We review Episode 1 of The Terminal List: Dark Wolf on Amazon Prime! Dive into the dark mysteries, action, and key characters that kick off the season.
⚠️ Full spoilers for this episode of The Terminal List: Dark Wolf
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CHAPTERS
02:45 Exploring the Brotherhood and Military Themes
05:20 Character Development: Ben Edwards and Rafe Hastings
08:32 The Role of Chris Pratt and the Connection to the Original Series
14:15 The Action Sequences and Cinematic Quality
17:26 Expectations and Reception of the Episode
20:28 Casting Choices and Character Dynamics
23:26 Realism and Authenticity in Portrayal
26:12 Final Thoughts and Episode Ratings
00:00:18
Hey, guys, I'm Chris. And I'm Mike.
00:00:24
And welcome back to this week's No Limits the Thriller podcast.
00:00:29
Turning in to your spoiler filled TV podcast or streaming
00:00:34
podcast, I should say like we are covering the Terminalist
00:00:38
Dark Wolf, we're going to go deep dive spoiler filled.
00:00:43
I can't wait to talk to you about the series.
00:00:46
I'm so excited. I'm just excited as you are.
00:00:50
But before we jump into that spoiler filled discussion, a
00:00:54
quick shout for our patrons. You are the reason this podcast
00:00:57
is possible. And if you 2 want to join this
00:01:00
exclusive club of the top thriller readers and thriller
00:01:04
fans in the whole world for less than the price of a novel a
00:01:07
month, you 2 can support the podcast.
00:01:09
Be the reason we can make more podcasts.
00:01:12
So just head over to thrillerpod.com and click the
00:01:14
Patreon tab to learn more about the Thriller Pod Patron Book
00:01:18
Club. But Chris, yeah, we mainly talk
00:01:21
books on this podcast. We spoil them.
00:01:24
We dive deep into them and we are massive fans of the Jack Car
00:01:28
Terminalist series. But when we covered the Jack Car
00:01:31
Terminalist books, it's almost when we're hitting our stride.
00:01:34
We are in our zone. It is our element through and
00:01:37
through. We love those books and when the
00:01:39
first season the TV show came out, it was good.
00:01:42
But now that Dark Wolf is here, this show is almost everything.
00:01:46
The vibes, the feel, the military aspects of it,
00:01:50
everything I was hoping that first season would have been, to
00:01:52
be honest. Yeah, and I, I feel like, you
00:01:55
know, we're filling out like, I guess we should just give a
00:01:58
little bit of preamp, right? Like this is a prequel series
00:02:03
for those of you that have not. Well, first of all, I don't know
00:02:06
why what you're doing here if you haven't watched the first
00:02:09
season of the Terminal List. But for those of you who are
00:02:11
tuning in, who have watched the first season of the Terminal
00:02:14
List but yet maybe haven't read the book, again, you don't know
00:02:17
what you're doing not reading the book.
00:02:19
You know, you don't. You don't.
00:02:20
But what we should say is that this is a prequel series that
00:02:25
there is no book like for us to like, even compare this series
00:02:31
to. So it's all new IP, new from the
00:02:34
mind of Jack Carr. Obviously he's the executive
00:02:36
producer on the series. But what's so cool about this is
00:02:41
that if you are a book reader, like getting to meet, MO Farouq,
00:02:47
like getting to meet. Amazing.
00:02:50
You know Landry, like who's going to who?
00:02:52
You know, I know. How?
00:02:55
Yeah, yeah. How much of A spoiler should we
00:02:57
should we go in? All we know is those two are
00:03:00
very important. Very important, yeah.
00:03:03
Yes, yes, but and also, you know, we're definitely going to
00:03:07
spoil the terminalist obviously. And so right off the bat, this
00:03:13
is an origin story almost of the villain that is Ben Edwards.
00:03:20
It's it's very interesting, right?
00:03:22
But you're but playing on that, that sympathy card, you know,
00:03:27
like that was so gut wrenching, especially reading the book when
00:03:31
when you find out that it's Ben who.
00:03:36
It hurts, betrayed. You know, Reese it it it hurts
00:03:40
big because of how likeable of character is, because of how
00:03:44
connected you are to him. And then now to get like his
00:03:47
back story is it it just takes it to a whole nother level.
