TL;DR – I think this first episode did everything that it needed to do. It tied up the cliffhanger from last season and gave it the motivation to move forward, even if there were a couple of missteps.

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

NCIS: Sydney Review –

Back in 2023, there was this odd experiment that played out across the streaming space: what would happen when you smashed an American and Australian Police Procedural together and then put it into the weirdly optimistic world of the NCIS franchise? Well, there were some missed opportunities, but overall, by the end of the season, it had found its feet. The question then becomes, can they continue that good work into their new season?

So, to set the scene, while we may start with a funeral possession, the episode actually begins in the moments after the season finale, Blonde Ambition, with Mackey (Olivia Swann) drawing her gun on the now fundamental suspicious Colonel Rankin (Lewis Fitz-Gerald) who JD (Todd Lasance) just phoned on an assassin’s phone, which would be more of an issue if he didn’t just have a heart attack. An international assassin was killed, and a child returned to their father. But a tier one villain is out of custody and on the run, and the powers at Be are looking for a scapegoat, and they are coming for everyone. We will be looking at the episode as a whole from here, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead. 

The one thing this week’s narrative confirms is that we are doubling down on the secret conspiracy that can hire international assassins on a whim and can corrupt Colonels. Given everything that happened last season, it did make sense that all hell would break loose once the powers discovered that NCIS lost one assassin and let the other one take a bullet to the brain. There was enough of a mystery, with an added loose Irish assassin to help bring you through the episode, even if you always knew who was in the back of that ambulance. The one thing I liked was how easily all the cast fell back into those relationships, which made the episode flow well.

There were a couple of missed opportunities that did hold it back a bit. The first is the fake-out in the cold open. Look, I don’t think anyone for a second thought that they were going to kill off the first person on the call sheet. I mean, they couldn’t even commit to killing that random Colonel. I spent the whole episode sitting there with that annoyance. Also,  watching JD dip through a crowd of AFL fans to escape was fun, but they missed an opportunity to completely confuse the Americans by actually showing the footy.

In the end, do we recommend NCIS: Sydney – Heart Starter? I think this first episode did everything that it needed to do. It tied up the cliffhanger from last season and gave it the motivation to move forward. Also, it was nice to finally see an acknowledgement that they exist in the broader world. Have you seen NCIS: Sydney yet? Let us know what you thought in the comments below.

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.

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Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of NCIS: Sydney
Directed by – Jennifer Leacey
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, Bert Labonté, Georgina Haig, Henry McWilliam, Kate Jenkinson & Benedict Hardie and Virginie Laverdure, Kate Skinner, Kyra Harlan & Cindel Harlan