'NCIS' popularity should keep spinoff in hunt

CBS did not become America's top-rated network by passing on an obvious chance to give folks what they want.

You watch a star in one show, you get the same star again in another. You watch procedurals, you get more procedurals. And you turn NCIS into a surprise, ratings-rising hit in its sixth season, you get an NCIS spinoff the next year.

Every network plays the same game. CBS is just better at it than most.

It is not, however, TV's most exciting game, and LA is not the season's most exciting show. It's a serviceable hour that takes the NCIS formula — a light tone and a lot of banter wrapped around a fairly rudimentary investigatory plot — and transfers it to a special, undercover NCIS division in Los Angeles. Nothing more, but also nothing less.

If you saw the NCIS episode that introduced this series last season, you'll notice a few important improvements, mostly made to lighten the load. The team has moved out of a warehouse and into an airy old mission, and has hired a few new members: Adam Jamal Craig as a new agent who spouts facts when he gets nervous, and best of all, Linda Hunt as an eccentrically tough-but-loving new boss.

The strong center, however, remains the same: Chris O'Donnell as the master of undercover disguise (who, as you probably guessed at the time, survived being shot in that NCIS episode), and LL Cool J as his more down-to-earth and better socialized partner.

They banter, of course — but on this first episode, at least, it feels less forced and less frequent than the near-constant chatter that now dominates NCIS. That's bad news for those who love the jokiness of NCIS, good news for everyone else — and possibly bad news for LA, because the people it needs to please are the people who like NCIS.

Still, chances are it will. It would be nice if tonight's plot were stronger (there are two big reveals, and if you don't get to each before the show does, turn in your TV detective card) and if the show didn't feel the need to reach for a happy ending the story can't support. But considering the popularity of the mother ship and the built-in interest in this spinoff, LA is probably good enough to hold onto a good portion of those NCIS viewers.