NCIS: Hawaii Casts Vanessa Lachey as Series Lead

 


The NCIS franchise which originally spun off of JAG 18 years ago in 2003, has spawned multiple spin-offs the latest being NCIS: Hawaii which has just cast its series lead in Vanessa Lachey. As reported by Variety, Vanessa Lachey will play Jane Tennant, the first female Special Agent in Charge of NCIS: Hawaii. Her character is described as essentially both a master politician and crime scene investigator at the same time, while she also is a single mother balancing her family life with her responsibilities running NCIS. This will mark the first time a woman has led an NCIS show, which currently sees Mark Harmon, Chris O'Donnell and Scott Bakula at the forefront of their respective NCIS shows at the moment. The Tennant character sounds like a dynamic character who will certainly shake things up in the murder mystery genre and with her sensibilities as a politician it will be a nice bit of juxtaposition to the Gibbs character of the mothership NCIS which sees his character as the anti-politician cowboy. 

 


 

 Additionally, Al-Bustami has been cast as Lucy, the junior member of Tennant’s team. Her character is described as: “Confident in the way that reflects a lifetime of achievement and youthful enthusiasm, Lucy is the junior member of Tennant’s NCIS team. She is eager to be the first one to find that key piece of evidence, create a workaround in the bureaucracy, or tackle a suspect down a flight of stairs.” 

I think the character of Lucy sounds like she will be a lively fun-spirited eccentric character that will promote hard-work and dedication to justice at any cost. The dynamics between the team will be further fleshed out by the casting of Jason Antoon as Ernie, NCIS’ Cyber Intelligence Specialist. His character is described as a savvy cyber expert who calls the NCIS team his family in the absence of his own from the island of Hawaii. Crime shows typically have a forensics or cyber type character to them and the real trick is in having a well-written and portrayed character that will push the character beyond formulaic territory and based on the casting description it sounds like they are heading in that direction. 



 

Overall, I think the NCIS franchise is a monster at this point with the ongoing saga of the original NCIS now heading into its 19th season this fall and its not looking like its going to slow down anytime soon. Hawaii is a great location for a murder mystery show and I have recently enjoyed watching reruns of the original Magnum PI television shows from the 1980s starring Tom Selleck. The great part about that show was the humor with its characters and the emphasis of the beauty and adventure of the island of Hawaii. NCIS: Hawaii has the potential to be the spiritual successor to the original Magnum PI as JAG which is the prequel to the NCIS franchise was created by Donald P. Bellisario, who also created Magnum PI. And as for the element of humor the original NCIS may look like a simple crime show to the unsuspecting eye but it is anything but as it has proven itself to be a masterful comedy that blends drama and comedy to epic results. This show may be focused on its characters investigating Naval and Marine crimes on the island of Hawaii but that doesn’t mean it can’t showcase Hawaii in all its beauty and emphasize the adventurous side to the island with the mystery stories it tells potentially lending itself to adventurous tales depending on what the scope of the investigations end up being. So as NCIS: Hawaii continues to cast it series leads it will be interesting to see who fills out the rest of the roster, but if it's anything like the original NCIS its overall ensemble will be an dynamic and eccentric team that will have the potential to tell humorous and dramatic tales on the beautiful and adventure-inspiring island of Hawaii. 

 


 

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