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The Terminal List

Where to watch.

Watch The Terminal List with a subscription on Prime Video.

Cast & Crew

Chris Pratt

James Reece

Constance Wu

Katie Buranek

Taylor Kitsch

Ben Edwards

Jeanne Tripplehorn

Lorraine Hartley

Riley Keough

Lauren Reece

Popular TV on Streaming

Tv news & guides, this show is featured in the following articles., series info.

Movie Reviews

Tv/streaming, collections, great movies, chaz's journal, contributors, prime video's the terminal list is an alpha male cry for help.

the terminal list movie review

In the first episode of Prime Video’s new action series “The Terminal List,” Chris Pratt ’s Cmdr. James Reece guides his fellow Navy SEALs on an in-and-out mission to Syria that goes horribly wrong. It’s as if people were waiting for him. Was it a setup? The only man who survives with Reece is his buddy Boozer, who flies back with Reece and then dies days later of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Or was he murdered? Was Boozer even on that plane? Reece listens to audio recordings from the attack, and the recordings aren’t at all how he remembered it. Could they be deep fakes? Then, when Reece is getting his brain scanned, the lab is attacked by masked men who try to kill Reece, but thankfully he fights them off. Except that it’s too late, as his wife ( Riley Keough ) and child (Arlo Metz) have already suffered from the wrath of a deadly, anonymous evil force that wants to silence Reece. Or did Reece do it himself before getting his head examined?  

Based on the novel by Jack Carr, with that doozy of a pilot directed by Antoine Fuqua , “The Terminal List” more or less takes place within the mind of someone who is shown to not be right in the head. But what’s bizarre about this show, if not poor taste, is how much its rambling plotting plays into conspiracy theory wish fulfillment—it’s full of that affirming horror that Reece is right: It’s all even worse and more expansive than it looks, and that only he can stop it. The series practically forgets his initial placement as an unreliable protagonist, as unstable and tragic in a system that is not helping him, and that has done psychological damage by sending him to war over and over. Instead “The Terminal List” just embraces him for the violence he can unleash. In action movie speak, it’s “Rambo: First Blood” that thinks like “Rambo: First Blood Part II.” And because “Rambo: First Blood” is not what cemented Rambo’s pop culture status, you can imagine what a big hit “The Terminal List” is bound to become, especially for anyone looking to identify with Reece.  

“The Terminal List” exists well within the Prime Video collection of these book-approved JR heroes protecting America's truth and values, as seen with Jack Reacher and Jack Ryan. But this does not even feign to have the composure of those stories, instead embracing every massive gut-punching beat and conspiracy that it can for their sensations, and then applying the soothing nature of Reece's Navy SEAL training to make it all better. “The Terminal List” turns Reece into the mega American action hero, one who has the skills and physical fortitude because of his Navy SEAL training, not to mention the connections (like frogman buddy Ben [ Taylor Kitsch ], who provides some whiffs of comedic relief) who have technology and planes for getaways. But unlike with Jack Reacher and Jack Ryan, if “The Terminal List” were a person you would not shake their hand. You would call for help.  

the terminal list movie review

Reece’s questions are only the beginning for other matters of business that seek to be as explosive and twisty as possible. There are many other pieces here in service of getting to the truth, like Constance Wu ’s Katie, an intriguing character in the wrong show. She investigates military action but has one of the show’s few good lines: “I don’t criticize your work; I question your assignment.” Katie is a watcher who is herself being surveilled by the FBI, especially as Reece becomes a larger person of interest. There's a larger conspiracy afoot, and it involves special interest groups that can sway military budget bills. At the least, “The Terminal List” has a standout larger villain with Jai Courtney , a buff and business-savvy man with a soldier's expertise who is also seeking to make billions off something that would change war forever.  He's a dynamic, larger-than-life adversary for Reece. It's almost laugh-out-loud funny what "The Terminal List" does with this potential. 

“The Terminal List” gets its name from a list that Reece creates on the back of his dead kid’s drawing, with new names added and crossed off, sometimes with blood. To take care of this, the series gets into stark, indulgent 50-minute episodes that exist for no greater need than seeing Reece win, like when he ventures to find the hired hands who attacked his wife and child. At first, it is an uncertain, psychological question, but no, it’s very literal, and it is answered with an '80s-wannabe action scene that also shows how savage Reece can be when it comes to getting his prized kill. You practically expect the camera to zoom way out and show the previous scenes as just the imagination of a young kid playing with action figures. It would make more sense that way.  

In another instance, Reece performs an act of terrorism in San Francisco, because, well, he has a to-shoot list that needs marking, and he has the skills to pull it off more or less by himself. There’s also a moment in which Reece snipes one of his moving targets while accompanied by Bob Dylan ’s “Masters of War,” albeit the dramatic movie trailer-ready, tone-deaf version we never needed, but nonetheless can accompany a cool shot of a car tumbling down the road. These sequences nonetheless give “The Terminal List” its purpose, as the plotting is so removed from its original feel that it barely has overall tension, with its emotional stakes themselves becoming touch-and-go. Now and then, Reece has a vision of his wife and child, which are meant to stoke our reserves of anguished justice. At the most, they remind us how Pratt’s serious acting still does not have much depth to it, and he does no service to that with his performance in this openly deranged show. 

But it doesn’t matter who plays this role, as Reece is not about charisma or personality. James Reece is the ultimate soldier id. He’s the myth of the American soldier molded by numerous war movies before him, without remembering that he is a myth. So much within action tales, whether based on cops, secret agents, or soldiers, can be gratuitous, and that can be their gritty fun. But “The Terminal List” is gratuitous with a dead-serious face, one that is introduced as being unstable before its accompanying body is then treated like our instrument of truth. Released just in time for the Fourth of July, “The Terminal List” is jingoism at its finest, and absolute worst.  

Six episodes of season one were screened for review. "The Terminal List" premieres on Prime Video on July 1.

Nick Allen

Nick Allen is the former Senior Editor at RogerEbert.com and a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

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Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Terminal List’ On Prime Video, Where Chris Pratt Is A Navy SEAL Commander Who Fights His Own Memory To Investigate A Conspiracy

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Chris Pratt has spent the better part of the last eight years leaving the doughy comic nice guy persona of  Parks and Rec ‘s Andy Dwight behind and becoming a jacked, square-jawed but jovial action star. Still, it’s a bit of a surprise that his return to series TV is as a dead-serious SEAL commander who has a patchy memory and revenge on his mind.

THE TERMINAL LIST : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: As we see surf wash over a beach, we hear Lt. Commander James Reece (Chris Pratt) say in voice over: “In the book of Judges, Gideon asks God how to choose his men for battle.”

The Gist: We see Reese at a military funeral, slamming a Navy emblem angrily into a casket. Two weeks earlier, at Incirlik Air Base, Reece and his Navy SEAL team are given orders to flush out and kill a notorious arms dealer “Chemical Kahani.” The team reaches the Mediterranean shoreline of Syria and enters the labyrinthine crypt leading to where Kahani is hiding out. In the process, they find a trip wire connected to explosives. But once they get around that, they get ambushed, with multiple SEALs and support soldiers getting hit. Then, in a panic, one SEAL, Donny Mitchell (Patrick Schwarzenegger) sets off the trip wire while running.

At least that’s the official word. As he recovers at Incirlik, Reese has to not only deal with invasive dreams about the incident but the fact that 12 of his men died in the operation. When he’s told by investigators that Mitchell set off the trip wire, Reese swears that’s not how it went. He’s also approached by a reporter, Kate Buranek (Constance Wu), who pushes him to leak some info on the botched operation. He tells her that neither him or “Boozer” Vickers (Jared Shaw), who is sitting next to him and is the only other team member to live through the operation, won’t talk.

He comes home to California, and as he’s catching up with his wife Lauren (Riley Keough) and daughter Lucy (Arlo Mertz), and realizes that he has holes in his memory. Then, after he’s called to Boozer’s apartment, where apparently shot himself in the head with his team pistol, Reece is told that Boozer wasn’t in Incirlik when Reece thought he was. He has his best friend and former SEAL Ben Edwards (Taylor Kitsch) start to look into the ambush, because he truly thinks that their unit was a victim of advanced deep fake technology. He’s so convinced, he reaches out to Buranek to figure out whether Boozer was with him or not.

His suspicions are somewhat affirmed when he’s attacked by masked assassins while he’s in an MRI tube. But then the situation gets worse from there.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The Terminal List , based on the book by Jack Carr, seems to have elements of  Jack Ryan ,  Homeland and  SEAL Team rolled into one testosterone-laden series.

Our Take: To say that the first episode of  The Terminal List  is pretty grim would be an understatement. Antoine Fuqua, who directed the first episode (Pratt and creator David DiGilio are also EPs), isn’t exactly known for uplifting fare. But what confuses us about the first episode is that we’re not sure if the series is trying to be a prestige take on the usual uber-masculine military intelligence thriller genre or a standard-grade conspiracy thriller stretched out to eight very dark episodes.

We’re not sure it can be both. When we see Reece going through his memories of the operation, and where they conflict with what his superiors and NCIS investigators are telling him, it’s an intriguing start to the story. As he discovers he has gaps in his memory, how will Reece try to resolve what he knows about his platoon with what really happened?

But then the story devolves in the back half of the first episode, with Reece speculating to Ben about how Boozer couldn’t possibly have killed himself with the team 9mm, because he hated using it instead of his much bigger .45, then the improbable MRI attack that seemingly comes out of nowhere. By the time we get to the end of the episode, it feels more like a full-on conspiracy show and less of an examination of someone who questions his loyalty to a military that’s not telling him the truth, despite the gaps in his memory and obvious PTSD.

It doesn’t help that we have both Pratt and Wu out of their elements here. Sure, Pratt hasn’t been in a pure comedy since his  Parks and Rec days, but most of his action roles have not been nearly as grim as what we see here. In a lot of scenes, Pratt looks more surprised than intense, though he seems to pull off other dramatic scenes with ease. Wu is supposed to be a hard-nosed, activist reporter, but whenever she’s on screen we just want to see her in more comedies like  Just Off The Boat or  Crazy Rich Asians .

As usual in military-focused dramas like these, the dialogue is weighed down by unexplained military jargon and lots of yelling and grunting. The fog of war is an excuse to make the extended ambush scene that starts the episode a confusing jumble of action, and since we have very little connection to the members of Reece’s team, we have no real idea which bearded guy has been shot and which ran towards the trip wire.