00:03:51
I don't know, I I I like it. It makes me like the character
00:03:55
of Ben Edwards more. But then again, it's like, like
00:03:59
all good villain origin stories, like you think back to, I don't
00:04:02
know, Darth Vader or Voldemort or, you know, even in some of
00:04:09
our thriller, you know, universe that we've covered the sons of
00:04:15
Valor series, like just really being put in the mind of, you
00:04:22
know, someone that ultimately turns is, is very intriguing to
00:04:24
me. And, and, and super, I don't
00:04:26
know, gets me super excited. I I like this.
00:04:29
And completely, it's kind of, it rubs me the wrong way to hear
00:04:33
you keep using the word villain because that betrayal stings so
00:04:37
bad from the Terminalist. But also, I kind of love Taylor
00:04:41
Kish's performance of Ben Edwards and it was so it was
00:04:44
genius by Chris Pratt and the crew and the team to realize
00:04:48
what he did in the Terminalist season 1 deserved a starting
00:04:52
role, a starting role. And and you know, in that
00:04:55
season, in that series moving forward, he really won't be
00:04:58
around much. And that would have been a huge
00:05:00
disappointment if all we got of the terminalist on screen of Ben
00:05:03
Edwards and Taylor Kitsch was that first season and ended with
00:05:06
the turn off page off screen. No more this idea of going
00:05:11
backwards before going forwards. I think it's just a brilliant
00:05:14
play. And to bring not only Ben
00:05:16
Edwards into the fold, but Rafe Hastings, an earlier younger
00:05:21
Rafe Hastings put him in the list with Moe and Landry and
00:05:24
others. He he, he supersedes all of them
00:05:26
in importance in the series, really.
00:05:28
Second Therese, one might argue. And here he is in his prime, in
00:05:32
his glory, and the brotherhood is strong.
00:05:35
This episode did a few things so well that I really wanted to
00:05:41
feel because when you read a Jack Carr story, it needs to be
00:05:46
about the Brotherhood. It needs to be about having the
00:05:48
guy's back. The importance of what the teams
00:05:51
mean to them. And when they're sitting around
00:05:53
that campfire, when Reeser's giving out gifts, when they're
00:05:57
calling each other brother all the time, that just the
00:05:59
excitement on their face to see and to serve with one another,
00:06:03
all that comes through. And also the military aspect of
00:06:06
it all. The Terminalist as a story, both
00:06:09
on page and on screen mention their military background, but
00:06:14
we didn't see them fully fledged into it.
00:06:16
Like it had the funeral montages and it had these different
00:06:19
snippets of his military career. It it exists outside of the plot
00:06:23
in the story that was being told, yet it's so central to who
00:06:26
the characters are. And so this series let's Ben
00:06:31
Edwards shine, Taylor Kitsch's Ben Edwards.
00:06:33
It lets you bring in Ray Hastings because if you dropped
00:06:35
him out of the blue in a True Believer series, Season 2 of The
00:06:38
Terminalist, lot of people might be like who?
00:06:41
Where, where'd he come from? He wasn't really that forward in
00:06:46
The Terminalist. And so now you're establishing
00:06:48
him. You're establishing the Hasting
00:06:49
Hastings family with the Rhodesian callbacks with his
00:06:52
father being mentioned. And I think the series is doing
00:06:55
so many things right to expand the universe, to allow people to
00:06:59
come into it who know nothing about it, and to give a lot of
00:07:01
treats to the people who do know a lot.
00:07:04
Yeah, I I was going to concur that I feel like this series
00:07:08
does more to set up the, you know, Terminalist Season 2 true
00:07:16
believer then just jumping in and and like spending an episode
00:07:22
or two filling us in on a a Mohammed Farooq or filling us
00:07:26
into a a rave Hastings like, you know, this is like what people
00:07:30
clamour about when, you know, normal series happen and
00:07:34
they're. Like oh, the MCU does it?
00:07:36
Or Star Wars. Yeah, and that and like, right,
00:07:39
right. And to, to be able to think
00:07:41
like, all right, we had this cool idea of adapting this book
00:07:45
into a, a, a series. Obviously it has some legs.
00:07:49
You know, some heavy hitters are involved.
00:07:52
They could have just went right into, you know, Book 2.
