NCIS: New Orleans: The Fifth Season DVD Review

THE SEASON — 2.5/5

Quick Hit Review: I really enjoy the flagship series, NCIS. I also find myself entertained by NCIS: Los Angeles even when the writing isn’t always top-notch and the plot lines can get outlandish with intrigue and espionage. NCIS: New Orleans for me is the black sheep of the franchise, the acting never was the best but worse, the writing has been, at best, inconsistent. This fifth season opens with Pride having been shop no less than three times by an ex-CIA assassin (ELLEN HOLLMAN), and in part the episode finds Pride resisting death (as portrayed by AMY RUTBERG, whose CIA agent character was killed off in season four); these sequences were rather bad, both in terms of the writing and acting, not that the A storyline was any better with the team hunting the assassin down, and missing the mark at every turn.

I knew this would be a chore of a season just from that opening episode and while it never got quite that bad, though Bakula’s Pride certainly took another front and center role once again, I still find this series to be, if I’m being kind, middling. I suppose it’s okay if you have nothing else to watch (find that hard to believe with the amount of content out there), but after five seasons, kind of have to give it up this will get any better. On the plus side, even though she doesn’t get a whole lot to do, Vanessa Ferlito still looks good, so there’s that.

SPECIAL FEATURES – 2.75/5

As with the previous season sets, this 6-disc release comes housed in a clear DVD case, with the episode list printed on the interior covers.

King Cake: The 100th Episode (11:03) – This featurette looks at the episode ‘In the Blood’ and a new twist for Pride. Of course.

Cast and Creole: A Look at Season 5 (23:33) breaks down some of the storylines and character developments over the course of this fifth season.

Who Dat?: Hannah Khoury (10:54) is an introduction to the newest series regular and her character.

Off Subject are a series of short featurettes where the cast talk about various subjects, such as what would they be doing if they hadn’t become an actor or talking about turning down roles.

VIDEO – 4.5/5, AUDIO – 3.75/5

Paramount releases NCIS: New Orleans in its original televised anamorphic 1.78 widescreen aspect ratio and the show looks pretty darn good taking advantage of the bright colors of the Crescent City. There’s some minor aliasing but nothing terrible and detail for standard def is decent.

Each episode is accompanied by a Dolby Digital 5.1 track which more than gets the job done offering clear dialogue while the more action-centric scenes as well as the occasional explosion provides some depth, though it’s not entirely robust but for a lossy track, it’s above average.

OVERALL – 2.5/5