NCIS Hawaii fans backlash against 'awkward' NCIS LA Sam Hanna's 'terrible' integration

WARNING: This article contains spoilers from NCIS Hawaii.

NCIS Hawaii fans have labelled Agent Sam Hanna’s appearance in the spin-off as “forced” and “awkward”.

Season three made its debut on CBS earlier this month, bringing back the likes of Agent Jane Tennant (played by Vanessa Lachey) and the rest of her team every Monday night.

In the second series finale, Jane and FBI Agent Kate Whistler (Tori Anderson) were under attack when NCIS Los Angeles' Agent Sam Hanna (LL Cool J) unexpectedly came to their rescue.

Hanna tells the others that he has been sent to the island state to lead a seminar but Jesse Boone (Noah Mills) had his suspicions there was another reason.

Upon further digging, Ernie Malik (Jason Antoon) found out Hanna was getting paid by something called “Elite” but further details are yet to be revealed.

Read more: NCIS Hawaii’s Jason Antoon embodied Ernie Malik in ‘real life’ to catch criminal

While some NCIS Los Angeles fans have been thrilled to see Cool J reprise his role as Hanna, others have felt let down by his appearance.

Kickstarting the Reddit thread, one viewer wrote: “I don't know about anyone else, but I'm really starting to get annoyed with Tennant and Boone's attitude towards Hannah being in Hawaii.”

But in retaliation to this, another commented: “Honestly I just don't think they've integrated him well at all (yet).

“I've never really watched LA, just a couple of episodes here and there, and tbh I think the way they've tried to bring Sam into Hawai'i doesn't make him particularly likable for anyone who hasn't seen him in LA.”

A third fan suggested it was because of Agent G Callen’s (Chris O’Donnell) presence that made Hanna’s presence in the show feel off.

They explained: “LA is by far my favourite of the shows...and they've just done a terrible job of integrating him, period.

“His character on LA was so heavily predicated on the ‘straight man’ opposite him to play against. Hawaii just doesn't have that piece.

“It's not that Sam is really a "different character" on this show...it's that he doesn't have G Callen to play off of.

“It literally took multiple seasons and huge climactic events to build that character relationship into something phenomenal.

“They don't have time, or the right characters for that here. So they just parachuted him in here and accordingly, it feels totally forced and awkward.”

It isn’t clear how long Cool J is going to be in NCIS Hawaii for but he won’t be a permanent member.

Prior to series three starting, he was named as a recurring character brought in for a story arc.

So while Hanna has kept quiet so far on the real reasons for him showing up in Hawaii, the truth is bound to come out soon enough.

NCIS Hawaii season three continues every Monday on CBS.