00:07:56
But I think like taking the time and obviously, like you said,
00:08:00
they, they saw they had something in Taylor Kitsch.
00:08:02
So the fact that, you know, they cast him as a character that
00:08:05
dies at the end of the first season, like you want to get a
00:08:08
little bit more out of that. It just makes perfect sense to
00:08:11
let's do the series. And we should say like this,
00:08:14
this episode, we're only going to talk.
00:08:15
We're going to, even though we've watched the first 3
00:08:18
episodes, we're going to only try to touch the first episode.
00:08:22
For those of you who might be joining in, you've only
00:08:26
listened, you only watched one episode.
00:08:27
So just to give you a little bit of preview, we're going to do
00:08:30
episode 1 now. Then we're going to record
00:08:33
episodes two and three, 4:00 and 5:00 and 6:00 and 7:00.
00:08:38
So. You have plenty of time to go,
00:08:42
you know, watch them come back. We'll be the after show, after
00:08:46
the Thrones, after the the Dark wolf show here.
00:08:50
Yeah. So episode 1 is what we're
00:08:52
talking about. And yeah, that brotherhood
00:08:55
really, really comes out even like the, the, the speech that
00:09:01
the major gets at the end, you know, when the decision is made
00:09:06
to strip them of their Trident or, or, you know, of their
00:09:12
sealship. Like the fact that what he says
00:09:14
about that, like it's that that's just very powerful.
00:09:16
I don't know. Yeah, he's a good character,
00:09:19
commander cop. He just came.
00:09:20
It ranged me. Yeah, sure.
00:09:22
Great actor too, Totally fulfilling that role.
00:09:26
And it's funny because a lot of what Jack Carr comments on in
00:09:30
his books and his profile and his media legacy and all the
00:09:35
empire that he's built is some problems with the military
00:09:38
leadership. But I think what he's showing
00:09:41
you here is that there are guys who have your back, but they are
00:09:44
also pawns in a bigger game. You know, they're also cogs in
00:09:48
the wheel. So the good leaders like Reese,
00:09:50
Commander Cox, and like everyone else, there are good apples,
00:09:54
right? There are the ones who
00:09:56
understand what the mission is and what this is about.
00:09:59
And even their hands are tied. And that's so important to the
00:10:02
story Jack Carr wants to tell. And here, man, does Taylor
00:10:05
Kitsch get his moment with his monologue dressing down the CIA
00:10:09
folks. I don't think he's calling out
00:10:11
Commander Cox at all in that or his own military superiors.
00:10:17
But man, is he laying into the Cias bullshit.
00:10:21
You know that they're they're fucking bullshit, which is
00:10:23
getting his brothers killed and on that bridge scene directly
00:10:26
gets his brothers killed. And one other thing I love that
00:10:29
they're doing here, bringing in the ISF, bring in the locals
00:10:33
because that's part of what Jack Carr and Boozer, the guy who
00:10:36
plays Boozer was also one of Jack Carr's SEAL mates, one of
00:10:40
the most important producers of the show, another executive
00:10:42
producer. I feel like they knew you had to
00:10:46
tell the story. If we're going to be in Iraq, if
00:10:47
we're going to be in Mosul, 2015, fight against ISIS, One of
00:10:51
the key components of that is the locals who just want to
00:10:54
stand up for their country. The same way the Seals are doing
00:10:56
it to defend America. There are Iraqis willing to put
00:11:00
their lives on the line. It's not only MO, as we
00:11:02
mentioned, who's going to be unpacked in the next few
00:11:04
episodes, but Duron. The way they, throughout the
00:11:08
whole episode, make Duron's family part of the storytelling
00:11:13
of where Ben Edwards is going in his mind.
00:11:16
His mental break, as you said, to get him to the end of The
00:11:18
Terminalist where he is working in the CIA, coming out of the
00:11:24
shadows to help one of his brothers, betraying him in the
00:11:27
worst way possible. We needed Ben, Ben to get
00:11:30
broken. And holy crap, by building up
00:11:33
the Duran storyline and his relationship with the family,
00:11:37
he's broken. Like it's, it's so empathetic.
00:11:40
You could feel for him. And not to jump to the ending
00:11:43
action, because there's a lot of action to get to.
00:11:46
When he sees the girl in that room and he hears her voice
00:11:50
cowering in the corner, I was like, he's going to snap.
