‘NCIS’ season 14 premiere reaction: How were Wilmer Valderrama, Jennifer Esposito?

We don’t think anyone is going to pretend that Michael Weatherly is replaceable on “NCIS.” After 13 years on the job, it feels pretty near impossible that anyone is going to come close to doing what he did.

Yet, we gotta say that we enjoyed the debut appearances of Jennifer Esposito and Wilmer Valderrama way more than we even thought that we would going into the premiere episode Tuesday night. There are some flaws here and there with the story, but as a whole the performances and the chemistry seems to be there.

For Esposito’s Alex Quinn in particular, this was as good of a debut as you could have hoped for. She has a natural swagger that comes with years on the job, and she is a foil to Gibbs in a way that nobody else has been. She challenges him, and she’s smart enough to understand how to push his buttons. She’s also already got his respect. The more these two work together this season, the happier we’ll probably be.

As for Valderrama’s Nick Torres, we can see this working since he is a fiery personality and a guy who will be unafraid to dive into any mission put before him. Now that we’ve said that, they do need to watch out when it comes to painting him with the “rebel” brush. Tonight’s episode was a tad predictable for him since he learned about “playing by the rules,” but we’ve loved Valderrama since “That 70’s Show” and we think this experience could work out very well for him once he gets a chance to show off some different muscles.

Did you enjoy the premiere, and the debuts of the newcomers? Vote in the poll below.

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