Given the truly dark nature of how this first episode ends, we’re not really sure how the show will plow forward, except for Reece and Buranek peeling the layers back of this conspiracy. The fact that we were bored just writing that sentence makes us think we’re one-and-done here.

Sex and Skin: None.

Parting Shot: The final scene is a big spoiler; a we said, it’s pretty damn dark, even by thriller series standards.

Sleeper Star: Jeanne Tripplehorn plays defense secretary Lorraine Hartley, and we know that she’s not there to just make the same speech at a dozen different SEAL funerals. She obviously has something to do with this.

Most Pilot-y Line: After Reece points a gun at Buranek’s head — she was tailing him after one of the funerals — he has her come into the house. When Lauren asks if Buranek wants tea, the reporter cracks, “You’ve got something stronger?” Even the usually funny Constance Wu can’t make that lame line come to life.

Will you stream or skip the grim Chris Pratt vehicle #TheTerminalList on @PrimeVideo ? #SIOSI — Decider (@decider) July 3, 2022

Our Call: SKIP IT. The personality of  The Terminal List can best be described as “grim,” as are the performances of Pratt and the rest of the cast. Life right now is pretty grim as it is; we don’t need this much monotonous darkness in our entertainment, too.

Joel Keller ( @joelkeller ) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com , VanityFair.com , Fast Company and elsewhere.

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Chris Pratt’s New Show Is a Right-Wing Fantasy, but That’s Not the Worst Part

There are reasons to cross this line, but the terminal list ’s aren’t good..

This article contains spoilers for The Terminal List.

The Terminal List , starring Chris Pratt as James Reece, a badass SEAL with a recently-diagnosed brain tumor whose entire team was just killed in a suspicious operation gone wrong, is a visually murky, exceedingly grim revenge story, catnip for people who like to see these kinds of operators let loose on the world. As James Reece’s creator Jack Carr—himself a former SEAL with just the kind of bearded, gun-slinging author photo that you’d expect—described the story in the preface to the first book in his Terminal List series : “It is about what could happen when societal norms, laws, regulations, morals, and ethics give way for a man of extraordinary capability, hardened by war, and set on a course of reckoning; a man who is, for all practical purposes, already dead.” The answer to that question will not surprise you: That man, played drawn and weary by a grey-faced Pratt, travels far and wide, a motley crew of allies in tow, to interrogate and then murder gang members, lawyers, financiers, and military personnel in a variety of creative ways. The conspiracy that killed his team gets revealed by bloodshed, and plenty of it.

Yes, this is, as the Daily Beast’s review’s headline called the show, “an unhinged right-wing revenge fantasy.” Yes, it’s yet another invitation to worship at the altar of the Navy SEALs, who have become, in the decades after 9/11, our culture industries’ warrior saints, which isn’t good . And if you think the show is bad, the book, which is fast-paced and bloody and replete with descriptions of weaponry and gear, is worse. Pratt and showrunner David Digilio toned this thing way down for (Amazon) Prime time. Carr tells you right off the bat that his book is about a “consolidation of power at the federal level” that he sees as a danger to “freedom.” He writes Reece’s main antagonist inside the military command structure as a general with “liberal leanings” who “was clearly more concerned with force diversity and the push to open the SEAL teams to females than he was with crushing America’s enemies.” Reece’s ally in journalism is trustworthy because of her work “exposing the lies and cover-ups that followed the Benghazi fiasco.” Reece even drinks Black Rifle Coffee in the morning, “tempered with some honey and cream.” (That last part sounds good, and I’m going to try it.)

But I’m not here to critique those aspects of the show’s worldview. I’m here to talk about the deaths of Lauren and Lucy, Reece’s wife and elementary-school-aged daughter, played on the show by Riley Keough and Arlo Mertz. The two, brunette and beautiful—the wife, a professional runner and running coach; the daughter, an avid artist—welcome Reece home partway through the first episode. We get some sweet family flashbacks, with Reece on the couch strumming a guitar while the three hang out on a rainy day. I watched the show before reading the book, but I should have known from the fact that those flashbacks also feature a bird fatally slamming into their window that something bad was going to happen to these two. But I didn’t guess it, and so was blindsided when Reece, alerted to possible danger when he’s attacked while getting an MRI, races home to find Lauren and Lucy lying between the island and the counter in their beautiful kitchen, both shot to death. Lauren’s arm is draped over Lucy, as if she was trying to protect her in their last moments.

I don’t think zero shows, ever, should kill children. If you look at the “does a kid die?” category on the website Does the Dog Die?, which catalogs other “trigger” events in entertainment besides the canine ones, you find a few examples of shows and movies that earn it. Consider the episode of The Walking Dead when the sisters Lizzie and Mika die—Mika, because Lizzie, understandably fucked in the head due to living through a zombie apocalypse, kills her to make her into a walker; Lizzie, because the adults taking care of her decide she is too far gone, and they don’t have the time, safe harbor, and psychological expertise necessary to bring her back. I’ll never forget those scenes, but I don’t resent the writers for including them. It was an effective way to show how this situation might impact children and the people who take care of them, and a very persuasive argument that living through an apocalypse as a child or a parent would freaking suck .

In comparison to this, a random child death like Lucy Reece’s is a sacrifice: to plot, to momentum, to heighten Reece’s sense of outrage. We barely get to know Lucy at all, except to hear that she likes to draw and loves Reece—the minimum necessary, really, to justify his mission of vengeance. The book’s daughter is only three, and the show has retained her penchant for art while making her much older, around nine or ten, avoiding the sticky problem of showing the body of a murdered toddler. But the show’s Lucy still draws like a baby—the Lucy picture that Reece uses as scratch paper to write out his “terminal list” of revenge targets is a childish image, three figures in front of a house. I don’t point this out to mock this murdered tween’s artistic acumen, but because the show seems to have barely considered her at all. Her death, and her mother’s, have to happen so that Reece can be finally freed from “societal norms, laws, regulations, morals, and ethics.” If your kid gets murdered, after all, you can be forgiven almost anything. Just ask the Punisher .

“I believe God always has a plan. Life is short, no matter what it is,” said Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in May, when asked what he would say to the families of murdered Uvalde elementary-schoolers. How, we ask one another, could a nation regard the random, violent deaths of children in mass shootings and just move on? Shows like The Terminal List represent parental grief as explosive, but also somehow fulfilling—mission-driven, purposive, meaning something. The show holds Lucy at arm’s length in part due to clunky writing, but also to give us just enough of that taste of grief to justify Reece going supernova, without really making you think too hard about how permanently debilitating experiencing such a thing might be for your average, non-operator parent. The Terminal List is a classic American fantasy about the goodness of the SEALs, the corruption of high-level government officials and corporate shills, and the purifying quality of righteous violence. Lucy’s death adds just one more: the fantasy that if your child was the one killed, you could, somehow, shoot your way out of it.

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The Terminal List : 7 Things to Know About Chris Pratt's Navy SEAL Show

"i did slightly more research than i did to fight as johnny karate," pratt says..

the terminal list movie review

TAGGED AS: Prime Video , psychological thriller , streaming

Always trust a man in uniform?

Maybe not so much in The Terminal List , Prime Video’s psychological action-thriller adaptation of former Navy SEAL Jack Carr’s novel of the same name.

Premiering all eight episodes on July 1, the series stars Chris Pratt as Lt. Commander James Reece — a SEAL who is one of two surviving members of his platoon after a covert mission goes horribly awry. Once back home, Reece is told he suffered a brain injury during the battle. He also has trouble separating fact from fiction about what actually happened in the field; something that begins to bleed over into his life back in California with wife Lauren ( Riley Keough ) and daughter Lucy (Arlo Mertz).

Chris Pratt in The Terminal List

(Photo by Prime Video)

Despite the sensationalism of the plot, the series’ cast and crew strived for authenticity when it came to representing members of the military.

“From the very beginning … what was so important to everyone is that if a veteran sat down, turned this on and watched it, they would at the very least sit there and say, ‘Wow, these guys put in the time energy and effort to get this right,'” says Carr, who is also an executive producer on the series. “Maybe there’s a little Hollywood thing here there, but these guys went to every length … to do everything possible to keep this grounded in the foundation of the realities of modern combat.”

So what does that mean exactly? And what other ways does the show stand out from other military-set thrillers? Rotten Tomatoes interrogated Carr, Pratt, showrunner David DiGilio and first episode director Antoine Fuqua .

1. Pratt’s Training Was a Lot Different From Johnny Karate

The Terminal List Chris Pratt

“I did slightly more research than I did to fight as Johnny Karate ,” Pratt laughs when asked about any comparisons to the kids’ TV host that his character, Andy Dwyre, played in the TV comedy Parks and Recreation .

In all seriousness, former Navy SEAL and current military consultant Ray Mendoza served as a technical advisor on the show, while Pratt’s friend Jared Shaw, another former SEAL and the one whom the actor shadowed while preparing for the film Zero Dark Thirty , was a co-producer on the show and played Reece’s friend and platoon member, Ernest “Boozer” Vickers. Also, former Army ranger Max Adams was a member of the writing staff.

Pratt trained not only in weapons handling — including how to count rounds of ammunition fired and do a tactical reload before entering a dangerous area — but situational awareness, driving techniques and proper language and terminology. (His character, Carr says, should be noted as a prior enlisted SEAL sniper who was moving his way up to Troop Commander).

Pratt has carried this heightened state of awareness into his personal life. He can now tell if a member of the paparazzi is tailing his car.

2. PTSD Is a Plot Point

Chris Pratt terminal list ptsd brain trauma

The horror Reece experienced overseas, and the impact from it, is not something the show ignores.

“I think PTSD and TBI — Traumatic Brain Injury — these are massive issues that are only now really coming into light and being explored in the way that they need to be,” showrunner DiGilio says. “Sometimes people, and writers in particular, can be a little lazy and use it as a crutch instead of really diving into it.”

He says that, even though the show is a psychological thriller, “what we’re excited to do is shine a light on what it’s like for operators to come back home after dealing with these incredibly traumatic events.”

Fuqua adds that “I hope we keep a level of respect for our military men and women” and that “I’m concerned, like we all are, about when they come home. I don’t think we’re taking good care of them. I think we could do better.”