00:11:55
I was like this. There was so much drama and
00:11:57
tension in that scene. It was shot, it was acted, it
00:11:59
was performed so well. I was like, this is it.
00:12:02
This is where we find out why Ben is the Ben of the
00:12:06
terminalist. This is where he snaps.
00:12:07
And this is where things in his mind go haywire.
00:12:10
And basically the way the terminalist was Reese's revenge
00:12:13
plot. And he had to learn about
00:12:15
redemption and coming back from the dark side of revenge, the
00:12:18
dark side of man. As Jack would, Jack Carr would
00:12:20
say, now I see where Ben's going.
00:12:23
Similar path, but different path that he's also broken.
00:12:26
He's going to be out for revenge, but it's going to be a
00:12:28
lot more complicated. Like James Reese, he knows what
00:12:32
he's going to get, who he needs to get.
00:12:34
He's got a list. He's going to check off those
00:12:35
dudes. I feel like Ben is right now
00:12:37
committing to going ape shit on these guys, but in a more
00:12:42
covert, sneaky kind of way. And so he's got to turn to the
00:12:47
CIA. He he becomes Black Ops.
00:12:51
Yeah, and I feel like they they plant the seeds pretty well
00:12:54
that, you know, maybe he doesn't have his life like priorities in
00:13:00
in check. Like obviously he's a really
00:13:02
married guy, obviously, but but that that relationship is
00:13:06
struggling. You know, he's he's committed.
00:13:12
He can't like shy away from the game.
00:13:14
It, it reminds me a lot of like Jeremy Renner's character from
00:13:18
the Hurt Locker. Like there, there's one scene in
00:13:21
the hurt Locker where he, he's holding his son at the, I think
00:13:25
at the like, close to the very end, he's like, there's, there's
00:13:28
only one thing that I love like most in this world.
00:13:31
And you know, you're supposed to take it that, oh, it's, it's his
00:13:36
son. But then it cuts to him deciding
00:13:38
to go back to Afghanistan or to Iraq to, to defuse bombs.
00:13:45
And it's like, oh, no, like he is married to the game.
00:13:47
Like he's nothing. He is addicted to that, that
00:13:51
fight, you know, being in the fight, they're in the fight,
00:13:53
right. And then, you know, we're going
00:13:57
to get to a character in the next two episodes that that from
00:14:01
the CIA that definitely talks about that and has a nice speech
00:14:04
about that. But yeah, it's it's interesting.
00:14:07
I, I wanted to bring up this idea of like Chris Pratt and
00:14:12
James Reese and like how much he was used.
00:14:15
Like did you, were you happy with, you know, knowing that
00:14:18
this is going to be Ben Edwards origin story?
00:14:23
But you knew that like Chris Pratt had to be there at at some
00:14:26
point. Like I imagine that we're we're
00:14:29
not going to see much of them like after this first episode or
00:14:32
so, right? Yeah, I, I think that's one of
00:14:36
the decisions that had to be made is how do you juggle it?
00:14:38
How do you use him to bring in people who watched the
00:14:42
Terminalists? How to use him to get readers to
00:14:44
remember This is a spin off, but it's still interrelated.
00:14:47
It's still the characters in and around recent life, so I think
00:14:52
you have to do that delicately. It was a little clumsy.
00:14:54
It felt a little clumsy, him showing up.
00:14:56
Now. They did say A.
00:14:57
Little bit in the beginning, right?
00:14:59
Yeah. What is it?
00:15:00
Yeah, Charlie Company is moving out, Al Alpha's coming in.
00:15:02
And so it's like a different group of trainers are going to
00:15:05
work with the ISF guys. Like they're cranking it up the
00:15:07
next level by bringing in Reese's group to to train the
00:15:10
ISF so that that was OK. And then the campfire scene.
00:15:14
I thought you needed what bonds all these these guys together?
00:15:18
A little clunky, though, I would say.
00:15:19
So I think you're right. I I don't know how they handle
00:15:21
him moving forward. But if this is the downrange
00:15:25
military episode establishing these guys R Seals were Seals in
00:15:30
the fight directly in the War on Terror.
00:15:33
We've established that. Do you need James Reese now when
00:15:36
it goes to the CIA stuff? I don't know how they handle him
00:15:41
moving forward will be a question.
