –

Growing up in my era, it felt like everyone and their dog watched JAG and NCIS at the start. Since then, we have run to Los Angeles, New Orleans, and Hawai’i, but where will they go next? Australia? Well, as an Australian media reviewer with an international relations degree, and who taught Australian politics, it is a perfect time to see how they pull this off.

So to set the scene, at Fleet Base East, Woolloomooloo, the USS Navajo is standing by as a presentation about Operation Talisman Sabre is given. It symbolises unity between Australia and the United States of America. But when everyone is distracted by a protestor, they miss a sailor in distress before he falls into the ocean. It is a public relations disaster, so the AFP and NCIS are forced to team up for the optics, and it is time for Michelle Mackey, NCIS Special Agent-in-Charge (Olivia Swann) and Jim “JD” Dempsey, AFP (Todd Lasance), to play nice. We will be looking at the episode as a whole from here, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.    

Now, to pull the Band-Aid off quickly, this is a very clunky episode, but that is to be expected, given what they must pull off here. For the Australian audience, they need to explain all the American side of things, and for the American audience, they must introduce Americans to all the Australian structures. That will be a rough crash course for anyone to pull off. But for every awkward discussion about what a Foreign Minister is, you get everyone knowing how quickly former PM Bob Hawke can skull a beer. So, some strengths and weaknesses. Though I think you could hear every Australian grown when JD brings a slab of Bud to the gathering at the end. It is not as bad as that moment in Survivor: The Australian Outback, but it is close.   

As this is the ‘getting to know you’ episode, we all started with everyone not wanting to be there and everyone accepting that they would have to work together by the end. I am sure all the cast dynamics have been done to death in other shows. We have the two agents from different walks of life forced to work together and earn each other’s grudging respect before they become a love item if we get into season 3 or longer. The old wise 2-days-before-retirement character gets paired up with the brand-new baby on the team, who earn each other’s grudging respect. And the two who just like each other and get on with the job right away. Look, it had been done before, and that is because it works, though I did audibly snort when one character mentioned they were working on two different PhDs simultaneously.

Regarding the plot itself, I was surprised by just how relevant the show was to current political developments between the two countries. We get Talisman Sabre’s name dropped in the first few moments of the episode. Then, much of the episode revolved around submarines and the technology behind them, which is the primary defence topic at the moment after the AUKUS agreement. It got a bit too preachy about America for an Australian-positioned show, but that might work better back in America. Some minor things felt not quite right like it would probably be the Defence Minister, not the Foreign Minister, making a speech like that at the start of the episode. Also, I don’t know about you, but I think it would have taken that helicopter vastly more time to be stolen and flight-bound before that speedboat could have escaped. It is also clear that they have gotten some strong support from the Royal Australian Navy, with HMAS Choules featuring prominently throughout the episode.        

In the end, do we recommend NCIS Sydney: Gone Fission? This is an episode where you can see the gears grinding in the background. There is a rockiness to everything you can feel in the deliveries. But then you kind of expect this in a first episode where everyone gets to know each other. I am intrigued by it, but I hope they smooth out some of these rough edges going forward.

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

Have you seen NCIS: Sydney yet ?, let us know what you thought in the comments below, feel free to share this review on any of the social medias and you can follow us Here. Check out all our past reviews and articles Here, and have a happy day.    

Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of NCIS: Sydney
Directed by – Shawn Seet
Written by – Morgan O’Neill
Created by – Morgan O’Neill
Based On – JAG created by Donald P. Bellisario & NCIS by Donald P. Bellisario & Don McGill
Production/Distribution Companies – EndemolShine Australia, CBS Studios & Paramount+
Starring – Olivia Swann, Todd Lasance, Sean Sagar, Tuuli Narkle, Mavournee Hazel & William McInnes with Lewis Fitz-Gerald, Georgina Haig, Daniela Farinacci & Bert Labonté and Tom Dawson, Brayden Havard, Karna Ford, Luke Lamond, Alan Zhu & Tom O’Sullivan