3. The Camera Doesn’t Let the Audience Know What’s Up

chris pratt james reece funeral scene terminal list 700

In setting up the series, Fuqua says he took the “unreliable narrator” approach to scenes where Reece may be under attack (or may just think he’s under attack).

“I track him a lot. And I was stalking him a lot. I would point to the head; his brain from behind,” the director says. “There’s some shots that are really tight on his face where the edges are a little out of focus and his eyes look a little wild to make the audience feel uncomfortable a bit.”

He says the point was to show that “everything was not clear and that was, sort of, the workings of his brain.”

4. Fuqua Uses His Art As a Statement

terminal-list-antoine-fuqua Chris Pratt

The Terminal List was ordered in 2020 right before the coronavirus-related shutdown and the writers broke the first season via Zoom (in fact, they didn’t gather in real life until the show’s premiere event in June).

Fuqua, who has a history of working on military and police-related material with projects like Training Day , Shooter and Brooklyn’s Finest , says he didn’t have any hesitation with continuing with this project as the Black Lives Matter movement grew after the deaths of George Floyd and others in 2020.

“My job is to entertain and to make the best films I can make,” he says. “And then, through the films, I can say something without being preachy. I can say something about justice or I can say something about government control. But my job is to make the best film possible for the audience. And hopefully, they’ll walk away with more than just entertainment.”

5. The Show Opens With a Bible Story, But Isn’t Religious

terminal list chris pratt taylor kitsch

The show opens with a voice-over of Pratt’s Reece telling a story from “The Book of Judges” from the Bible and is about the military leader Gideon choosing the best warriors.

This is a slightly different opening from the book, which starts almost immediately with a battle sequence. DiGilio says that this dialogue happens later in the book, during a scene between Reece and his mother. This scene didn’t make it into the TV adaptation, but the showrunner says he still wanted to include the message of Gideon “because it deals with the warrior ethos.”

“And that’s what Jack Carr’s novel, and this show, does better, I think, than anything else before is it’s a look inside the warrior class,” DiGilio says. “And what happens if you push a member of that class to the breaking point. We knew it was incredibly important to take a story that speaks to the millennia-old tradition of the warrior class and put it up front because it becomes the lens through which to look at the rest of the events.”

He says that the passage is “an incredibly important story because it deals with the warrior ethos.”

“Reece is a man of faith. He’s a man of strength and a man of tradition,” DiGilio says. “And so, we figured, this is a perfect passage to use to introduce the character and these incredible SEALs of Alpha platoon.”

6. The Cast Is Stacked with Known Actors

jd pardo christina vidal terminal list 700

Taylor Kitsch plays Reece’s friend and confidant Ben Edwards, Constance Wu is journalist Katie Buranek and JD Pardo appears as Tony Liddel, a member of the FTF, or Fugitive Task Force.

“Anytime you have a movie star like Chris Pratt driving your a storyline, it demands that you then have movie stars of equal amazing talent and charisma in your other storylines,” DiGilio says. “Any time you step away from your number one on the call sheet, you need to land with actors and actresses who are number ones in their own right.”

He was especially impressed with Mayans, M.C. actor Pardo, who was cast late in filming, but who holds his own against Pratt particularly well in the sixth episode.

7. Comparisons To The Fugitive Are Welcome

chris pratt riley kenough terminal list 700

Fuqua says he remembers watching films like Parallax View and Jacob’s Ladder when he was younger and that he was influenced by the psychological thrillers directed by Brian De Palma . However similarities to the 1997 Andrew Davis –directed action movie The Fugitive about a man wrongly convicted for killing his wife, or its TV predecessor , didn’t dawn on him until this interview.

DiGilio says that the film, which starred Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones , “played heavily in our writers room minds” as they were breaking the story involving Pardo’s character.

“This is a character who is chasing down Reese and questioning what he is doing; questioning his version of justice,” DiGilio says. “I think that, actually, those comparisons are welcome.”

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'The Terminal List' Review: Chris Pratt Stars in Your Dad's New Favorite Show

The Prime Video action series delivers on the action, just not so much in story.

Whether you love or hate Chris Pratt , the career he's built for himself is certainly respectable. Initially breaking out as the lovable doofus Andy Dwyer in Parks & Recreation , Pratt soon was on his way to becoming of the one biggest movie stars in the business. He's Star-Lord in the MCU, is one of the main faces of the massively successful Jurassic World films, and has lent his vocal talents to critically acclaimed animated flicks like The Lego Movie and Onward . Even in more straightforward action films like The Tomorrow War or The Magnificent Seven , Pratt has managed to bring in some of that goofy everyman presence that made him a star. That makes his involvement in the new Prime Video series The Terminal List a bit of a head-scratcher.

It's not that The Terminal List is a bad show; it's insanely entertaining, with some expertly shot and well-choreographed action set-pieces, and a serviceable, albeit cliché tale of revenge. In other words, it's one of those shows your dad will love watching alongside new episodes of Jack Ryan and Bosch . But its overt self-seriousness and commitment to grit can often get in the way of allowing Pratt to be himself onscreen, or at least bring some of that charm that fans of his are familiar with.

RELATED: 'The Terminal List' Images Reveal an Intense and Gripping Military Thriller

Based on the bestselling novel of the same name by former Navy SEAL Jack Carr , The Terminal List centers around James Reece (Pratt), a Navy SEAL who returns home in a state of disarray after an operation gone terribly wrong leads to his entire platoon being ambushed. Upon his arrival back to the states, Reece begins to doubt his own memories and recollections of previous events and suspects that he may be one of those responsible for the attack on his platoon. When the blood and violence start to follow him back to the stateside, causing numerous personal tragedies and putting those he loves in danger, Reece takes matters into his own hands, embarking on a ruthlessly cruel path of revenge.

The Terminal List without a doubt delivers when focusing on its action. It's a blend between Reacher and Commando , with shades of the anti-establishment and anti-war themes of First Blood . One may be quick to dismiss Pratt's James Reece. He's not your typical action hero, and some of the lengths he undertakes in his revenge tour would likely even make John Wick blush. There's even a scene that feels straight out of Mortal Kombat , featuring Pratt's Reece ripping out the intestines of an adversary and hanging him. It's a pseudo-Punisher type tale and at times it's hard to buy a typically likable presence like Pratt in this type of role. He has the physicality down, but there's a bit of a disconnect, especially since the show's writing often doesn't do the audience any favors in knowing whether to condone the actions of his character. While it's easy enough to buy into the misfortunes that plague its protagonist, the series never does enough to make James Reece feel human.

The supporting cast around Pratt is impressive, despite some being ludicrously underutilized. Taylor Kitsch 's performance as Reece's ally Ben Edwards is one of the biggest highlights of the series. Both Kitsch and Pratt are at their best in their scenes together, with authentic chemistry that makes the brotherly bond they have for one another palpable, and it's their interactions that give the show the majority of its emotional elements. After initially risking overexposure in the early 2010s, it's truly nice to see Kitsch getting these types of roles that genuinely bring out his charisma. Jai Courtney is another major standout as Steven Horn, a shady businessman who becomes one of Reece's primary targets. Courtney seems to know the exact kind of project he's in, feeling much more like the villain out of a nineties action flick but never feeling out of place, playing the kind of antagonist that you love to hate. Constance Wu is another winner amongst the ensemble as Katie Buranek, a journalist who becomes an unlikely ally to Reece. While an unlikely addition to the cast, Wu plays off both Pratt and Jeanne Tripplehorn extremely well. Riley Keough , who has proven in the past to be extremely talented, isn't given much to do as Reece's wife to make an impression, despite being listed in the main cast.

It's the generic nature of the writing and execution that is the biggest hurdle for The Terminal List and in the end, it just barely squeaks by. The story itself is insanely predictable and even casual viewers will likely see every twist and turn the series throws at them within the first two episodes. Shows like Reacher succeeded in providing successful misdirects and revelations that had audiences at home jumping to the next episode. With The Terminal List , those who are willing to commit to all 50+ minute episodes, will likely just be tuning in to see what kind of crazy things Pratt does next. The series is undeniably watchable and despite the length of each episode, the story never feels too overstuffed to the point where it drags, but it is also far too simple and any moments of genuine excitement aren't there.

The Terminal List is not some disaster, nor is it unwatchable. In fact, it'll likely garner a huge following and become a hit for the streamer, but a film might have been the more beneficial route to take, especially for Pratt's performance and the overall story. Prime Video has delivered plenty of action-revenge tales; in fact, they seem to have a firm grasp on it with films like Without Remorse , much like Netflix has a grasp on the romantic comedy genre. But at the end of the day, a story this simple shouldn't be this damn long. Pratt has long shown an interest in portraying military roles on screen, as can be seen through his social media as well as his roles in films like Zero Dark Thirty . It's no mystery what attracted him to this kind of project, and he is at the point in his career where he is free to take risks, but it comes at the cost of losing that natural charisma he's brought to other roles. As a show to watch alongside your dad during the summer months, it'll likely do the trick, but this isn't the kind of show that'll garner much discussion — at least until its inevitable second season.

The Terminal List premieres July 1, exclusively on Prime Video.

The Cinemaholic

Review: The Terminal List is an Unrelenting Action Thriller

Tamal Kundu of Review: The Terminal List is an Unrelenting Action Thriller

In the ‘ New Rule ‘ segment of a June 2022 episode of ‘Real Time with Bill Maher,’ the titular comedian and television host drew a connection between Hollywood’s penchant for depicting gratuitous violence and the mass shootings in America. This came in the aftermath of multiple incidents of gun violence, including the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, Texas, where an 18-year-old gunned down nineteen students and two teachers and injured eighteen others before a Border Patrol officer fatally shot him. After the episode aired, netizens were quick to point out that people in other parts of the world watch the same films and TV shows. What is uniquely different about the American population is not the access to entertainment but something completely different.

the terminal list movie review

Frankly, Maher is not the first person to hold a form of art at least partially responsible for certain social ills, and he will not be the last. At first glance, Amazon Prime Video’s ‘The Terminal List’ seems to be the prime example of what Maher spoke about. Its protagonist — a Navy SEAL commander and family man — is literally designated as a domestic terrorist. After the deaths of his men in a mission gone wrong and the brutal killings of his wife and daughter, he embarks on a path of vengeance, killing everyone that has anything to do with either of those incidents. In a lesser hand, ‘The Terminal List’ could have easily become nothing more than revenge porn. But showrunner David DiGilio, known for ‘Strange Angel’ and ‘Crossbones,’ and his team approach the story with an amount of certainty and compassion, and that makes all the difference.