00:15:44
Yeah, Does this episode do enough?
00:15:46
Well, let's say you're not. You're not a book reader.
00:15:49
Maybe you didn't even watch the first season of The Terminal
00:15:52
List. Like, does this episode do
00:15:54
enough for you to get you bought in to wanting to watch the next
00:15:59
episode? Next episode, yes, I think for
00:16:02
sure the next episode I think if and Rosie it's funny watched
00:16:06
with my wife. We don't watch too many of these
00:16:08
shows or read these books together.
00:16:10
I convinced her to do this one. And she's like, yeah, I think
00:16:13
this is more of your demographic.
00:16:14
It was like, is this show really just made for, you know, males
00:16:18
in their 20s and 30s? And I was like, maybe, Maybe.
00:16:23
Maybe. Yeah, she's like a little too
00:16:26
testosterone late. And I told her I was like, I
00:16:29
think they went a little heavy on the military stuff this
00:16:31
episode on purpose. Very heavy.
00:16:33
I don't I don't think the whole show is going to be that
00:16:36
committed to the bit, but you're right, I think that leaves us in
00:16:39
a grey zone of what's the role for Chris Pratt.
00:16:41
So I would say it does enough to make me want to watch the next
00:16:44
episode easily. And then when we get there next
00:16:47
podcast, episode 2 completely makes you buy into watching the
00:16:52
rest of the series. I don't know if it teases me
00:16:55
enough to want to know everything about Chris Pratt if
00:16:58
I didn't know about James Reese. He's kind of little side.
00:17:02
Show here. Yeah, I don't, I don't think it
00:17:06
does, but I don't think it needs to.
00:17:07
I think we have to make that determination at the end of Dark
00:17:10
Wolf. And then ultimately the big
00:17:14
thing we said about Terminal List and any TV show we've ever
00:17:17
covered is doesn't make you want to read the book.
00:17:19
And so I think season 1 of the Terminal List, I was like and
00:17:24
maybe kind of the book so good that if people only knew this
00:17:27
James Reese on screen, I'd be a little concerned they may not
00:17:30
transition to the book. I'm pretty confident that after
00:17:33
Dark Wolf, most viewers are going to want to say I need to
00:17:36
read this book and figure out more about Ben Edwards, Ray
00:17:39
Hastings and maybe Chris Pratt, maybe James Reese by the end.
00:17:42
So I think we got to keep that one in the bag until episode
00:17:46
what, 7? We get 7 episodes.
00:17:48
Yeah. 7 episodes. Yeah, yeah.
00:17:49
Yeah, I hope I can say yes. Dark Wolf does so much to expand
00:17:54
the universe and drive viewers to The Terminalist and the
00:17:58
books. Yeah, because that's ultimately
00:18:01
the goal, right? Yeah.
00:18:02
That would be the biggest success, right?
00:18:04
There's no other really measure to measure the show unless it
00:18:06
does that. So we we kind of, we, we touched
00:18:12
on James Reeves and and Taylor Kitsch.
00:18:16
What do you think of the castings for Ray Hastings and
00:18:20
for some of our other characters that we get?
00:18:22
I think Tom Hooper's great. Dude, I think he's been a.
00:18:26
Lot of fun. He does he he you know, Rafe,
00:18:32
for those of you who haven't read the books, like is
00:18:34
described as this, you know, very tall Rhodesian man like,
00:18:40
you know, whether or not he's doing like a a great Rhodesian
00:18:46
accent, I don't, I don't know. But what's really funny is that
00:18:49
when I I I maybe they got Ray Porter to voice the the voice of
00:18:54
his dad in in that's that's next episode.
00:18:59
But anyways, they the voices remind me of how Rafe and
00:19:07
Jonathan Hastings sound in the audio book at least at least
00:19:10
Porter, whoever like at least Tom Hooper, maybe listen to the
00:19:15
audio book, you know, or, or or Roy Ray Porter, listen to, you
00:19:20
know, he he we should give more credit to Ray Porter that he's
00:19:23
nailing these accents. But yeah, it's not coming across
00:19:26
as like British, which I know he is, right.
00:19:28
So. Yeah, I think he does just
00:19:31
enough to kind of get the accent right.
