‘NCIS: Los Angeles’ 14×11 Review: “Best Seller”

NCIS: Los Angeles 14×11 “Best Seller” is an entertaining enough episode, even if in many ways, it doesn’t actually feel like an hour of NCIS: Los Angeles. Sure, Kensi was around, and so were Fatima and Roundtree — but neither them nor Killbride, or the returning Sabatino, can make up for the lack of Sam, Callen and Deeks.

But there’s something to be said about the way this show has handled its cast in a way that makes it so we’re here, in Season 14, with the same four main characters we’ve had since the end of Season 1. NCIS: Los Angeles is Callen, Sam, Kensi and Deeks, and they are still around partly because the show has been that flexible with the actors and their schedules. So, even if it means we end up with episodes like this one, I don’t hate the end result.

Aka, we still get them for most of the episodes, even if we don’t get as much as we would want to. NCIS would take what NCIS: Los Angeles has in that regard, I bet. And though we miss Hetty and want her back, we would rather take a storyline that keeps her alive and with the possibility of coming back than anything more permanent — or even what Gibbs got. We like existing in a world where she might be back soon.

NCIS: Los Angeles 14×11 “Best Seller” works decently as a Kensi episode — there’s enough Rosa and enough of Kensi getting to fangirl and kick ass to consider it one, but it doesn’t do great in other respects. Fatima and Roundtree work together, we know that, but Fatima and Sabatino? Look, if we’re being honest, Sabatino is one of those characters we don’t like even when he’s actually helping, and fourteen seasons in that’s not gonna change. We can stop trying to make Sabatino happen.

And maybe, while we’re at it, decide what’s going on with Fatima and Roundtree? I get this show takes a while to build up relationships — romantic or otherwise, but I’m not even sure what they want us to root for, which feels like something we should absolutely know by now.

We just got the crossover, so we don’t want to get greedy here, but can we get the resolution to whatever opp Sam, Callen and now Deeks are into yet? Don’t make us wait for an extra week for nothing, please.

Things I think I think:

• Yes, that’s David Paul Olsen, Daniela Ruah’s husband and Eric Christian Olsen’s brother. All in the family!
• WHAT IS ROUNDTREE WEARING? WHAT?
• Kensi (and Deeks) are both adorable — and borderline annoying — as parents.
• Fatima’s whole “simple human” is hilarious.
• EVERYONE’S GONE. But Kensi’s got this!
• Also, how do you loan out half your team?
• We’re never getting rid of Sabatino, right?
• This is a super meta episode. But I will say it is kinda fitting that Kensi gets to save the day on the episode her husband guest stars in.
• No one likes Sabatino, no.
• I do not care about Sabatino alone, much less with Fatima.
• Kensi the fangirl I do like, though.
• AND DANIELA GETTING TO SPEAK PORTUGUESE.
• Killbride and… pizza?
• He is a weird man, isn’t he?

Agree? Disagree? What did you think of NCIS: Los Angeles 14×11 “Best Seller”? Share with us in the comments below!

NCIS: Los Angeles airs Sundays at 10/9c on CBS.