Based on the 2018 namesake action-thriller novel (the first in the ‘Terminal List’ series of books) by Jack Carr, ‘The Terminal List’ revolves around Lt. Commander James Reece ( Chris Pratt ), a Navy SEAL and the leader of his team. During a mission to neutralize an Iranian chemical weapons expert, Reece and his squad are ambushed by the enemies. Reece and only one other person manage to return home, but soon, the latter dies in an apparent case of suicide. As Reece deals with his grief over the loss of his comrades along with frequent headaches and hallucinations, his wife, Lauren (Riley Keough), and daughter, Lucy (Arlo Mertz), are killed by masked assassins. This prompts Reece to seek out those responsible, one by one.

The show’s title comes from the list that Reece maintains on the back of one of the sketches by his daughter. Whenever he learns of a new perpetrator, he adds their name to the list. Reece crosses the name out once they are eliminated. Meanwhile, war correspondent Katie Buranek (Constance Wu) pursues the biggest news of her career. When she first hears Reece’s account of what happened to his men and his family, she dismisses it and regards the naval officer as unwell. She has good reasons to do that. However, as the truth unfolds around her, Buranek and Reece’s fates become inevitably connected.

As the premise suggests, ‘The Terminal List’ — among other things — is ultimately a show about disillusionment. James Reece is a warrior who has devoted his entire life to serving his country. In return, he and his men have been thrown to the wolves. With nothing else to lose, the only thing that Reece can do is fight and move forward. And that’s where the vengeance aspect of the narrative comes into play.

the terminal list movie review

Equipped with a limited arsenal, Pratt is perhaps not the best actor to bring out all the nuances of James Reece as a character. However, he still manages to give an honest and physical performance. One of the best things about the show is that Buranek has a parallel journey to that of Reece, and that separation ends up amplifying Wu’s performance as the firebrand journalist. It allows the character a separate space to grow, away from the protagonist, and still very much in the middle of everything happening in the narrative.

The violence in ‘The Terminal List’ feels unrelenting and vicious, though it sometimes ventures deep into the territory of gratuitousness. The show starts with much promise but suffers a quick decline in the next few episodes due to the predictability of the plot. In the last three episodes, however, the show redeems itself and veers in a fairly unexpected direction.

Despite what might be your initial impression, ‘The Terminal List’ is not a propaganda piece for America’s military-industrial complex. In fact, it’s the opposite. It criticizes the greed and the hunger for power and doesn’t put the rampaging vigilante on a pedestal either.

Rating: 3/5

Read More: Best Action Thriller Movies

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Chris pratt in amazon’s ‘the terminal list’: tv review.

The actor headlines this starry series adaptation of Jack Carr's novel about a Navy SEAL trying to unravel a vast conspiracy related to his team's disastrous final mission.

By Daniel Fienberg

Daniel Fienberg

Chief Television Critic

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The Terminal List

Your basic weekend BBQ griller might just grab the nearest package of ground beef at the grocery store, but somebody with high culinary aspirations obsesses over proportions. Though the true experts might tinker with cuts of meat in different combinations, a good starting position is with fat percentages. An amateur thinks, “Less fat is more meat and therefore must be better,” while the expert knows that fat equals juiciness and unless you enjoy a dry, beefy burger — and some do — the key is finding the right ratio.

Chris Pratt has been figuratively (and literally) fiddling with his professional fat percentages for over a decade as he’s been making the career transition from likable TV comic foil with unexpectedly strong bone structure to increasingly generic leading man. Whatever the right fat-to-beef ratio was, Pratt found it in the Guardians of the Galaxy movies, blending convincing action chops and enough jocular charm to carry a loopy premise in a way that few other actors could have. Pratt’s Jurassic Park movies aren’t completely without mirth, but his aura has been so drained of those distinctive elements that almost anybody could have played whatever his character’s name is.

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'fallout' receives warm reception at canneseries premiere with ella purnell, kyle maclachlan, amazon prime video's new releases coming in april 2024, the terminal list.

Airdate: Friday, July 1 (Amazon)

Cast: Constance Wu, Taylor Kitsch, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Riley Keough, Arlo Mertz, Jai Courtney, JD Pardo, Patrick Schwarzenegger, LaMonica Garrett, Stephen Bishop, Sean Gunn, Tyner Rushing, Jared Shaw, Christina Vidal, Nick Chinlund, Matthew Rauch, Warren Kole, Alexis Louder, Arturo Castro, Marco Rodríguez

Creator: David Digilio from the book by Jack Carr

On the bright side, there’s nowhere Pratt’s career can go after Amazon’s new drama The Terminal List . There’s no more draining or siphoning of personality trains and levity that could possibly occur going forward. The Terminal List is all beef, all muscular stringy beef — and, at eight hours for a book that easily could have been adapted in two hours, it’s been left on the grill for so long that the result is dry and tasteless. It’s the entertainment equivalent of a charred hockey puck, with the same limited range of flavor and aesthetics. It should then go without saying that of course there will be an audience for The Terminal List .

The Terminal List was adapted from the first of five Jack Carr novels built around the character of James Reece (Pratt). Reece is a Navy SEAL commander, and in the series’ opening scene, his platoon is sent on a mission that goes very, very wrong. Reece returns to San Diego grieving for his men and anxious to get answers, but the more leads he follows, the more danger he’s about to put his wife (Riley Keough) and other loved ones in. Soon, Reece is on the run helped by his SEAL-turned-CIA buddy Ben (Taylor Kitsch) and pursued by an online journalist (Constance Wu’s Katie), who could be an adversary or an ally.

At various points, Reece’s other potential adversaries might or might not include a dogged NCIS officer (Warren Kole’s Holder), a dogged FBI agent (JD Pardo’s Tony), a dogged venture capitalist (Jai Courtney’s Steven), the dogged Secretary of Defense (Jeanne Tripplehorn) and more. Or perhaps his greatest adversary is his own brain, because Reece is experiencing hallucinations and dissociative episodes that could make him a danger to himself and others.

A thing written in my Terminal List notes that has rarely been uttered by any critic of any media: “This is a real waste of Jai Courtney.”

Courtney is playing a tech mogul with a strange military fetish that isn’t explained, because despite the layers of episodic blubber to which Amazon demanded zero apparent flensing — not only is The Terminal List eight episodes, but those episodes are all 50+ minutes — rather than using the time to bring any characters to life, creator David DiGilio has structured the show as almost a video game of level bosses. So Courtney is wasted and Kole is wasted and Pardo is wasted and Sean Gunn is wasted. And a premise that could have had some ripped-from-the-headlines resonance related to military PTSD and the administrative systems failing our men and women — but mostly men here — in uniform is wasted.

Reece has a list — a terminal list, if you will — of people he wants to target for revenge and, like a ripped Arya Stark without an iota of personality or likability, he works his way down his revenge list in a way that more than a few viewers are going to find makes him bizarrely unsympathetic. Not a single person he’s attempting to avenge received enough screen time to justify behavior that even Fox News — the near-exclusive news outlet of anybody watching TV in The Terminal List — figures makes Reece a domestic terrorist.

Because Reece has been written without a shred of an individual voice, making use of none of Pratt’s established appealing traits, you’ll be rooting for him for one of two reasons: First, he’s a SEAL and therefore invariably heroic; or second, because the pilot ends with a manipulative event that turns tragedy into cheap narrative shorthand. Opportunities to use Reece’s impairments to deliver different sides and contexts to the character fall flat. Reece is monomaniacal and monotonously somber and Pratt embraces that.

In a show that generally suffers from an Ozark level of reduced lighting — Ozark and The Terminal List are produced by THR ‘s corporate siblings at MRC Television — Pratt gives a matching performance. He’s consistently and unrelentingly glum in a way that a 100-minute movie could have covered up with a few snazzy action set pieces and a climactic showdown shamelessly ripped off from A Few Good Men . Each episode could have been trimmed to 15 minutes with no loss of nuance or characterization, and I suspect it would have made the series’ target demo — tuning in for patriotically waving flags, substance-free military jargon and the very rare tautly edited suspense set-piece — just as happy.

There are at least a half-dozen genuinely bad performances that I don’t blame at all on the actors. Wu is ridiculously bland in a character drafted with no interest in either basic journalism or what has made Wu such a strong screen presence in Fresh Off the Boat and Crazy Rich Asians . As with Pratt in his more stolid blockbuster roles, Wu’s primary motivation may be proving that she can play dull. Ditto with Keough, who I hope was well compensated for a presence in the opening credits that represents either contractual maneuvering or guild-endorsed trickery.

The pilot for The Terminal List was directed by Antoine Fuqua , who knows how to make claustrophobic action professional-looking if nothing else. Most of the rest of the series is people driving around in the dark, skulking in the dark, experiencing headaches in the dark and engaging in pew-pew-pew-level gunplay. The violence is pervasive yet abrupt, and with none of the bad guys getting the chance to develop as particularly villainous figures, there’s little cathartic pleasure to be taken here, even in the moments Reece is actually in the moral or ethical right. This was a chance to take a thriller framework and include meaningful exploration of trauma and other veteran-related struggles, accentuating bravery and heroism. Instead, it’s leaden, mostly emotionless and if its pace is fast, that’s because anything important was removed.

On Parks and Recreation , Pratt’s Andy Dwyer developed a stern law enforcement alter ego, Special Agent Burt Tyrannosaurus Macklin. Andy’s commitment to Burt Macklin makes Burt Macklin hilarious, intentionally. I’m not sure if James Reece is basically Burt Macklin without the self-aware winking or if he’s just a character Andy Dwyer would take very seriously, right down to his wrap-around sunglasses and continuity-challenged facial hair. Pratt has finally found the perfect zero-fat, zero-humor vehicle. It will be up to viewers to decide if their July 4 cookout weekend deserves better than this burnt offering to red-meat America.