00:19:33
You're you're so smart to compare it to Ray Porter, who
00:19:35
nails it in the audiobooks. And I think that's why I've
00:19:38
liked Tom Hooper's accent and take on the character.
00:19:42
It's reminding me of how Ray Porter would read the character
00:19:44
from the page. So yeah, I like that.
00:19:47
And I have to say about him, one, he's the eye candy.
00:19:50
I guess you got Taylor Kitsch as well, but some more eye candy.
00:19:53
He's almost like that Alan Richin Richin from the Reacher
00:19:58
series. Like you need the hunk.
00:20:00
You know, like. From Reacher.
00:20:02
Just dude who's built from Reacher, Yeah, someone who's
00:20:05
just built. And so I think he brings that
00:20:07
element. And I also wonder his role
00:20:12
because like, it's clear Boozer is just minor character who's
00:20:15
there to support the boys and will be used on OPS and brought
00:20:18
in. But Rafe has to be a little more
00:20:20
than that. He has to be a little more
00:20:22
central than a teammate like the Boozer.
00:20:24
Like Boozer, but he can't over shadow Ben Edwards so right, I
00:20:30
think how you handle him moving forward will be important.
00:20:34
Yeah, I just remember when he came in to replace whoever had
00:20:40
done Dick and Tarly in Game of Thrones season, season 6.
00:20:45
And he was just like this, this, this huge glow up because what
00:20:48
they had, they had switched actors between seasons and like
00:20:53
whoever they had before was just nowhere near the man that Tom
00:20:56
Hooper is. Like he's just, it's crazy.
00:21:01
One of the best performances though, acting wise, I think is
00:21:04
MO. I think MO Farooq for character.
00:21:07
I think he just kills it when they're going through the
00:21:09
checkpoint and he's and he's bribing the dude, the ISIS dude
00:21:13
at the checkpoint. I think that acting is 10 out of
00:21:17
10. I don't think you can beat it.
00:21:19
He's he's playing a local, but he's on our side.
00:21:22
Can't show that he's got to stand up to these ISIS guys, but
00:21:25
not be, you know, rougher or forward enough that they suspect
00:21:29
something. But he knows that's their
00:21:31
language. Violence is their language.
00:21:33
So he has to show them that violence just by his facial
00:21:35
expressions. Oh, I, I just think MO's been
00:21:39
amazing. Duron was good too, and Duron's
00:21:41
whole family. But I think if I were going to
00:21:43
say just off the bat, who's impressing me most on the pure
00:21:48
acting side, I think I'm going with MO.
00:21:52
Yeah, and I, you know, what's funny is like, I don't even know
00:21:54
if they say MO. I don't even know if they say
00:21:58
his name in the first episode. Like he he's obviously
00:22:02
mentioned. He's just there.
00:22:03
If it if it is, it's very it's it's done in passing.
00:22:10
Whereas like gives him a hug when he comes on to bass, like
00:22:13
there's an embrace. There's an embrace and like but
00:22:16
it didn't click with me. Like I I immediately clicked
00:22:19
with the character. Like I liked it.
00:22:21
But then when we got to episode 2 and they actually said his
00:22:24
name. That's MO.
00:22:25
I was like, Oh my God, no. One.
00:22:28
No wonder I like that character. Same thing with Landry.
00:22:30
Landry was the lackey man for the CIA dude in the debriefing
00:22:34
and in the office, and then he's going out to look for John.
00:22:36
I'm like, why is that name ringing a bell?
00:22:38
Why is that name ringing a bell? Like he's kind of weasel.
00:22:40
He's kind of this shadowy guy. I don't know if I could trust
00:22:42
him. I know he's CIA, but is he fully
00:22:44
Ciai couldn't place the Landry guy.
00:22:46
And when that clicked, I was like, shit, it's also Landry.
00:22:49
Like that's MO and Landry. Yeah, yeah.
00:22:53
Little Nuggets like that were fun for us book fans.
00:22:57
Yeah, Landry, the third Hemsworth brother, you got a
00:23:01
right, right. I guess with Pratt being close
00:23:04
with Chris Hemsworth, he was able to get the the chubbier
00:23:08
Hemsworth brother out of the three.
