Production has started in the Northern Territory for episodes in the forthcoming season of NCIS: Sydney, with filming officially underway in Darwin.
Earlier this year, Endemol Shine Australia, CBS Studios, Paramount Australia, and Screen Territory announced that two episodes of NCIS: Sydney would be filmed in the Top End, highlighting the Northern Territory to audiences across the globe. The production is a direct result of Screen Territory’s Production Attraction Incentive Program (PAIP), which aims to attract high-profile film projects that will boost the local economy and showcase the NT on the world stage.
The first international iteration of the global NCIS franchise outside of the US, NCIS: Sydney follows a ‘brilliant and eclectic team’ of US NCIS Agents and the Australian Federal Police (AFP) who have been grafted into a multi-national taskforce to keep naval crimes in check.
In his four-star ScreenHub review of Season 1 of NCIS: Sydney last year, Anthony Morris wrote:
‘To be extremely clear, this isn’t trying to do anything new with the by-now very well-established NCIS formula. If you like those series you’ll almost certainly like this, even if your interest in the franchise is strictly just I can’t find the remote after The Cheap Seats has finished, guess I’ll stick around and find out who murdered that naval cadet working on a secret code-breaking formula, hope the relationship between the sexy NCIS agent and the sexy NCIS coroner isn’t on the rocks because it’s the anniversary of his wife’s death.
.There also the occasional slightly awkward ‘yay nuclear subs’ moment to remind you that the (pro-) military culture in the US isn’t quite the same as it is here, and that in the end this is still a series made for American consumption. That difference would be interesting for this series to explore in later episodes, but that’s unlikely.
‘NCIS has been a smooth-running entertainment machine for two decades now; a joke about Wagga Wagga is about as much change as we’re likely to get.’
