I liked the backdoor pilot of NCIS:LA. It wasn't like rocking awesome but I fell in love with the team. The way they interacted, the way G. considered the team his family... I loved the atmosphere they set up.

And I understand about not wanting to watch something until you catch up. I'm the same with Criminal Minds. I would love to watch the new episodes but I got stuck somewhere around the finale of S1 and never caught up...