NCIS Sydney: The evergreen crime franchise’s first OS outing

WATCH / Spin when you’re winning

The latest NCIS spin-off heads Down Under to solve crimes near televisual landmarks.Credit: Paramount

In TV, the term “spin-off” can be a turn-off, synonymous, perhaps, with the lazy parts of the Hollywood machine. A spin-off is seen as a shortcut to success: why bother trying to write the next Breaking Bad when you can take the best character, shady lawyer Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk), and give him his own series? But as Better Call Saul reminded us, a spin-off can spin into a win, outgrowing its origins to become a stand-out in its own right.

NCIS is, arguably, the most successful spin-off of all time, stemming from the hit ’90s crime procedural JAG. But while JAG gave us NCIS, NCIS has given us even more. Part naval drama, part police procedural, NCIS is one of the few spin-offs to run longer than the original show and it has since generated other successful spin-offs including NCIS: Los Angeles, NCIS: New Orleans and NCIS: Hawai’i. Now it’s our turn with NCIS: Sydney, the first international spin-off of the franchise, airing on Paramount+.

It’s basically Water Rats for a new generation as a team of cops – led by former Home & Away star Todd Lasance (pictured, with Olivia Swann) – solves crimes on Sydney Harbour. While the seemingly endless shots of our most famous landmarks feel designed to impress American audiences – oh, look! The Opera House again! – NCIS: Sydney does an excellent job of playing to fans of the original series and finding a tone of its own.

Spears’ pacy memoir dishes up a story of exploitation and strength with a side of salacious love affairs.

Perhaps the strangest thing about the series is that between all the crimes being committed – from international terrorist cells to underwater drug syndicates – not one person receives a single parking ticket. Now, that would make it genuinely local. Thomas Mitchell

READ / Piece of her

You’ve no doubt seen plenty of chatter already about Britney Spears’ The Woman in Me ($50), but it’s definitely worth reading the memoir for yourself (or listening to the fabulous Michelle Williams narrate the audiobook). From her childhood to conservatorship, it’s a fast-moving read that’s both a story of exploitation and a statement of strength. If you want salacious details about love affairs, you’ll find those, too, as well as behind-the-scenes insight into the moments that hit the headlines. Ultimately, perhaps, this is a story that transcends Spears’ personal circumstances to reflect on society as a whole. Melanie Kembrey

LISTEN / New seekers

No question is too big or small to be tackled on the Search Engine podcast.

No one goes down the rabbit hole quite as engagingly as American journalist PJ Vogt, co-host of the nerdy, tech-culture podcast Reply All – a mega-hit, until it was canned after a toxic workplace scandal. Unscathed, Vogt has returned to the podosphere with Search Engine, whose mission is to answer the kind of questions you might google at 11pm on a wet Sunday night: “How sad are the monkeys in the zoo?” (quite, apparently); “How do I find new music now that I’m old and irrelevant?“; “Wait, should I not be drinking airplane coffee?” It’s more than simple fairy floss: the two-part series on the fentanyl epidemic was ball-breakingly good. Deborah Cooke

WEAR / The shining

This thigh-skimming silver skirt is the opposite of heavy metal.

If you’re looking for party season outfit inspo, consider Viktoria & Woods’ “Moonwalk” skirt ($850). The very opposite of heavy metal, this thigh-skimming silver lady will deliver many happy returns, her snowy leather sheen suitable for an entire onslaught of festive events – and beyond. Her weight offers a concession to warmth, but if you’re still worried about a cold snap (we’re looking at you, Melbourne), just throw on a pair of contrasting tights. Damien Woolnough

SHOP / Bare necessity

Barefoot Rug Cleaner is a collaboration between natural fibre-rug trailblazers Armadillo and skincare brand Leif.

How to spot-clean wool rugs without introducing harsh chemicals? Enter Barefoot Rug Cleaner ($35), a non-toxic, plant-based cleaner for wool fibres. Biodegradable and Australian-made, the formula includes ethanol denat and sodium citrate to lift grease and stains without stripping away the inherent qualities of natural-wool fibres, and the antibacterial properties of blue mallee eucalyptus essential oil to revive and refresh. With an uplifting camphor aroma and packaged in a recycled bottle, this collab between natural-fibre-rug trailblazers Armadillo and Leif, makers of clean skincare products, is a win-win for your home and the environment. Frances Mocnik

DRINK / Special delivery

Handpicked Wines offers the chance to order wine and a matching cheese for home delivery.

There’s the romantic vision of tootling around regional Australia, visiting cellar doors and gradually filling the boot with boxes of wine to sip at home in fond reminiscence. Then there’s the reality of a packed diary and the empty-fridge rush to the bottle shop on the nearest corner. Handpicked Wines offers a happy middle ground. The wine company has cellar doors in the centre of Melbourne and Sydney, where it showcases wine from its six vineyards in Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia. There are guided tastings, accompanying snacks to match and you can, of course, buy wine (from $29) to take home. Still too hard? You can order wine and a matching cheese pack (no minimum order) for delivery to most urban doorstops. Handpicked Wines Cellar Door: 50 Kensington St, Chippendale, NSW, and 80 Collins St, Melbourne Dani Valent

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