NCIS: Los Angeles: The Third Season picks up right there. The team refuses to accept that Hetty is gone and doesn’t want their help, so they go looking for her. They find out that Hetty ends up kidnapped by the Comescu family. Callen and Sam are off to Romania get her back, along with Kensi and Deeks. There is a lot more to this Comescu thing, though. While they are all in the field, back at home Eric and Nell are working with Director Leon Vance (Rocky Carroll) to try and do what they can to help the situation. It’s going to take them all to work out this puzzle and try and get Hetty back alive. Callen doesn’t just want Hetty back, though. He wants to know about his past and his mother, and Hetty knows his whole history.
Once they get Hetty back, Hunter goes off to do other work. While it looks like Hetty is in charge, about halfway through the season they are given an Assistant Director, Owen Granger (Miguel Ferrer), to keep Hetty and her team on a "tighter" leash. No one really likes him, especially Callum. Hetty seems very zen about it, but apparently there are some old issues between the two and he’s got a personal vendetta that he’s taking out on her team as well as her. It looks like he is here to stay though, at least for now, so let’s hope they can get used to him!
It seems like a lot more enemies are shot and killed than in any other show I’ve seen. Normally people live through things in TV shows that would kill them in real life. NCIS: Los Angeles feels a lot more real. It also seems like a lot of the season deals with terrorism. There is a case that opens with the shooting of a minor reporter that ends up with a terrorist ring that would cause a lot of problems! Another case starts when the LAPD raids a pawn shop and kills two cartel members, who they were after. The third dead man is a terrorist and the team has to figure out why he was with the cartel. Given that those groups operate from several different countries, you can imagine that this is going to have several complications. To deal with terrorism on their home turf, Sam goes over to the Sudan where he’s been doing undercover work for a year. Sam has more reason to go over there than just for undercover though. There is a woman that he is involved with. Of course, we know he has a wife and kid at home, so what is the truth?
Not everything is terrorist-related, though. Marine Conner Maslow (Drew Fuller, who you might recognize from Army Wives) kills a Japanese tourist in L.A. While this looks like an open and shut case, as is typical, nothing is as it seems on the surface. This is a bit of a modern day Romeo and Juliet story, except Romeo is in trouble for murder and Juliet is the daughter of a very wealthy Japanese business man. The team is going to have to become modern day ninjas to rescue the daughter of the modern day samurai. We get to learn a lot about Kensi’s past and even meet her mother in a two part episode where Kensi finally learns the truth about her father’s death. Hetty throws a mandatory Christmas party. Of course, the team gets a call to duty as not even Christmas stops terror. They have to investigate a theft of a non-lethal EMP weapon from a college professor who’s ex-Navy. Even though an EMP might not be lethal, the end result of it can be! I really liked that they included the Hawaii Five-O episode where G Callum and Sam Hanna were guest stars. Most times, the crossover episodes are a part of the disc set for their show only so you end up missing out on some things when your favorites were just guests on another show. Not to mention that for this case, you get to see the beautiful sights of Hawaii!
This six disc set also contains quite a few special features and deleted scenes. I think my favorite of the features is "Carmageddon." It takes a look at the behind the scenes of all the vehicles that they have blown up, which include cars, campers, buses, and even a motorcycle. The explosions are awesome! The episodes that have deleted scenes will give you the option to play the deleted scene after you select the episode. Unfortunately, there is not a "Play All" option to watch the episodes all at once, though. You will have to go select the next one at the end of one.
I wasn’t sure if NCIS: Los Angeles was going to make it when it first started. I mean first off, it is a spin-off of a spin-off, so that’s pretty far removed. Second, it had a bit of a slower first season. I just wasn’t addicted to it. While it was good, something was just missing. Luckily, in Seasons Two and Three, they have really managed to find the groove and I think that this series could have a real future. You should check out NCIS: Los Angeles: The Third Season today!
