NCIS (Season 22) (DVD Review)
Season 22 of NCIS aired in 2024-2025 with 20 episodes. The season opens with the premiere Empty Nest, where we find the team more scattered than usual: Jessica Knight is out West leading REACT trainings, Nick Torres is deep undercover, McGee is pursuing promotion, and Alden Parker is left to keep the core group together. Across the season the cases range from missing agents, intelligence leaks, investigative corruption, murders tied to the Navy, and cartel intrigue.
The big season arc builds toward the finale Nexus, where the team uncovers the truth behind the Nexus cartel, its connection to mob boss Carla Marino, and a deeply personal play against Parker. The plot turns darker as loyalties are tested, family histories surface, and the stakes include stolen nuclear material.
Characters & Their Journeys
- Alden Parker (Gary Cole) continues as the show’s lead, stepping up to guide a team in flux. The season leans into his internal conflicts—balancing duty, trust, and what the job demands. His family becomes more central, especially toward the end.
- McGee (Sean Murray) faces his own pressures: career aspirations, credibility, and being pulled into ethical grey zones when investigating corruption.
- Nick Torres (Wilmer Valderrama) spends much of the season undercover, torn between accomplishing the mission and dealing with the fallout that covert work brings.
- Jessica “Jess” Knight (Katrina Law) is more physically absent in many early episodes, still, her arc is emotionally significant, especially when personal and professional worlds collide.
- Supporting Players — Jimmy Palmer, Kasie Hines, Parker’s father, Carla Marino — all play key roles, either helping to root out the conspiracies, or becoming part of them. Carla Marino emerges not just as an antagonist, but someone with history tied to Parker, making the conflict feel more personal.
What Works
- Personal Stakes Are Higher: When the threats hit closer to home (family, history, secrets), the show feels more invested. The finale’s twist involving Parker’s father strengthens emotional weight.
- Variety in Plots: From undercover operations to internal investigations, to more typical case-of-the-week murders, the season keeps shifting tone, which helps avoid monotony.
- Strong Villain Arc: Carla Marino is a well-drawn antagonist, not just evil for evil’s sake but someone whose agenda is tied into past events and Parker’s own history. That makes the final episodes more compelling.
What Falls Short
- Pacing Issues: With a long season and many different threads, some episodes feel like filler or meandering, especially when jumping between the main arc and lighter subplots. Occasionally the link between the personal stakes and the case of the week feels forced.
- Character Under-use: Some characters who had strong potential get sidelined. For example, Jessica Knight’s absence in many early episodes means her arc has to work extra hard to justify its payoff.
- Tone Inconsistency: The show sometimes flickers between high suspense, drama, and procedural basics. The shifts can be jarring—sometimes the emotional beats hit, other times they don’t land because the show is suddenly back in “case of the week” mode.
- Twist Overload & Convenience: Toward the end, especially in the finale, plot twists pile up. Some feel earned; others feel a little contrived, especially given the long buildup. The reveal about the cartel leadership and the tie to Parker’s past, while dramatic, strains plausibility in spots.
Verdict
NCIS Season 22 isn’t flawless, but it manages more hits than misses. If you’ve been watching for a while, you’ll appreciate how it leans into the emotional side of its characters—Parker’s past, McGee’s growth, Torres’ moral tightrope. The finale gives some satisfying (and heart-pounding) turns.
For newcomers, the season can be a bit uneven: you’ll sometimes feel lost or that the show is stretching to balance its many moving parts. But for loyal fans, Season 22 offers enough drama, tension, and character payoff to stay worthwhile.
If I were to rate it: somewhere in the “good but slightly mixed” range. Not the show at its peak, but far from its low point either.
Season 
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Adam Toroni-Byrne
Adam is a lifelong physical media collector. His love of collecting began with a My First Sony radio and his parent's cassette collection. Since the age of 3, Adam has collected music on vinyl, tape and CD and films on VHS, DVD, Blu-ray and UHD Blu-ray. Adam likes to think of himself as the queer voice of Whysoblu. Outside of his work as a writer at Whysoblu, Adam teaches preschool and trains to be a boxer although admittedly, he's not very good.
