The Terminal List Review: This Prime Video action thriller series stars Chris Pratt as a NAVY SEAL Lt Commander James Reece, Constance Wu as Katie Buranek, Taylor Kitsch as Ben Edwards, Riley Keough as Lauren Reece, Jeanne Tripplehorn as Lorraine Hartley, and Patrick Schwarzenegger as Donny Mitchell. The Amazon Prime Video series is based on Jack Carr’s novel of the same name.
The screenplay is by David DiGilio, and Antoine Fuqua and Ellen Kuras have directed the show. There are 8 episodes with a runtime of 60 minutes approx.
The synopsis reads, “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.”
-No Spoilers-
The Terminal List Review
The Terminal List focuses on Navy SEAL Lt Commander James Reece, who loses his men during a mission in Syria. It was an ambush, and the only one to survive was James. When he returns home, everyone, including Reece, wants to know what happened when he returns home. James is traumatised and sad after what went down in Syria.
Along with the help of CIA officer Ben Edwards and journalist Katie Buranek, James works on finding the people behind the attack. In the 8 episodes, we see James doing everything he can to seek revenge. He creates the terminal list and works on striking off every name that he believes is responsible for the conspiracy.
An officer losing his men in a warlike situation and getting traumatised and out for revenge is a premise that’s been done innumerable times. Yet, Chris Pratt and the makers decided to do an 8-episode-long show that doesn’t provide anything intriguing or new. The show fails to capture any interest from the beginning. Revenge thrillers can go to any extent to build the viewer’s interest. But the makers didn’t try to do anything different in their narrative style.
Every time I started a new episode, I wondered what better they would show in this long 50-minute episode. The concept is such that it will not go beyond the usual notion. The only way to make this known genre unique was to add horror or aliens to it (Just kidding). Otherwise, it just feels like watching the same movie repeatedly, but it gets bland every time.
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When a script is weak, it fails to bring the best out of even a talented actor. That’s exactly what has happened with Chris Pratt and others. Even if Pratt did his best to show how sad or determined Reece is to bring justice, it doesn’t help make the show good. His performance is dragged just like the number of episodes is.
Final Thoughts
Overall, The Terminal List on Amazon Prime Video is a dull, boring and lifeless watch. It doesn’t provide us with anything new or out of the box. It’s a show that mixes movies of the genre we have seen multiple times.
The series will be released on Amazon Prime Video starting July 1.
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Wow, you really missed this review. This was the best series of the year.
Dull, boring??? I wish I knew what you find thrilling….holy cow did your review miss the mark. Retire