'After this role, no garbage-rummaging rodent can say I'm one sandwich away from fat ever again.' Photos: Handout
When I see something labelled as "anti-woke", I'm usually on it like a flea on a mangy cat.
Don't get me wrong; I'm all for social justice, inclusiveness and whatever else one may associate with wokeness.
But pushing agendas down the throat, which has led to the present-day defilement of franchises like Star Trek (which was all about "woke" without ever making a big deal of it since the 1960s), just doesn't sit right.
So when I read that The Terminal List, Prime Video's new Navy SEAL action/revenge thriller series starring Chris Pratt, was being both reviled (by critics) and revered (by viewers) as "anti-woke", I signed right up.
And... duh? I didn't find it any different from "beloved" revenge flicks like Death Wish, First Blood or The Exterminator or even my late-teens reading staple, The Executioner books by Don Pendleton.
Oh, so "anti-woke" is "retro". (Gru voice: Eeenteresting.)
Of course, List comes dressed up with all the gritty, hard-nosed seriousness of authentic military tactics for "realism", mood shots, dramatic (extreme) close-ups and modern TV/cinema's penchant for dark scenes so dark you'll occasionally wonder if your TV is on.
It's one grim-dark ride, sure enough.
'My agent really needs to stop putting me in situations where relentless military types won't rest until they drink my blood from a boot.'
After eight episodes of being hit over the head with conspiracies, dodgy perspectives (the hero has brain health issues that result in his being an unreliable narrator), shootouts, headshots, a callous disregard for human life and politicians actually trying to do the right thing, I'm somewhere in between the love and hate – leaning more towards the "revere" end if not all the way there.
List is adapted from the first of former SEAL Jack Carr's five books (so far) about Lt Cmdr James Reece (a very committed Pratt), who starts in a dark place – and the going just gets bleaker.
After an ambush that could only have resulted from betrayal, Reece wants answers. But one very bad thing after another later, he finds himself alone and hunted by relentless foes... that is, if he isn't imagining it.
Maybe he's not alone; crusading reporter Karen Buranek (Fresh Off The Boat's Constance Wu) seems on his side, possibly only as long as he holds the key to her next big expose.
It appears the only one he can trust, when his own health makes it hard to rely even on himself, is best buddy Ben Edwards (Taylor Kitsch), a former SEAL turned CIA operative.
'Here's a thought ... if this guy will just shoot to wound law enforcement types who aren't on his kill list, maybe we should be wearing leg armour instead of body armour?'
There is a heart-rending aspect to how the series derives its title, but it's best left discovered during your own viewing.
Suffice to say, given everything that happens to him, you can't really fault Reece for the graphic and spleen-venting ways in which his targets are hit.
Maybe that's part of the reason for the critical hate: its insistence on justifying eye-for-an-eye retribution.
But dang if many of us didn't grow up on fare like this, and would eagerly devour it in these times of general distrust.
To be honest, List can get overindulgent with its intrigue which, when you finally learn the extent of it, is rather simple – it just has a bloated cast of characters.
That cluttered web actually works against the show and keeps it from being a smooth, quick binge.
A subplot involving a sicario training ground could have been dropped (at the expense of a pretty good action sequence) and one, perhaps two episodes cut to greatly improve the overall pacing.
Still, Pratt's commitment, with able support from Kitsch, Wu and Jeanne Tripplehorn (as the politician trying to do right, emphasis on "trying"), help to hold interest, even when the bloodletting seems to hog the spotlight. (Yeah, I can hear you asking, "And that's a bad thing because?")
All eight episodes of The Terminal List are available to stream on Prime Video.
Summary:
An eye for an eye makes the snow melt