00:23:11
And, and later on in the next few episodes, he he plays that
00:23:14
role very. Well, yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:23:18
So I mean, this this first episode, man, I, I, I, I really
00:23:22
like it. And the action, like you said,
00:23:24
that bridge scene super imprints, you know, the various
00:23:30
going into Mosul multiple times, obviously a lot of tension.
00:23:36
And then at the very end, you know, culminating with that
00:23:38
action scene of them going in and sort of going off off
00:23:41
script, like, you know, they're doing great.
00:23:45
And then also like just the training, like like getting, I
00:23:48
think that, you know, having Jack as an executive producer,
00:23:51
having Boozer, what's his what's his actual name?
00:23:56
Oh. Yeah, I can't think of it.
00:23:59
Jared Shaw. Jared Shaw.
00:24:01
Having Jared Shaw there at as you know, obviously these two
00:24:07
previous Navy Seals on team as producers like it just it it it
00:24:13
definitely shows that they they cared about getting like that
00:24:17
aspect of it of it, right so. I mean, if there's one thing you
00:24:21
could say about everyone on the show, it's a deep sense of care
00:24:25
and respect, and you want to do it right, You know, like,
00:24:28
they're not going to tell the story unless everything checks
00:24:31
out. And Chris Pratt said that in a
00:24:32
lot of interviews. He goes, look, we very much rely
00:24:36
on the guys who have been there, been there, done that.
00:24:38
Like we listen to them. It's not like other Hollywood
00:24:40
production teams where you might buy the story, kick them to the
00:24:44
curb or you might give them lip service and say, oh, we want to
00:24:46
hear about your experience surfing and tell us what it's
00:24:49
like. And we want to try to recreate
00:24:50
that. And then they they go Hollywood,
00:24:52
Hollywood go to Hollywood right now.
00:24:54
Chris has said like if we're going to change things for the
00:24:58
sake of delivering an on screen performance, ATV performance,
00:25:02
we're going to change 20%. But like there's a threshold of
00:25:05
like it has to be 80% real, like realistic to the core.
00:25:09
So you're only going to change a very minimal amount of things
00:25:12
and not the core things, which would take veterans and service
00:25:15
members and people who've been there, you know, Iraq 2015
00:25:18
pretty recent. We got a lot of guys who
00:25:20
probably want to watch the show, guys and gals who know what it's
00:25:22
like on one of those bases, right?
00:25:24
That like forward operating base or whatever it would be and
00:25:27
working with the locals, right? And you interact with them and
00:25:30
even the checkpoint where Duran is coming through with the
00:25:32
prosthetic leg, I'm sure so many people like that.
00:25:36
That's real to them. Visualizing what it's like to
00:25:38
see the locals lining up being like, oh shit, are any of these
00:25:42
guys compromised? Like they're walking our base,
00:25:44
showing their papers, cooking our meals, keeping, keeping our
00:25:48
operation alive. And like, obviously we want to
00:25:50
trust them. We're here to liberate their
00:25:51
country, deliver to them a more prosperous and free future.
00:25:56
But shit is, could the terrorists use that as an
00:25:59
opportunity? And unfortunately, that's the
00:26:01
now we character weapons mastermind, ultimately the bomb
00:26:06
supplier who gives more forces Duron into the prosthetic.
00:26:12
They manipulate our systems, right?
00:26:13
They they know our security on base.
00:26:15
They know what's going to get through.
00:26:16
And and that's what Jack always says is like we we have to out
00:26:22
think them. We have to out tactic them.
00:26:23
You know, if they're learning 20 plus years of this war against
00:26:27
terrorism in in Iraq and Afghanistan, the enemy is
00:26:30
learning and we have to learn and adapt faster, quicker and
00:26:33
better. And I feel like that's what
00:26:35
Ben's going to learn is that bomb went off and they
00:26:38
compromised Iran because they knew us too well.
00:26:42
They knew how to hit us. And now Ben's going to say the
00:26:45
military, the Seals are not giving me the proper structure
00:26:48
and command to hit them back and out tactic them within the
00:26:53
military system. So I'm going to have to hit them
00:26:55
back outside the military system and find another path.
00:26:58
So I think that also just plays perfectly with where Ben is in
00:27:01
his headspace. Yeah, dude, the bridge scene,
00:27:05
the bridge scene. Tell me what you thought when
00:27:08
you turned on the show and within, what, 5 minutes,
00:27:12
everything goes absolutely haywire on the bridge.
