ICYMI: NCIS: Hawai’i Is a Must Watch, No Matter Your Familiarity With the Franchise

By Jay Snow  |  February 8, 2024 | 12:05pm
Photo Courtesy of CBS
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ICYMI: NCIS: Hawai’i Is a Must Watch, No Matter Your Familiarity With the Franchise
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Editor’s Note: Welcome to ICYMI! With so much TV constantly premiering, we’re highlighting some of the best shows you may have missed in the deluge of content from throughout the year. Join the Paste writers as we celebrate our underrated faves, the blink-and-you-missed-it series, and the perfect binges you need to make sure you see.

NCIS: Hawai’i, the third spinoff of CBS’ ever-popular franchise, takes the audience across the ocean to the beautiful state of Hawai’i, as Special Agent in Charge Jane Tennant (Vanessa Lachey) and her team—Jesse Boone (Noah Mills), Lucy Tara (Yasmine Al-Bustami), Kai Holman (Alex Tarrant), and Ernie Malik (Jason Antoon)—are tasked with solving naval crimes across the islands (and occasionally beyond). And whether or not you are a fan of the NCIS franchise, you need to be watching this show.

It cannot be understated that the key to a successful television show is a fantastic cast of performers. NCIS: Hawai’i has arguably one of television’s best ensemble casts, ever. The team at Pearl Harbor—including FBI Agent and Lucy’s girlfriend Kate Whistler (Tori Anderson), Commander Chase (Seana Kofoed, who will hopefully soon be made a series regular), “Boom Boom” (Sharif Atkins), and “Bam Bam” (Cher Alvarez)—invites the viewer into the family as they work to keep the islands safe, wrapping you in a comforting, warm TV blanket as the series explores these crimes and the arising issues in their personal lives. 

In comparison to its procedural peers, the series manages a fantastic balance between the crime and personal stories. But it’s the relationships between the characters on this team that truly help cement this as a top-tier ensemble. There is no pairing of these characters that is unenjoyable in the slightest, which is truly a feat. The NCIS team has such interesting, complex relationships with one another, truly feeling like a family—unlike other shows, where the family title is thrown around but never actually earned. 

Opening the series with Kai joining the team allowed the audience to understand the dynamics as he learned them and developed his own relationships; for instance, Jesse’s insistence on calling him “new guy” for several episodes and Kai’s awkward interactions with Boom Boom showcased how close this team actually was. As such, it was easy to become immersed in this world with Kai as our guide, and it has only blossomed as he’s settled into this family and the world has opened up to him.

In addition to Kai, we also have country girl Lucy Tara with her uncanny phobia of the ocean, whose relationship with Kate Whistler has quickly become one of the franchise’s best. Plus, Lucy’s relationships with each member of the team, notably Jesse and Ernie, provide some of the series’ best moments. (That said, Jesse’s extended family are long overdue for an appearance, as we’ve met two of his children but not his wife Heather or third unnamed child after two 22-episode seasons.) There has yet to be an NCIS: Hawai’i player we don’t enjoy, as even the guest stars often have a great rapport with the cast and seem to fit right in on set. It’ll be interesting to see how NCIS: Los Angeles’ Sam Hanna (LL Cool J) fits in with the team at large in the upcoming third season.

But what is a team without a great leader? With Vanessa Lachey at the helm, she brings a refreshing energy that differentiates the show from the others in the NCIS franchise immediately, but also feels much more welcoming. While she can play the hardness of characters like the famous Jethro Gibbs (Mark Harmon), as any leader should, it doesn’t become her entire character. Rather, that’s an aspect of Jane that she actively tries to put aside, as she doesn’t want her experience in this line of work to leave her jaded (at least as much as humanly possible, given the circumstances).

Everything the series does with Jane feels so precise, giving us the perfect view of who she is and what she believes. The relationship with her son Alex (Kian Talan) is the perfect vehicle for driving the personal side of Jane’s story, as her role as a mother is even more important to her than her job, and the writers put the two side-by-side as equally important storylines. Instead of constantly managing her team, as many leaders on procedurals are forced to do, Jane often trusts her team to work without her oversight and get the job done, allowing her to split her focus in a way that enhances the series and feels truthful to being a single, working mother.

Beyond this one-in-a-million team, the unique setting also helps the series stand out from others in the franchise and makes the watch even more fun. Despite, you know, murders, NCIS: Hawai’i feels like a cozy beach read come to life. While there is some intensity, the series isn’t trying too hard to be the most extreme, intense procedural on the air. Instead, it embraces the lighter side of the genre, and is far more interested than many procedurals in exploring the characters fully outside of work. Ultimately, there’s a perfect balance all around.

So whether or not you are a fan of the NCIS franchise, you don’t want to miss out on this installment. Sure, you’ll maybe lose out on the yearly crossovers—which, as any Arrowverse fan can tell you, aren’t always what they’re cracked up to be—but that’s a small price to pay to join this family and witness the beauty of what NCIS: Hawai’i has to offer.

Watch on Paramount+

Jay Snow is a freelance writer. He has published many places on the internet. For more of his thoughts on television and to see his other work (or to simply watch him gush again and again over his love for the original Charmed) follow him @snowyjay.

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