The long arm of naval law is stretching into the Big Apple as the new “NCIS: New York” premieres on CBS Tuesday and streams on Paramount+ Wednesday. The omnipresent “NCIS” (Naval Criminal Investigative Service) has already spread its tentacles to Los Angeles, New Orleans, Hawaii, Sydney, its origins and onto characters Tony and Ziva.

This one finds actor and rapper LL Cool J reprising the character, Special Agent Sam Hanna, whom he played on “NCIS: Los Angeles” for 14 seasons.

New to the job in New York, he’s partnered with another CBS hero, Scott Caan, former star of the “Hawaii Five-0,” remake, which rode the waves for the former “Tiffany” network for 10 seasons.

When Agent Hanna arrives at the precinct, he’s an outlier, a stranger among the old guard. “Any time you add a new member, the chemistry is different,” says LL Cool J.

“And that chemistry can go left to right. And in this case, thankfully, it went the right way. And it just kind of makes the energy overall a lot more fun. But in the story of the world, of our franchise, of this new ‘NCIS: New York,’ this team has been working together prior to my arrival, and they have been having ongoing cases and an ongoing life.

“So, they're introducing Sam to this preexisting team, and then we are off to the races.”

Off to the races, yes, but not in the way most TV shows leave the starting line. The newbie is usually met with adversity by the old timers. Not with this one, insists Caan.

“I feel like there's a cliche way to approach these sort of ‘buddy’ setups,” he says.

“And I feel like we went with the opposite. I feel like we went the route of immediately getting a kick out of each other because that's kind of what exists in real life.

“And I always think that that's the best thing to draw from when creating shows like this — relationships that are hopefully going to last over five, 10, 15 years. Who knows if we could be so lucky?

“... The approach is that we're just enjoying each other a lot. And I think that that's our approach to it. And that's what makes it fun and different. And something new for me.”

LL Cool J adds, “I think every relationship is different ... We all have friends, we have different relationships. And you get with different people, different things happen. It's like chemistry. It's like colors on an easel.

“So me-plus-Scott is going to give you a different energy ... I think you know when you see it, you'll feel what it is. I agree with Scott, we don't want to do the stereotypical thing,” he continues.

“That's the one thing about the show that I think is going to hopefully be pleasantly surprising for people is that we are maintaining a lot of the energy from the original ‘NCIS’ and from the franchise, but we are adding new layers to it, new layers of character development, new layers of how we approach characters, how we approach story,” he says.

“And I think our relationship to interaction will also reflect that approach; that new approach.”

Though he grew up in New York, LL Cool J says he’s discovering things he never knew about his native city.

“I'm seeing parts of New York I never saw, and I was born and raised here ... New York is a main character (in the show.) So doing it in New York, it really feels different. I'm not going to say ‘better,’ but I'll say it's definitely more gritty.

“It's definitely a whole new iteration of the franchise. And I think it's a great contribution to the universe. New York is a character. It gives you so many different people from all over the world, so many different types of energies,” he says.

“You're very close to the street when you film in New York. It's not like L.A. L.A. is a little more used to filming and seeing people film. Here in New York, we're like right next to the guy next door. So it's a whole different energy, And I think it's a lot of fun.”

Caan, 50, is the son of actor James Caan, famous for his role as Sonny Corleone in “The Godfather” and “Misery.” The younger Caan was raised in California, but says, “I spent a lot of time in New York growing up my whole life.

“But I was raised by East Coast people, so, I don't know ... My old man was so animated and so interesting to watch that as an actor, you can't help but pick up on those things,” he says.

“I just think that that energy and that type of guy is something that has always been interesting to me, and that the city has always been so interesting to me.

“It's always somewhere that felt like home to me for one reason or another. The culture of New York City, the attitude, just that vibe is something that I just connected with ... My old man was — it was very important to him that I had some of those roots. It meant a lot to him. New York's always felt like home to me.”

Merkerson back as simpatico leader

“Chicago Med” will be back ministering to the ill on Wednesday. Familiar faces return including S. Epatha Merkerson as the chief of medical services. Merkerson is used to playing a leader of men and women as she did for 395 episodes on “Law & Order” portraying the tough Lt. Van Buren.

“She’s the administrator of the hospital, so she’s a woman that has to deal with issues of the hospital,” says Merkerson.

“She’s not unlike Van Buren in the sense that she’s a person of authority. But the things I like about Sharon Goodwin (in “Chicago Med”) is her heart and how she deals with all the people she has to deal with, especially with her relationship with Dr. Charles, (played by Oliver Platt.) He’s extraordinarily funny and witty.

“I like the exploration of people, and I think you find that in acting and in theater and film. It is a discovery of the human condition and how you fit in that. And you can express that and show that. It’s a perfect profession for me because I do like watching people and delving into character and seeing another side of life. I think that’s the reason I went toward the arts and specifically theater.”

Real-life spouses play spouses on TV

Tea Leoni and Tim Daly portray spouses in NBC’s new “Newlyweds,” premiering Oct. 23 and landing on Peacock the next day.

Leoni and Daly are married in real life. They met when they co-starred on “Madame Secretary” for CBS. Though she’s starred in several TV series, Leoni admits she wasn’t comfortable executing them.

“I'll tell you now, when I did ‘Flying Blind’ and ‘Naked Truth,’ they used to hang air‑sickness bags behind all of the sets. And I used to ‘hurl’ before I came out. And in that time, since I did that, I missed it, and I realized that I'm old enough, I'm tough. I'm good, I can do this. This is fun.

“I can't believe I used to vomit about it. I mean, I used to be so scared. And, actually, it's still a little scary, but then you come out. And then we are working together. I love that. You don't get that opportunity in film and single cam. You don't get that feedback, and so it's great ... I love it now.”

HBO declares 'War' on Thursdays

It’s real combat as depicted in a vicious divorce in “War,” streaming on HBO with new episodes every Thursday. The series stars Dominic West and Sienna Miller as the battling antagonists in the drama. But the two performers never met until the end of the filming.

“I didn't have nearly enough scenes with Sienna,” recalls West, who was so perfect in “The Affair,” which streamed on Showtime. “It was terrible. That was why I wanted to do the show, and we didn't really meet until the sort of last week when she was eight-and-a half months pregnant, so I couldn't get near her.”

West has been acting since he was 9. “My mother was at an amateur theater company in Sheffield in Yorkshire where I grew up,” he says. “And it was great. It was theater and greasepaint and all these crazy people who had other jobs. They just did it for fun, and they put on a production of ‘The Winslow Boy.’

"I was 9 so they got me in to play the Winslow boy, and I loved it. I just loved it. I don’t think I consciously thought this is what I’d like to do, I just thought, ‘I love this! This really makes sense. And I feel very at-home on stage.’ And it hasn’t stopped since then really.”

———

©2026 Tribune Content Agency, LLC