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‘The Terminal List’ Is a Military Vanity Project for a Charisma-Free Chris Pratt: TV Review

By Daniel D'Addario

Daniel D'Addario

Chief TV Critic

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Chris Pratt in "The Terminal List"

In his new Amazon series “ The Terminal List ,” actor Chris Pratt is built like a brick wall, and has about half as much charisma. His character, James Reece, is on a Charles Bronson-esque mission of revenge against the forces that ambushed his Navy SEAL platoon in the field and, back home, irrevocably altered his family life (with his wife played, mainly in flashback, by a wildly overqualified Riley Keough, and his daughter by Arlo Mertz). Dead-eyed and flat-mouthed, Reece guts adversaries with an axe and orders them to walk, watching as they stumble; or axes them in the head; or handcuffs their families and strands them in a rising tide, or…

This is a dour, miserable sit, one that would be tough to take as a two-hour film, and has been inexplicably ‘roided up to eight hours. (Perhaps on film, one or two kills might have had to be excised — and this project clearly measures its success on body count.) Adapted from a Jack Carr novel, “The Terminal List” is executive produced by Pratt himself, among others, and it’s a striking sort of vanity project. Running through his character’s titular list and taking out the names on it, Pratt is freed from the burden imposed upon him elsewhere to be charming and witty and light amid chaos. Noticeably brawnier and with his voice pitched down, Pratt’s only responsibility is to mete out justice to those who took first his men and then his women; indeed, he declares “I am justice” right before knifing one in his endless parade of enemies.

To a certain strain of viewer, he’ll certainly look the part: Pratt, who played a SEAL in “Zero Dark Thirty,” a former Green Beret in “The Tomorrow War,” and a Navy veteran in the “Jurassic World” franchise, has put in the work in his career to be seen as the face of American might. Here, that power is best put to use taking out enemies both within and without: Defense contractors come in for punishment, as do (sigh) Mexican sicarios. Reece’s story is baleful, and it’s made clear to us that he’s fighting the establishment as much as he’s fighting for revenge, but if this series were an op to desensitize us against military violence, it couldn’t have been made more effectively.

It would not be outrageous, given that the conspiracy against Reece is drawn from many powerful corners, to expect some commentary or critique in the mix, as can be read into an entertainment as mainstream as Clint Eastwood’s “American Sniper” — a movie which is at once about the achievements of a military superstar and the ways his time at war brought him pain. But “The Terminal List” is too occluded by self-conscious darkness to allow much of a way in. Seen through Reece’s eyes, the world is divided between those one protects and those one kills, with an unyielding absence of middle ground. His blankness is the point: He can’t allow personality, spark, insight — the things that make us human — to compromise his mission.

All of which sucks the rest of the project into a Pratt-sized vacuum. Constance Wu, playing the journalist trying to reveal what happened to Reece’s team and his family, isn’t where she belongs, and worse, she seems aware of it: So winning elsewhere, she’s trudging through scenes. (What a shame that when Wu and Jeanne Tripplehorn — two performers of intuitive warmth and snappy cleverness — share scenes together, it’s within the clumsily written context of a reporter reading the Secretary of Defense the riot act.) And Taylor Kitsch, playing Reece’s best friend, is badly underused, if only because his sad eyes communicate the real cost of war. Pratt attempts, infrequently, to communicate trauma and weariness — in one ill-advised shot, emerging from a reverie and attempting to reset his face, as if to communicate how a man of war returns to the battlefield — but it doesn’t work. We don’t believe the character needs to take time or effort to return to killing, because for the rest of the time, Pratt is so visibly enjoying playing He-Man.

Instead of Kitsch, then, we get kitsch — a sentimentalized view of wartime and the way it purifies the mind and cleans the slate. Perhaps the most revealing sequence in “The Terminal List” is one in which chaotic violence breaks out in the streets of San Francisco, the consequence for many civilians of being caught between men who want to play at war. (This sequence seems to play out like a fantasy of violent strife on American soil, a way of bringing war home that, coming as it does between endless other bits of ultraviolence, bears no real weight.) At the end of this sequence, Pratt looms over his antagonist of the episode, shot from below as to visually dominate him. And he unceremoniously shoots him in the head. Why make it fancy? When you’re certain of your righteousness, any show of force will do.

“The Terminal List” debuts on Prime Video on Friday, July 1. 

Amazon Prime Video. Eight episodes (all screened for review).

  • Production: Executive producers: Chris Pratt, Jon Schumacher, Antoine Fuqua, David DiGilio, Jack Carr, Daniel Shattuck.
  • Cast: Chris Pratt, Constance Wu, Taylor Kitsch , Jeanne Tripplehorn, Riley Keough, Arlo Mertz, Jai Courtney, JD Pardo, Patrick Schwarzenegger, LaMonica Garrett, Stephen Bishop, Sean Gunn, Tyner Rushing, Jared Shaw, Christina Vidal, Nick Chinlund, Matthew Rauch, Warren Kole, and Alexis Louder.

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‘The Terminal List’ Review: Chris Pratt Is a Gun-Loving Killing Machine in Tedious Prime Video Series

Pratt plays a traumatized Navy SEAL in the Jack Carr adaptation

The Terminal List Trailer Chris Pratt

Chris Pratt stars in “The Terminal List” — Amazon’s latest offering to the “Jack Ryan” crowd — as a traumatized Navy SEAL with nothing left to live for… other than the fact that there are four more installments in the Jack Carr book series the show is based on.

Pratt is also an executive producer on the eight-episode drama (along with director Antoine Fuqua and showrunner David DiGilio) which follows Lt. Commander James Reece (Pratt) on a journey of revenge. He was leading his platoon on a mission that was based on bad intel, and lost most of his men to an ambush. Most of the guys who made it back then killed themselves, and when Reece’s family gets caught up in the fallout, he becomes convinced that he’s a victim of a massive government conspiracy. Hurt, angry, betrayed by the people he dedicated his life to serving and armed to the teeth, Reece sets out to complete an ever-evolving list of people to dispose of while he hunts for the truth.

So basically, this is a show about Chris Pratt torturing and killing a whole lot of people, like a charmless Dexter or Arya Stark.

Chris Pratt in "The Terminal List" (Prime Video)

In the process, Reece is attracting a lot of attention. The FBI (led by JD Pardo), NCIS and Department of Defense (led by Jeanne Tripplehorn) are desperate to chase him down, but reporter Katie Buranek (Constance Wu) is the one with the most success. But is Reece right about people being after him, or is he completely out of his mind? In truth, he’s both, which makes him a compelling challenge for Katie but a hard protagonist to follow. We can certainly believe that he was attacked and did not attack his own loved ones, but there’s no doubt about all of the other murders he commits throughout the show, at a pace that makes it tough to decide if those people actually deserve it in this gritty world. Some high-ranking people did some very bad things, but that doesn’t make it a whole lot easier to watch Reece take them down like a well-oiled machine. Maybe the list could have been a little shorter? Only a few really important murders? I promise you, the story would not suffer.

Katie, meanwhile, has the more interesting journey to take here as she decides who she can trust in this increasingly complicated story. She knows for a fact what Reece is doing, but she soon joins him on some level of his paranoia and gets far more involved than is safe for her. The whole show could have made a lot more sense if it were more of a two-hander, but this is very clearly Reece’s story. Katie is a helpful tool, offering him info that he needs to add another name to his list, but the show takes too long for her to come into her own.

There is, of course, something bigger going on here than just Reece having delusions. This is a story about a man being validated in his conspiracy theories and doing something about it, guns in hand. It’s one man and his military training against the world, and he has fully justified breaking into homes and killing people. For many viewers, this will not be the show they gravitate towards in 2022. Then again, for many other viewers, this will be exactly what they want to watch right now. It opens with a quote from the Bible and puts the power of firearms on full display, with a beefy military man doing whatever it takes to honor his family.

Chris Pratt in "The Terminal List" (Prime Video)

There’s something this show could have said about this time in history, especially considering its central focus on military mental health, but instead it’s not saying much at all. It also doesn’t help that Chris Pratt is so front and center as a man on a ruthless killing spree, considering his recent desperations to dispel any rumors that might make him unlikable. He looms large over every part of the show, even when he’s not on screen, and while he’s a believable Navy SEAL, it’s still hard to separate the actor from the character. That’s partly because Reece embodies Pratt’s unfortunate switch from “Parks and Recreation” or “Guardians of the Galaxy” goofball to this, the opposite of a goofball. Reece is a boring, paranoid killing machine with no personality traits that I can name. He likes guns, I guess? (His suggested baby names, as seen in a flashback, are Gunner and Gauge.)

Wu is also a former comedy star, and her character is similarly bland. No one here was given anything particularly interesting to do, aside from maybe Sean Gunn, who gets a couple of brief, flamboyant scenes as he hosts a party with his French bulldog in his arms. Taylor Kitsch is also there, which is about all I can say to the multiple “Friday Night Lights: fans who have asked how Riggins is doing. He’s there, sometimes. Does he look hot? I mean, sure, but only because Taylor Kitsch is hot, and not because the show is giving him anything hot or even interesting to do. He plays Reece’s best friend and right hand man throughout his killing sprees, with a story that would have been a lot more effective with a little more screen time. But again, this is Reece’s story, and Pratt’s show, and this man still has lots and lots more people to kill.

Speaking of those people, the central mystery takes a couple twists and turns that might elicit some genuine gasps, especially towards the end. The finale is the best episode of the season and makes the best use of the terror that comes with being hunted by a man like Reece, coupled with Wu’s best work as a fearless reporter in a pretty damn fearful situation. The question is whether or not the rest of the show is worth getting through to make it to that finale.

“The Terminal List” is not a particularly fun ride, but it is a ride, like one you might settle for at Disneyland because it doesn’t have a line. There’s also some interesting stuff here, especially when it comes to a potential debate about the treatment of the military and the inevitable trauma of war. If only the show had been interested in that stuff too.

“The Terminal List” is now streaming on Prime Video.

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The Terminal List Review: Chris Pratt’s Military ‘Thriller’ Is Terminally Bad

Dave nemetz, west coast bureau chief.

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the terminal list movie review

It’s a pretty basic setup for a paranoid conspiracy thriller, but the scripts from showrunner David DiGilio ( Strange Angel , Crossbones ) — based on the Jack Carr novel — are woefully short on actual thrills. In their place, we’re served up huge helpings of red-meat masculinity, hardheaded jingoism and heavy-handed symbolism. (Oh, and lots and lots of American flags.) The dialogue is generic, but it’s also besides the point; it’s just a way to move us along to the next action scene. And those action scenes aren’t even all that great!

