TL;DR – They may have saved the best for last with a banger of a season finale.

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

Well, we have come to the end of the first season of NCIS: Sydney. It has been an odd season, with moments of highs and also a lot of frustrations. However, things started to coalesce towards the end, and I wondered if the show could stick the landing.   

So to set the scene, we open at a kids birthday party where a deeply bad clown is performing for the kids, but things turn sinister when the clown steals the birthday boy. Meanwhile, they have the secretive woman Anna (Georgina Haig) they captured in Bunker Down, who has been a thorn in everyone’s side since Gone Fission. The team is wondering why Anna feels so secure even though she is in handcuffs and locked to a desk when the call comes in that the child that was stolen was JD’s (Todd Lasance). We will be looking at the episode and season as a whole from here, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.    

Well, I did have some concerns coming in that they would not be able to stick the landing, especially after all the excellent work that Bunker Down did in setting up this final episode. But I am glad to say that my fears were unnecessary because they pulled it off. I think this is because this week felt like an episode that had stakes that elevated the show into the rest of the NCIS pantheon. You had real stakes, international intrigue, and a ticking clock, all solid motivators for a narrative. The next part of what makes this episode work is that they let Todd Lasance just rip into every scene. Because this is a father looking for his kidnapped son, you kind of think it makes sense even if you knew that instantly, he would have been taken off the case to stop the very things that happen in this episode.

Everyone got something to do this week, even though the focus was on JD. Mackey (Olivia Swann) got to play more of the leader than we have seen so far, getting cover for her team and holding them back when they go too far. Georgina Haig has spent much of her time playing a slightly dangerous femme fatale character so far this season, so it was nice to see her have a bit more meat to her role. Also, hats off to our villain of the week, Benedict Hardie, for capturing that creepy global assassin vibe. All of this led to the ending, which was quite dramatic. Because this was the first season, and they had one of the Australian cast members in peril, I was actually not sure if they were going to kill them off or not, which, given how safe some of these shows feel, was a strong point of consideration. Then, the final twist helped sell everything.

While I did like the season finale, the question then becomes how the season works as a whole? Well, it has some strengths and it has some weaknesses. A lot of the awkwardness that we saw at the start can be handwaved away by a new team being forced together and having to work with each other, but that can only get you so far. It did feel like it was struggling to find where all the characters sit in the show, only nailing it in the final two-parter. Which did create a couple of awkward moments, and the episode Doggieccino Day Afternoon that just fell flat.

However, while they did have some teething issues, I did like how they charted the way through having to write for two completely different audiences and the juxtapositions that this created. The show also goes out of its way to showcase Australia and Sydney particularly, even though it does not have a lot to say about the Australian military side of things so far. I mean, it was at least nice that the extradition notice in the final episode showed they bothered to talk to their Australian counterparts. So far, I think they have found the way the characters work, but there is one thing that is missing. While they have all the framework of an NCIS show, there still isn’t a strong sense of where it fits into the franchise, and if it gets a season two, this is one area I hope they work on.

In the end, do we recommend NCIS: Sydney – Blonde Ambition & Season 1? Well? Look, in many ways I feel that this is a show written for people like me who enjoyed the overlap between Australian international relations and global military media juggernaut. If you are a fan of the broader NCIS universe, then I would absolutely recommend checking it out.        

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 – Catherine Millar, Kriv Stenders, David Caesar & Shawn Seet
Written by – Morgan O’Neill, Kim Ho, James Cripps, Clare Sladden, Michael Miller, Tamara Asmar, Andrew Anastasios & Stuart Page
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 Benedict Hardie, Georgina Haig, Bert Labonté, Lewis Fitz-Gerald,Josie Rawson, Tiriel Mora, Josh McConville, Linal Haft, Daniela Farinacci, Bert Labonté, Dustin Clare & Matt Nable and Henry McWilliam, Kate Jenkinson, Georgie Payne, Cassie Howarth, Arky Michael, Marina Zivkovic, Barbara Gouskos, Shaun Wood, Abhilash Kaimal, Kimi Tsukakoshi, Samantha Young, Adele Samus, Mark Paguio, Vaingana Matapule, Douglas Chalmers, James Saunders, Meme Thorne, Michelle Collins, Tom Dawson, Brayden Havard, Karna Ford, Luke Lamond, Alan Zhu, Tom O’Sullivan Steve Vella, Mick Davies, Dean Povic, Romy Bartz, Nicholas Brown, Gerick Leora, Dorian Nkono, Lucas Fatches. Bradley Flett, Lex Marinos, Ava Oberoi, Cym Smith, Conrad Coleby, John Harding, Shameer Birges, Christopher Kirby, Jake Ryan, Alec Snow, Yvette Gregory, Aidan Gillett, Sam Molineaux, Joshua Bonello, Eleanor Stankiewicz, Oscar Lin, Andrew Shaw, Bishanyia Vincent, Jemima Woods, Michael Jupp, Arkia Ashraf, Nadim Accari, Brad McMurray, Aleks Mikic & Jairo Coelho Barbosa.
Episodes Covered – Gone Fission, Snakes in the Grass, Brother In Arms, Ghosted, Doggieccino Day Afternoon, Extraction, Bunker Down & Blonde Ambition.