TV Talk: ‘NCIS’ spins off into streaming with ‘Tony & Ziva’

Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week.

“NCIS” fans were disappointed when Ziva David (2000 Carnegie Mellon University grad Cote de Pablo) exited the series in 2013, bereft when the show killed Ziva off-screen in absentia and surprised and relieved to see her return, alive, for episodes in 2016.

Ziva and sparring partner/love interest Tony DiNozzo (Michael Weatherly) always gave the show some of its lighter and more romantic moments, so it’s unsurprising to see them return in a 10-episode, spinoff streaming series, “NCIS: Tony & Ziva,” debuting Sept. 4 on Paramount+. (New episodes drop weekly on Thursdays through Oct. 23.)

Given the show’s title, viewers might expect to find them together as a couple, but that’s not the case.

As “Tony & Ziva” begins, the pair are co-parenting daughter Tali in Paris, but they’re not a couple. Ziva runs a language immersion school; Tony oversees a computer security company that comes under attack with threats to abduct Tali, which sends the two, along with some new characters, on the run across Europe.

That format makes this “NCIS” quite different from all previous iterations that tended to be close-ended with some running storylines. “Tony & Ziva” is highly serialized, which is a differentiator, along with more profanity, including several f-bombs.

But tonally, “Tony & Ziva” hews to the usual “NCIS” vibe and, in particular, the established, banter-filled tone of the Ziva and Tony relationship.

The second episode includes a whole set piece around what Tony dubs “murder cars,” high-tech electric vehicles that try to kill Ziva and Tony.

My intention since mid-June, when the “Tony & Ziva” premiere date was announced, was for this column to be an interview with de Pablo, whom I previously interviewed at length in 2010. I wanted to ask about why she left the show, what she thought when the show announced Ziva was “killed” and why she opted to return in 2016 and again now (beyond the paycheck as a draw). But de Pablo was a no-show for a scheduled interview, which was rescheduled and then canceled before it could occur due to her lack of availability.