The Terminal List ‘s plot defies logic, if you stop to think about it for even a minute, but it confidently shoves its way past any such concerns. It’s utterly humorless, too, punctuated by crude bursts of graphic violence. Even those aren’t effective, though: The action is bloody but not exciting, and the story is bewildering but not interesting. In between, we get saccharine family scenes and a paint-by-numbers conspiracy that gets more complicated but not any more compelling.

The Terminal List Chris Pratt Riley Keough

There’s certainly room on TV for a pulse-pounding, thought-provoking conspiracy thriller with lots of action and intrigue — but in the case of The Terminal List , that mission gets badly botched.

THE TVLINE BOTTOM LINE: Save yourself some time and delete Prime Video’s brawny, boneheaded military drama The Terminal List from your watch list.

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But I get to look at Chris Pratt, yeah? 🤷🏼‍♀️

The book was amazingly good and kept you on the edge throughout the story. I look forward to watching this show over the long weekend to see how closely it matches the book.

So it sounds like a Trump lovers dream. I think I’m passing.

You seem nice!

You seem fun.

Ad hominem attacks aren’t helpful or persuasive.

In other words, cloying jingoism + masculinity fixation + GUNS and VIOLENCE + paranoid conspiracy obsessions + general lack of emotional depth + bluster over substance. It’s up to you to decide if that characterizes the qualities and interests of a particular segment of the population.

Well yes it does, Violence definitely a fixture of the left. Seattle, Portland, St. Louis, Minneapolis etc. etc. Paranoid conspiracy obsessions, Russia, Russia, Russia….remember or does your feeble brain reach back more than a sound byte. Bluster over substance, ever watch the Reverend Al Sharpton get wound up. So yes it does remind me a great deal of one segment of the population, You pompous effete snob.

You mean a donny dig is ad hominem? Ha…I thought the action was ok…I mean what do you expect?

That is precisely what it is. Pratt is a diehard Trumpet and there’s no way he had no say in the show.

I didn’t know he was a Trumper but do know he’s a man of faith…as I am…but no one do I see DIAPER DONNY like he does.

Trump really does live rent free in your heads. 2 years out of office and still bringing him up literally (your favorite word) out of nowhere

“Out of nowhere”? Just so you know, there’s presently a committee investigating his role in the January 6th insurrection and the judges he appointed on the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

AND he’s still running his mouth, holding rallies and trying to control things.

Which is 100% more then Biden is doing

And the committee can’t prosecute but the JUSTICE DEPARTMENT can…

BUT THE JUSTICE DEPT. DOESN’T HAVE THE TESTICULAR FORTITUDE TO DO IT!!!!

Yes, …because of “insurrection” and your Trump derangement, this show is not good. …Ok.

1) It’s hard to ignore him when he won’t shut his stupid mouth and go away, and when his cronies continue to keep trying to push Trumpian politics on the country, despite the fact that the vast majority of Americans don’t want them. He may be gone, but his influence is still lingering over us and we can’t seem to shake it off. . 2) It’s rich to hear you going on about how Trump lives rent free in our heads, considering how Trump supporters wouldn’t stop whining about Hillary for years. At least we have the actual four years of Trump’s horrific presidency to base our complaints off of, as opposed to whatever imagined nonsense theories Trump supporters had about what a Hillary presidency would’ve been like.

He NEVER lived in my head…

Imagine being so useless you’re still inserting the cheeto into everything

Saw the blurb about Obi Wan. I would love to bc watch it but I’m not paying more money to Xfinity. Already pay outrageous monthly fee for the bundle I have to get Paramount+.

I hope this is hugely successful so The Worst Chris stays out of movies I’d actually want to see.

They cover the CBS and Paramount military shows so TV Line is the right audience. A dud show is a dud show.

I don’t know if this is actually bad or not, because the author seems to hate the genre itself more than this particular series. Too many flags?

If the reviewer says this show compares to Reacher and Jack Ryan, I’m definitely giving it a chance. Reviewer must be a lib

That reasoning is just as bigoted as saying being a Trump supporter, in itself, makes you a bad person.

Being a Trump supporter, in itself, does make you a bad person because of how it speaks to terrible, inhumane ideaologies. Hope that helps.

Being a Trump supporter definitely makes you a bad person. That’s just fact.

Being a Biden supporter makes everyone wonder why

Exactly… I dare a lib to tell the world one good thing Biden has done in office. This country has been ravaged by his ineptitude since he took over.

What’s a lib?

Outside of the baby formula disaster, what we are going through economically the world is going through too. I don’t think he controls other countries. – He did fulfill his promise to give people more relief checks. – He got shots into arms of those who wanted them. Meaning he made it easy to get. I’m sure if Trump had still been in office it would have been some elitist or political crap to deal with. – He also vials to other countries to help their people. – He just signed a gun control bill, though it’s kind of weak it’s better than nothing I guess, and this is coming from a gun owner adjacent. Hubs has his I still need to get mine. – Mainly he gives me the peace of mind that he’s not giving support to White Nationalist and other’s like them.

One good thing? I got stimulus from Joe still waiting for DONNY’S 600 dollars. And waiting…Joe signed the gun bill remember that? You people amaze me…once we toll you Jason what hes’ done…you’ll discount it…and ineptitude? You’ll be lucky to be BREATHING when you’re 80 young wise guy.

You realise both of those shows are “lib” shows?

what’s a lib show? what’s a lib? ever heard of PROGRESSIVES? or maybe CENTRISTS?

Hollywood still trying to make Chris Pratt happen?

At this point, I think we can all agree that Chris Pratt has happened. The question now is how long he will continue to happen.

When the staff of the website and a majority of its readers don’t like something, I know it’s going to be good.

Bro, just watched last night ! It’s great !

LOVE Chris Pratt since Everwood! Will watch anything he’s in!

Have you ever seen good review by these muppets? TVLine editors are the dumbest of the bunch. Who is believing these clowns? Make up your own mind and watch it!

Mirror much? If you have to ask that question then clearly you don’t read much on this site. I guess you’re too busy being disrespectful because they aren’t saying what you want them to. You’re the clown because you can just go to a site that caters to your way of thinking instead of coming here being unnecessarily negative.

Thanks for putting the review summary in the title. Geez. Why can’t sites just say The Terminal List – Review here?

I’m going to laugh when this series does super well. Especially because the books are amazing.

Considering the extremely negative review of “The Old Men” which I’ve really liked so far, I’m now interested in watching “The Terminal List” after this curious wave of bilge by the same person. Having a reviewer with whom you vehemently disagree is just as informative as one whom shares your likes. Especially given the remarkably inane and insipid ‘critiques’ offered in this article…

I really liked Reacher and Jack Ryan. I’ll give this is a go, for sure!

A review is a a review. I haven’t seen the show. So I can’t speak to how personally accurate I’ll find it. Whatever the case, a person’s opinions are valid. That being said, the condescending remark about ‘your dad’ is cheap and uncalled for. You don’t respect the group of people this show is targeted at. We get it. Maybe someone else should do the reviews for these types of shows then.

I’m really confused….this show is terrible but it’s somehow The Fugitive meets Seal Team? Seal Team is one of the best shows on TV. It’s well done and well acted. I didn’t watch the Fugitive TV show but the movie is still a 10/10.

Amen to Summer’s comments about SEAL Team. Definitely one of the best shows out there. Like her, never saw the original TV version of the Fugitive. Will give it an episode or two, see what I think

It’s just a serious version of Burt Macklin, FBI. Hilariously, there’s really not much difference.

Thanks for nothing. I was going to watch that show.

You still should. It’s fantastic for its genre. I’m finished it in about 13 hours total because I slept a little in the middle. The books it’s based on are actually amazing and get better as they go along as the author is a former tier one special forces operator that was his last job before he started writing.

I don’t get it. He’s just another Wahlberg. He can’t act but gets movies made anyway because he appeals to his demo.

Christ Pratt is a super fun comic performer but I find it almost impossible to take him seriously in anything like an action or thriller movie. It’s also that he – unlike some other high profile actors – is not able to project competence and intelligence on screen. There are plenty of actors who are not particularly clue-y in real life who are able to make us believe they’re really good at their job in a movie, but Pratt is just not one of those people. Not sure why – maybe it’s one too many Burt Macklin scenes ruining our chances of seeing him as anything else? Or he’s just got a really limited range? For whatever reason, even if the script had been good for this show I think it would be difficult to get invested watching him in this kind of part.

I read the first few books in this series and then got kind of bored with it, but I’ll check this out (even though I’m not a Chris Pratt fan). The books definitely had the potential to be a movie or mini-series.

You can tell the writer came into the review already hating the show and its start before ever seeing it. I doubt I’d watch the show, but i am sure a large group of fans will… that being said, maybe next time TVLine should edit the article and nix a biased, agenda filled attack like this.

See Big Don, this is how you show you disagree with the editor without being disrespectful. No name calling and got their point across.

Yeah, I’d be embarrassed to hit post on an article that had something like this in it “I think his name is “Haqqani”? Does it even matter?” If with the critic’s notes you can’t even pay attention enough to keep the details because you don’t care either you’re doing a bad job or shouldn’t be doing this job. How can you say the plot is convoluted if you aren’t even paying attention to it? . And “In their place, we’re served up huge helpings of red-meat masculinity, hardheaded jingoism and heavy-handed symbolism. (Oh, and lots and lots of American flags.)” Are any of those things particularly bad? Maybe “hardhead” jingoism, but more and more I’m taking “jingoism” to mean anything that doesn’t spend all 57 minutes telling us how bad America is. Take whatever you think the opposite of masculinity and jingoism is, and do the symbolism as ham-fisted message sending as you get in a lot of these things and I bet the criticisms don’t come up. . It might be badly done. I am not subscribing to watch it or anything. But if it’s like Reacher and some of the shows mentioned as “dad show” (there aren’t enough dads to have shows to cater to them?) it’ll probably be pretty successful for Amazon. but at least rate it on its merit and not because it doesn’t fit your taste or politics. I’m having a hard time taking it seriously that it’s too violent when this site has had almost a half dozen articles in a week for The Boys. Let’s not all suddenly become wilting flowers now.

Nice nipples, though.

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The Terminal List Review: Chris Pratt Embraces His Values in Exciting Action Thriller

The Terminal List, a new eight-part series on Prime Video, is an exciting if standard-issue action thriller with Chris Pratt and a lot of critics.

