TL;DR – A tale of two episodes, one fascinating, the other deeply frustrating.   

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

NCIS: Sydney Review –

Today, we look at a case study of what happens when you take an exciting idea and then weigh it down with unnecessary factors that end up taking away from the fascinating idea you had at the start.

So to set the scene, Doctor Roy Penrose (William McInnes) is at a dog café with his dog, of course, when a young girl, Louie (Josie Rawson), who is clearly bleeding, comes in. Even more concerning is the sounds of sirens that follow and the reveal that she has explosives strapped to her chest. If anyone goes through the door or cuts her feed, then the whole place goes boom. Oh, and to make things worse, there is a dead cop in the mix. We will be looking at the episode as a whole from here, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.    

There is a complexity to this case that I liked. You have a young girl who is clearly in over her head but wearing something that could or could not be a bomb. Because she is a teenager, she is not thinking rationally, which throws all sorts of different curve balls into the equation. All of these various stressors create a situation where you can almost believe there might be several outcomes, which was never going to be the case with a primary cast member there, but you never know. There are so many interesting ways you can go from this one setup. Unfortunately, this is not the direction the episode went with.  

However, while they have this exciting setup, they can’t help but throw things in that undercut the very narrative they are trying to present. Australia, and Sydney especially, has firsthand experience in these situations, and I would not expect it to be as sloppily handled as it is here. One of the central pressure points in the episode is that someone at the top, which in this situation, could have been the premier but likely the Home Affairs Minister or even PM, would not allow them to use an electric fence to stop the mobile setting off the bomb. Given the repercussions, if people died if that ever came out in the news, there is no way a decision like that would have been made out of simple self-interest.

You also have the issues around the policing, with there being no way that they would have left the family at their home alone to be attacked by Stone (Andrew Shaw). Then, the mind-bending moment when they found out that phones were jammed by phoning one of the character’s phones. Instead of all this faff, there could have been a better exploration of Australia’s medical system, bar an off-handed reference to the PBS. Then there is the story of Roy’s wife, which was heartbreaking but ended up getting lost in the mix. Or even that live stream they talked about.

In the end, do we recommend NCIS: Sydney – Doggieccino Day Afternoon? Unfortunately, no. There is a core of a good episode here, but it lost in and among all the useless faff, they added to raise the tension, but just ended up making it a mess.    

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 – David Caesar
Written by – Michael Miller
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 Josie Rawson and Yvette Gregory, Aidan Gillett, Sam Molineaux, Joshua Bonello, Eleanor Stankiewicz, Oscar Lin, Andrew Shaw, Bishanyia Vincent & Jemima Woods.