Brief Story Line
James Reece (Chris Pratt - Jurassic World Dominion, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 etc) was a Navy SEAL commander and leader of Alpha platoon who have been assigned to capture a dangerous terrorist. After their latest attempt, Reece returned home to the US with doubts surrounding the mission, while trying to adjust to normal life with his wife Lauren (Riley Keough - The Guilty, Mad Max: Fury Road etc) and young daughter Lucy (Arlo Metz).
Reece was also approached by a journalist Katie Buranek (Constance Wu - Wish Dragon, EastSiders TV series etc) who suspected something related to that mission. As things progressed, it would appear that Reece's suspicion was justified and he decided to seek the help from his brother, CIA agent Ben Edwards (Taylor Kitsch - 21 Bridges, Battleship etc) to investigate.
So what went wrong during that mission and how would the story conclude? You can find them all in this series.
End of Brief Story Line
When I watched the first episode of the series, I was surprised seeing Chris Pratt in here as he portrayed a serious and very mature (with beards and all) commander of Navy SEAL having several soldiers under his command. It was far from his usual joking around, charming and fun guy. While still trying to get used to his looks and characterization, the story developed quite fast especially during the mission where I realized then that this would be a violent series (which explained the R rating in the US). It also felt very dark which was enhanced by some dramatic moments.
Subsequently though, I felt that things only started to get really exciting from episode 3 where it got better as it progressed. My favorite one was definitely episode 5 titled Disruption which was fast paced, violent and shocking. I also liked the final episode, although there was something that I got to say was surprising but not in a pleasant way. I am not sure if it was the actual story from the novel or altered by the writers. Yes, this series was indeed based on novel of the same title written by Jack Carr.
In the whole 8 episodes which had duration between 51 minutes to a little over 1 hour, the dark tone was very strong. I think there was not a single light moment and the series felt very grim with a sense that nothing was right for the lead character. As I said above, Chris Pratt gave an adult performance here and he seemed dedicated enough. The other cast were OK in their roles. In addition to the names I mentioned, there was also the appearance of regular cast Jeanne Tripplehorn (Big Love TV series, The Firm etc) as Secretary of Defense Lorraine Hartley and some familiar faces to me in support roles such as Jai Courtney (Jolt, Terminator Genisys etc) as Steve Horn, J. D. Pardo (F9, Mayans M.C TV series etc) as FBI special agent Tony Layun and LaMonica Garrett (Primal etc) as Commander Bill Cox.
During the opening & closing credits, I also noticed the name Antoine Fuqua (director of The Equalizer 2, The Magnificent Seven 2016 version etc) who served as one of the executive producers together with Pratt himself, Jack Carr and few others. Fuqua even directed the first episode which set up the series nicely. Btw, there was no indication yet by the time I wrote this post whether the series was renewed for second season. I personally would prefer this to be a limited series as it already had a pretty nice ending, but seeing that Jack Carr had written few novels in The Terminal List series, chances are it might be made into more than 1 season.
Overall I enjoyed the action of the series which was entertaining, especially episode 4, 5 and 8. Episode 6 also reminded me a bit of The First Blood movie, perhaps due to similar circumstances on the mental state of Reece and Rambo. The story was quite interesting even if it might have been a little bit depressing, while the intrigue at times felt too generic, like something from Jack Reacher novels. But in the end, if what you are looking for is an action thriller series with brutal violent action sequence where the lead character had to fight against the odds, combined with some intricate power play in the background, then this one should satisfy you as it did to me.
Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out of 5 stars
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