The Terminal List , a new eight-episode series from Prime Video, has been getting surprisingly negative reviews. Slash Film calls it "offensively bad," and Yahoo! and TV Line labeled it "terminally bad." While the series hardly breaks any new ground or perfects its genre, it's a consistently exciting, dark, and twisty action series that isn't any worse than the average revenge thriller, and is sometimes better. Art is obviously subjective, and there are definitely weak spots and problematic issues in The Terminal List , but it almost seems as if the hostility against the Amazon series is politically motivated.

The Terminal List follows Chris Pratt as James Reece, a Navy SEAL who becomes the only survivor of an ambushed platoon killed over faulty information. Reece begins to suspect foul play, with the military's claims contradicting his own memories, but is he suffering from war-related PTSD and a brain injury, or actually on the verge of discovering a massive conspiracy? The series, based on the book by former Navy SEAL Jack Carr, is a hybrid of revenge fantasies, political conspiracies, unreliable narrators, and an underused genre in television, the military drama.

The Terminal List Brings the Military to Television

While there are no shortage of war movies, especially movies about World War II , there's a surprising paucity of military-based shows on television. NCIS and JAG felt less about the military than they were just police procedural and legal drama shows, and M*A*S*H was its own thing (and 50 years old). Other than those, most TV shows about the military don't last very long; not many people remember The Unit, Valor, The Brave , or Six .

So it's a bit refreshing to see military themes presented so prominently in a television show like The Terminal List , although they play directly into the possible reason why the military isn't a popular topic for long-lasting television: politics. There's a lot of political baggage when portraying the American military, whether one believes it to be justified or not, which prevents some studios from even touching the subject, or from developing projects into something tenable. Both sides of the political aisle can easily criticize media that's military-based — on the political right, they might find that a television show simplifies, exploits, or unrealistically depicts the experiences of service members; on the political left, they might perceive a series to be glorifying combat or supporting wars they never wanted to wage.

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Thus, any reaction to The Terminal List will likely depend on one's ideologies and beliefs (which is probably applicable to most other media as well, but to a lesser extent). Beyond the politics, however, the series is a rush of adrenaline (and testosterone), filled with compelling action sequences and mostly great performances. Many have commented on Pratt's performance, again, negatively, but his vacancy and haunted emptiness in much of The Terminal List is actually very appropriate.

Chris Pratt Wants Revenge in The Terminal List

Pratt (who also served as a producer) plays Reece as a man who can only thrive when he's on a mission; the missions used to come from a trusted and respected source (military command and the U.S. government), but now Reece has been reduced to only one mission: revenge. The first episode, expertly directed by Antoine Fuqua , finds Reece set up in a tragic act that leaves him completely broken and hollow. The only thing he knows to do as a result is to pursue everyone who destroyed his and the men in his platoon's lives, crossing off perpetrator after perpetrator as he gets closer to the center of the conspiracy.

There's a reason that revenge thrillers are typically movies — it can get pretty redundant and exceedingly grim watching someone torture and kill people episode after episode. The Terminal List certainly suffers from that redundancy in places, requires some suspension of disbelief, and has also been accused of being overly serious as a result. While it's true that this series is incredibly gloomy, the darkness works. Pratt completely abandons all the charming comedy seen in his career, developed from Andy Dwyer in Parks and Recreation to Star-Lord in Guardians of the Galaxy , and instead dives deep into the void of suffering. Reece is a man in immense pain, and his only mission left in life is to deal out that pain to those who are responsible for it.

The Terminal List is arguably at its best when the viewer isn't entirely sure if Reece is a vindicated protagonist or a mentally deteriorating madman with a reality-shattering brain tumor. That kind of gray area is interesting and makes the audience and other characters' relationship with Reece much more complex, and also sets Reece apart from the typical vengeance-thirsty heroes of John Wick, Kill Bill, and Taken. Having Reece be an unreliable narrator gives an added weight to the action sequences and (many) kill scenes; they become almost queasy with ambivalence, interrogating the murky ethics of revenge thrillers themselves. When the series finally veers into certainty, it loses that fascinating ambiguity.

Nonetheless, The Terminal List remains entertaining (in a morbid and somewhat depressing way) throughout. Taylor Kitsch is phenomenal as one of the few trusted friends Reece has left in the world, and even the bitter reviews that panned the show point out his soulfulness and magnetic appeal. Constance Wu is also excellent as a journalist who alternates between believing Reece's grand narrative of political conspiracies and fearing him as a mentally disturbed soldier on a killing spree. This very funny actor (from Fresh Off the Boat and Crazy Rich Asians ) also sheds all her comedic timing and instead sinks into the darkness of this show. However, it's fundamentally Pratt's platform.

The Conservative Politics of The Terminal List

The Terminal List manages to criticize aspects of corruption within the military and the government while also outright honoring and respecting them as American institutions. It almost exhaustively discusses 'brotherhood' and 'doing the right thing,' and is very concerned with moral values (violence, on the other hand, is treated as a necessity rather than an ethical problem). While its sensibilities may make more politically sensitive, liberal-minded viewers a bit uncomfortable, the series can simply appeal to fans of action and conspiracy thrillers. One doesn't need to show their party affiliation before watching this series, which is ultimately more about excitement and thrills than ideology.

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If The Terminal List is political, though, then it's resolutely conservative (family values, Second Amendment rights, supporting the troops, taking hunting trips, and so on), and might as well be packaged in camouflage. This might be the reason why The Terminal List has been the recipient of the heavily critical aforementioned reviews. Pratt, the face of the show, seems to be aligned with its themes, and the media has certainly painted him as a hardcore conservative (with many condescendingly labeling him as ' the worst Chris ' as a result).

Not the Worst Chris

There was social media 'outrage' over the fact that Pratt had allegedly attended what many have called a homophobic church, and the actor has been accosted for his (or what is perceived as his) conservative beliefs and spirituality, with Marvel fans wanting him removed from Guardians of the Galaxy . Many mocked him for his speech at the MTV Awards, in which he said, "God is real. God loves you. God wants the best for you.” The thing is, Pratt is much more considerate and thoughtful than he is made out to be, and a lot more three-dimensional than he is portrayed by the media. Pratt explained his religious beliefs to Men's Health in a candid, wonderful way:

Religion has been oppressive as f-ck for a long time. I didn’t know that I would kind of become the face of religion when really I’m not a religious person. I think there’s a distinction between being religious — adhering to the customs created by man, oftentimes appropriating the awe reserved for who I believe is a very real God — and using it to control people, to take money from people, to abuse children, to steal land, to justify hatred. Whatever it is. The evil that’s in the heart of every single man has glommed on to the back of religion and come along for the ride.

All this to say, Pratt, like The Terminal List itself, may erroneously seem extremely conservative and closed-minded to some (and "offensively bad" to Slash Film), but is actually more complicated and pensive than first appears, and pretty entertaining to boot. The Terminal List debuts July 1st on Prime Video.

The Terminal List - Review

Alt country road..

The Terminal List: Limited Series Review

This is a non-spoiler review for all eight episodes of The Terminal List, which premieres Friday, July 1 on Amazon Prime Video.

The Terminal List, adapted from the first of Jack Carr's five "James Reece" books, is an earnest but overlong revenge thriller featuring Chris Pratt in humorless Heartland hero mode, for story that hits all the important "Big Dad Energy" beats that Amazon's been chasing after its success with both Bosch and Jack Ryan . In that regard, The Terminal List fits in well, even occasionally delivering devilish twists and engaging action, but it also wallows incessantly in heaviness, beating the same drum over and over until much of it becomes dull.

When The Terminal List works, it works well. Naturally, hindsight is 20/20, so there's no true answer as to the best way to adapt this story, but eight full-hour episodes finds this saga stretching to fill time, often falling back on "asked and answered" sentiment, repeating the story's soft, reflective moments until they wind up cannibalizing each other. Could this have been a movie? A shorter series? Probably. It would have tightened the pacing and allowed the weight and drama a clearer path to success. 

Because Pratt is naturally charismatic -- a trait which he's chosen, for whatever reason, to curtail in recent years (even progressively throughout the Jurassic World trilogy) -- protagonist James Reece shines through with more life and light than you'd usually find in a character who's basically Frank Castle. That being said, it's glaringly obvious that Pratt's strengths are not on full display here, despite him being able to swap in for a gung-ho John Rambo type. Reece is a stern, dutiful legend amongst Navy SEALs and can take down entire squads by himself, and while that has its place -- especially in a blood-soaked tale of vengeance -- the way the story's dosed out means we never see Reece as anything but dour and/or in mourning.

The Terminal List weaves together different action-thriller elements, mostly successfully. It never all quite pays off the way you might want it to though, since it teases going in unique and inspired directions only to fall back in line with a more traditional model, but the bright spots are still worth noting.

The first two episodes lean heavily into Reece -- back on U.S. soil after a disastrous op leaves everyone on his team KIA except him -- being a very disturbed and unreliable narrator. As it is, the series pauses every now and again to let us know Reece, whose need for revenge grows darker and deeper, isn't exactly a star-spangled avenger, but it also drops the idea that he could be on the totally wrong path, which is an exciting opening element that tricks you into thinking you might in for a different type of military-based crusade.

After the set up, The Terminal List -- which has a double meaning since Reece both has, and is on, said list -- then sprawls and spreads out into a political thriller as Reece and reporter Katie Buranek (Constance Wu) tumble down several rabbit holes of conspiracy, all to find out why Alpha Platoon's final mission may have been been purposefully sabotaged and why Reece's wife and daughter were also targeted for execution. This odyssey gives Reece, and the story, a series of kills that allows for action, intrigue, and for Reece's quest to become more desperate and foreboding. It also kind of draws things out past the point of being engaging as you may go snow blind amidst the single-minded savagery. 

The Terminal List slips into sluggishness too often to fully hit the mark.

After the first two chapters -- "The Engram" and "Encoding" -- toy with the idea of Reece, on a ticking clock health-wise, being dangerously delusional, the series' next high point comes in Episodes 5 and 6 -- "Disruption" and "Transience" -- when Reece makes a big move on series' baddie Steve Horn (Jai Courtney), a tech mogul with a war fetish, and then has to escape through the harsh wilderness, on the run from his own SEAL peers. 

