Big words, I know, but hear me out.
I’ve been a fan of NCIS: Los Angeles for a long, long time. This is a show that’s going on 10 seasons, after all. It’s gonna have longtime fans. I first gave it a shot in Season 1, because I was on a procedural kick, decided the tone of it was too serious for me, gave up, and only came back sometime around the middle of Season 3, when someone pointed out things had changed thanks to the introduction of a new character at the end of Season 1.
Marty Deeks.
Now, for all I love Eric Christian Olsen’s floppy hair and kind smile, it wasn’t his baby blues that sold me back then, it was the levity he inserted to the show, the much needed humor that, to me, is the only way to make a show like this stay afloat for so many years.
But back to my story, when I fell in love with this show, seven seasons ago, it was not just because of Deeks, and not just because of Kensi – who was always my favorite character – but it was a lot because of the relationship between them.
GASP. YES. I fell in love with this TV show because of the OTP. For many, many years, I watched just for them. Where do I turn in my real fan card again?
Cue eye-roll.
This is not the place to discuss how, in the last few seasons, I have grown to love most, if not all aspects of the show, how the writing has given depth of feelings to characters I had trouble connecting with at first, like Callen, and how the Callen/Sam dynamic is one of my favorites on TV. And it’s not the place to discuss it because I just really want to talk Densi.
Especially in light of last night’s episode.
Look there are many good, no, great OTPS on TV. A great OTP is made of many things: chemistry, a good storyline, a believable progression, but it especially needs one thing to be sustainable, and that is the one thing so many OTPS don’t get, at least not the way they deserve.
Good writing.
Densi could have fallen down that trap. After, presumably, going for it way earlier than anyone would have expected them to, the show spent seasons coming up with weird metaphors and ways to keep them apart. Now, looking back at those moments, I kind of appreciate them, but I understand that the only reason I do is because we have had a resolution.
Hey, maybe it is true that the NCIS: Los Angeles team learned from the Tiva debacle on NCIS.
Either way, what I know for sure is that, so many years after what’s in the box, the frozen lake and raccoons, Kensi and Deeks are, probably, the gold standard when it comes to couples on TV.
And that’s not just because the show pulled the plug, so to speak, in the middle of season 6 and hast yet to break them up in the time that has transpired since them till now.
No, we’re not counting what happened in last year’s season finale as a breakup, especially considering Deeks showed up right away and accompanied the team, despite his best instincts. Last night’s episode pretty much proves we didn’t have to count it, anyway.
Permanence, however, isn’t the only thing that makes these two extraordinary, no. What makes them a couple everyone, absolutely everyone, should be giving kudos, is their progression. And that’s something that’s been going on from the beginning.
They went from reluctant partners, to trusting each other, to trusting each other above everyone else, to friends, to best friends, to maybe something more, to a full-fledged couple, to each other’s worlds, and we got to see it all transpire.
We got to see them struggle with balancing their job and personal lives, we got to see them open up about the skeletons in each other’s closets, we got to see Kensi struggle with a life-threatening injury, with Deeks at her side every step of the way, and we got to see them discuss what else was there, after the job, and how they could raise a family while living the lives they led.
In other words, we got to see them have a real relationship.
And the best thing about Kensi and Deeks? Their story isn’t even close to over. That was the message behind last night’s episode. Love isn’t a journey with an end point. This isn’t about living happily ever after, this is about living, together, getting through the ups and the downs.
This is about compromise. And, as they both wowed last night, about giving each other all they have to give, for the rest of their lives.
Show me a couple the writers have allowed to get to this point. There aren’t many. In fact, right now, I can’t think of even one.
NCIS: Los Angeles airs Sundays at 9/8c on CBS.
