If you wanted to explore the team's dynamics, then NCIS: Hawai'i Season 1 Episode 2 was for you.

The case of the week was decent, but I was ready for it to be over quickly. The constant twists and turns made it too difficult to predict.

My recommendation would be for the writers to stop trying too hard to keep the audience engaged.

Slowing the pace of the case down but finding a way to keep the same level of character development would have made this a near-perfect installment.

The concept was good and very different from the typical cases we've had on NCIS, NCIS: Los Angeles, and NCIS: New Orleans, and part of the beauty of this series is that it's utilizing Hawaii to its full advantage.

There's nothing worse than a project not embracing the place it is set. Quite frankly, I'd tune into NCIS: Hawai'i for the breathtaking visuals more than anything else.

NCIS: Hawai'i Season 1 Episode 1 did an admirable job of introducing Jane, her team, and the conflicts and "Boom" was a successful attempt at expanding on the seeds planted in the premiere.

Jane took more of a backseat, and it made sense. She's in this position of power, and the people below her are still blossoming into these standout agents.

I can't be the only one who worried about Vanessa Lachey as the lead, but seriously, she's killing it so far. She brings a certain warmth to Jane that makes her approachable to everyone.

The connection between Jane and Joe has been a bright spot since the premiere, and it helps matters that the actors are selling the fact their characters are enjoying this bond between them.

The characters are both high-ranking in their own respective fields, and they were supposed to be against each other, based on an early scene in the pilot, but somehow, they're proving the naysayers wrong.

This being an NCIS-universe series, I won't be surprised if they graduate to romance from platonic at some point, but if the writing for both characters remains as strong, who am I to judge?

Jane's analogy about porn was both awkward and genius, and you could tell it made Joe like this side of her even more. Joe strikes me as a by-the-books kind of person, while Jane likes to play more in the gray area.

It's a tried and tested formula on procedurals. Put these characters together on the screen, and you'll get results.

The same is happening with Lucy and Kate, and thankfully, it doesn't feel as repetitive as you might think.

It's clear Lucy wants to be more than friends with Kate, but the latter is more worried about how people would perceive a romance with someone from another department, and it's a shame.

Lucy taking Kate's comments literally was not a surprise, but something tells me Lucy is worried about sleeping with Kate and Kate regretting it the next morning.

Love and lust are two very different things, and it wouldn't be a shocker if we learned the two women wanted very different things.

The writers are taking a less is more approach with these two that's helping to make me want more. If we can get an elevator broken and them stuck in it together to actually have a conversation about where they stand, well, it would help them understand each other better.

They might realize that they're not made for each other and want very different things in life. It happens!

Kai continues to impress. He's the character I want back on the screen the moment it shifts to someone else because there's so much we don't know about him.

He's an enigmatic character who doesn't like to show emotion, and that was beautifully highlighted when he said he would still be in the family house had his mother still been living.

I'm guessing his father didn't know how to react when his wife died. People deal with grief in different ways, and it sure sounds like Kai was cast aside as his father's grief took center stage.

I have to commend the writers for giving the father more of a personality beyond the "he was a terrible dad" trope. Kai leaving his dog with his father as he tried to sort out the living situation suggested Kai knew he his was not a bad person.

It was more a case of the house becoming volatile when they lived together after his mother's death, and this needs to be further explored in the coming episodes.

The only issue I had with this episode was the case and its head-scratching twists. The only true positive from the case was that Lucy mastered the art of weeding out the good and the bad information from witnesses.

She was thinking too much on an emotional level, and Jane truly cemented herself as the best boss around in the way she managed to coach her team member to success.

Okay, NCIS: Hawai'i fanatics!

What are your thoughts on the impressive character development?

Who's your favorite?