"Transience," the most reminiscent of 1982's First Blood, feels like it could have been solid, meaningful closing point for the series, but the mission continues on for three more episodes, not adding much more to the saga except the casting cliche of "the notable veteran actor must be behind it all." In fact, everyone you meet along the way just might be.

Pratt and Wu are joined by Taylor Kitsch (Friday Night Lights), J. D. Pardo (Mayans MC), Jeanne Tripplehorn (Basic Instinct, The Firm), Tyner Rushing (Under the Banner of Heaven), Sean Gunn (Hey, a Guardians reunion!), the aforementioned Jai Courtney (The Suicide Squad, Spartacus), and an extremely wasted Riley Keough (Zola). It's a well-rounded cast, with Kitsch and Pardo getting to do a bit more than their respective roles of "hero's buddy" and "FBI agent on hero's trail" usually permit.

Antoine Fuqua, of Training Day and Equalizer films fame, executive produces along with Pratt and showrunner David DiGilio and also directs the first episode. Having worked with Pratt on 2016's Magnificent Seven remake, and also helmed soldier potboilers Shooter and Tears of the Sun, Fuqua knows how to do clear, blunt, and direct action and the fact that The Terminal List sticks to its reckoning-driven guns is a boon for simplicity's sake. It sadly doesn't allow the series to veer off and explore newer, less-traditional themes, though.

Reece, on his warpath, isn't out to clear his name or even topple a cabal of conspirators. He's just a hollowed-out murder machine hellbent on taking souls before his time's up. Everyone else around him wants him to play things smarter, not harder, but he's not in a mental space to listen. There's nothing wrong with a good eye-for-an-eye actioner, with retribution dangling as its endgame, but The Terminal List slips into sluggishness too often to fully hit the mark.

The Verdict

The Terminal List has both intriguing new elements and tried-and-true old methods that help it rise above the usual revenge yarn, but Chris Pratt shedding his smile and going full routine/rote strong-jaw action hero, along with the show's insistence on repeating the same sentimental moments, make for a turgid watch at times, while also operating as examples of why this story should have been trimmed down and possibly reconceived.

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The Terminal List

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Chris Pratt in The Terminal List

The Terminal List review – Chris Pratt’s Amazon action series is terminally dull

The star makes for a listless lead in a dated and drably made eight-part military thriller that offers little intrigue or excitement

W hile Amazon Prime would, of course, like to be seen as a one-stop shop for all kinds of content (and like its competitors, the headache-inducing number of shows and films being spewed out does mean that there really is something for everyone), there has become a notably strange sweet spot for the streamer. The retailer’s first show might have been Joey Soloway’s intimate family drama Transparent, exploring gender and sexuality with sensitivity, and its most awarded might be The Marvelous Mrs Maisel, a female-fronted comedy about female comedy, what’s being most watched continues to be a very different story.

For it’s the red-blooded, dad-would-like action narratives that seem to have connected the most, from the long-running success of Bosch to the much-watched Tom Clancy adaptations Jack Ryan and Without Remorse to the impressive numbers for the army v aliens thriller The Tomorrow War to, most recently, the record-breaking viewership of Lee Child’s Reacher (one could superficially nestle The Boys alongside for those who haven’t quite grasped the show’s pretty easy-to-grasp satire ). It’s not all been bad per se but it’s mostly been indistinctive, a gung-ho formula of guys and guns that offers very little in the way of surprise. The Terminal List is an inevitable algorithmic amalgamation of the above with The Tomorrow War’s Chris Pratt heading up an adaptation of a Jack Carr novel, whose military adventures file next to both Clancy and Child, writers he’s expressed admiration for. But it’s familiar to a fault, a tired and tiring series unfurling on Independence Day weekend for those looking for a low-stakes post-barbecue watch, a slab of barely heated red meat that’s all extremely hard-to-chew gristle.

Pratt plays James Reece, whose life is turned upside down after his platoon of Navy Seals is killed during a botched mission overseas. Upon returning back to his family (an adoring wife and a young daughter he takes hunting) memories of what happened shift and Reece convinces himself that some sort of conspiracy is afoot, one that might threaten the lives of those that he loves.

In a recent interview , Pratt, who on the same press tour has shown understandable annoyance over Twitter voting him “the worst of the Chrises”, revealed that the allure of a return to television was the ability to see a story that would have felt rushed and shallow at 90 minutes get the expansive eight-hour treatment, allowing ancillary characters depth and development. What’s most head-scratching about this reasoning, which has oftentimes turned good stories into great ones, is just how much this particular tale suffers from the long-form format. The Terminal List is the kind of straight-to-Redbox three-beers-deep actioner made by the dozen, usually starring Chad Michael Murray or Bruce Willis or Chad Michael Murray and Bruce Willis, that works best with little to no thinking time. When spread across eight, punishingly dull episodes, all of its many, many cracks star to tear the whole thing apart.

Drably directed in part by Antoine Fuqua (who, since Training Day, has specialised in anonymous point-and-shoot action fodder), it’s astonishingly pedestrian and aggressively unexciting stuff, a flat and all-too-easy-to-predict revenge saga that plays by the basest of rules, our embittered hero violently working his way through the bad guys like he’s in a video game, all the way up to the boss level (hilariously he does cross them off on a hand-written list which allows for the unintentionally incredible line: “Stay off my list!”). What the show fails to reckon with is just how deranged Reece’s mission ends up being, his methods often hewing closer to those of Jigsaw (a torture scene involving intestines is as gratuitous as it is stupid) and quite often possessing not an iota of interest in how many other, innocent lives could be affected. A more interesting script would have grappled with his sadistic selfishness but creator David DiGilio is far too busy cheering from the sidelines (at one point a character says of Reece: “Guy’s a legend, total patriot”).

It’s a passion project for Pratt, who hasn’t been shy about his military obsession, but you would not know from watching the actor giving arguably his laziest performance to date, lethargically shuffling through scenes like he’s just here for the cash, unable to bring any real shades of humanity to an admittedly half-a-note character (how Carr has turned Reece into a five-book franchise is a genuine mystery). What made Pratt such a revelation in Guardians of the Galaxy was his ability to transplant his well-trained sitcom timing to a genre that can often feel rigid and humourless, a leading man that prized freewheeling goofiness over staid stoicism. But his choices have since lost any of that fizz, turning him into yet another bland gym lug, promise squandered. There’s little of interest for anyone else to do, from a mostly unconvincing Constance Wu as an exposition-spouting journalist to a cartoonishly evil Jai Courtney as a big tech baddie to Taylor Kitsch slumming it as a quippy soldier pal to a bizarrely thankless role for the wonderful Riley Keough on wife duty. The only real fun is watching Jeanne Tripplehorn as secretary of state, relishing a much-deserved second career wind.

If Amazon’s recent history is anything to go by, this will probably be an easy win but for those who might have curiously added it to this summer’s watch list, I’d recommend crossing it straight off.

The Terminal List is now available on Amazon Prime Video

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The Terminal List

The Terminal List

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Based on the best-selling novel by Jack Carr, The Terminal List follows James Reece (Chris Pratt) after his entire platoon of Navy SEALs is ambushed during a high-stakes covert mission. Reece returns home to his family with conflicting memories of the event and questions about his culpability. However, as new evidence comes to light, Reece discovers dark forces working against him, endangering not only his life, but the lives of those he loves. The Terminal List debuts on Prime Video on July 1, 2022.

The Terminal List: Limited Series Review

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The Terminal List Review

The Terminal List

Streaming on: Prime Video

It’s seven years since Chris Pratt was last a regular on a TV series. In Parks and Recreation , as Andy, his goofy charm and easy comic timing made him a break-out star and catapulted him to unlikely leading man status. The Terminal List , a brawny, boring ‘thriller’ (in intent if not execution), strips Pratt of all his appealing qualities. All humour and self-awareness wrung out of him, he’s just another beefy action guy, bringing none of his movie star charisma to a show that really, really needs it.

The Terminal List

Based on a novel by Jack Carr, an ex-Navy SEAL sniper turned author, The Terminal List has Pratt as James Reece, the head of a SEAL team, who finds himself embroiled in a bizarre conspiracy after his team is decimated on a mission to kill a powerful terrorist. Reece comes home a hero but can’t escape the feeling there’s more to the mission’s failure than bad luck. He believes his superiors are covering something up, but they keep trying to point the finger back at him, a man whose reality has been warped by PTSD. When he pushes too hard for answers, his family is threatened and Reece sets out to uncover the truth, killing anyone who gets in his way.

It could be entertaining, if highly implausible, if the show took a less self-serious approach and picked up the pace. The plot of a 400-page novel is stretched over eight episodes, which it really struggles to fill. The opening episode, directed by Antoine Fuqua ( Training Day , The Equalizer ), has some solid action and twists, but even this modest excitement dissipates in the following episodes. The second devotes its first ten minutes to Reece quietly grieving, which is illustrative of the show’s general lack of urgency to move the plot forward.

The plot is so simplistic there’s really no challenge to following it.

The generous running time offers plenty of space to flesh out its characters in interesting ways or really dig into how fighting for your country can also make you feel alienated by it, but writer Dave DiGilio chooses not to take up that offer. There’s a dull moral binary to all the characters. They’re either good (military, wives) or bad (government, non-American), and Reece, being good, has to triumph in every interchangeable fight. A talented cast – Taylor Kitsch as Reece’s best buddy, Constance Wu as a sneaky journalist, Jeanne Tripplehorn as Secretary of Defence – have little to do but recite trite exposition. At one point, Tripplehorn introduces herself with “I’m not much of a politician. I speak my mind and do what I want”, as if she’s reading her own character description rather than dialogue.

Perhaps the least appealing thing about this lump of a show is the lack of credit it gives its viewers. We’re not trusted to connect any of our own dots. When Reece cracks a clue, we often get a little flashback montage to remind us what he’s remembering, in case we’ve forgotten everything that happened one episode ago. The plot is so simplistic there’s really no challenge to following it. The far bigger challenge is maintaining any interest.

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Taylor Kitsch in The Terminal List

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COMMENTS

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  14. The Terminal List (TV Series 2022- )

    The Terminal List is an action packed thriller that will keep you at the edge of your seat throughout the entire series. It's absolutely loaded with star power led by Chris Pratt and also has incredible performances by the rest of this great cast including Taylor Kitsch, Riley Keough, Jai Courtney, Constance Wu, JD Pardo and Jeanine Tripplehorn just name a few.

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