00:27:14
Were you loving that? I was loving.
00:27:16
Oh, it's just like it, it it brings you in it, it's intense.
00:27:19
It's it's very intense. And the fact that like, we get
00:27:22
very little plot in this first episode, like it's, you know,
00:27:29
this obviously setting up this idea of who this Denali guy is.
00:27:35
And he's. An.
00:27:37
Algebra, like there's something going on like the CI as doing
00:27:41
something, but then, you know, we're going to cover in the next
00:27:45
couple episodes like how there's a hard shift like coming and
00:27:50
like the fact that this episode purely stands to introduce us to
00:27:55
these characters, give us their background and allow us, you
00:28:01
know, all right, we can sort of put all this behind while while
00:28:03
like giving us a little bit of the bread crumbs of like what
00:28:06
the whole season's going to be about.
00:28:08
And I think it does a very good job of that.
00:28:09
Like it it's not, you know, while we maybe have some gripes
00:28:13
about like how James brace was used and stuff like that, I I
00:28:16
don't think overall this episode was that clunky.
00:28:19
Like, I think it like it it, it had a purpose and it served its
00:28:22
purpose pretty well. Completely agree and to have
00:28:26
that culminate in the algebra raid where these guys realize
00:28:30
the command structure because of The Dirty tricks by the CIA are
00:28:36
the reason our brothers are killed and the reason terrorist
00:28:39
is still operating and to go on their own.
00:28:44
They go off reservation and and basically the, the radio check.
00:28:48
I, I knew it was going to happen when they, they pretended the
00:28:50
radios weren't connecting and and faked the message when they
00:28:54
hit that house, I'm like, they're going to take things
00:28:56
into their own hands and what that's another thing of Jack
00:28:58
cars. What happens when operators take
00:29:01
things into their own hands because they're not happy with
00:29:03
the status quo and they're they're trained and they're
00:29:05
fully capable of taking things into their own hands.
00:29:08
I was like, go get him, go get this jibori guy.
00:29:10
And then on that raid, when he hears the girl and recognizes
00:29:15
it, it's like time stops. I forget what they do with the
00:29:17
sound, but I think everything went quiet or algebra was still
00:29:21
in the background saying I'm CIA, I'm CIA, I'm an asset, you
00:29:24
know, I'm on your side and all this stuff.
00:29:26
It just fades away the the subtitles.
00:29:29
Yeah, they they do that a couple times with this.
00:29:31
Like it's kind of like slow motion with the camera, but but
00:29:37
at the same time everything is like normal speed.
00:29:39
Like I guess the, the, the, the, the words are not slow motion,
00:29:43
that just like the actions are slow motion and you can just
00:29:45
tell that something is, is like coming, you know?
00:29:48
Like on the bridge, when the hostages are not moving forward
00:29:51
on the bridge, they, they perfectly timed it where you as
00:29:55
the, the audience feel something's not right and you
00:29:59
know there's an impending danger.
00:30:00
You're just waiting for the shoe to drop and these hostages are
00:30:03
stuck in the middle. And then that guy raises the gun
00:30:07
and all hell breaks loose. And and then they see the see
00:30:10
the vest and they really cinematically, it's almost like
00:30:14
a movie, like in a movie theater, you know, when that
00:30:17
shoe drops and everything goes silent, you know, there's like a
00:30:21
different feeling in the atmosphere of that movie
00:30:23
theater. They recreated that feeling on
00:30:25
your couch. Like TV doesn't often recreate
00:30:28
the feels of a movie. I feel like this episode
00:30:31
recreated the feeling of am I in a movie theater right now with
00:30:34
like, Dolby surround sound and like all this.
00:30:37
It felt that way watching it. Yeah, and it doesn't feel fake.
00:30:46
Like I, I don't, I don't want to like badmouth some other movies
00:30:49
or stuff that we've covered. But like, it doesn't feel grey
00:30:54
man to me, you know, it, it, it, it feels like a level up from
00:30:57
that. It's grounded, more grounded,
00:31:00
so. Yeah, more grounded for sure.
00:31:03
Yeah, what an episode. Overall, I don't know if we
00:31:08
should do scores or rankings because that's something we
00:31:11
prefer to do with books and that's more in our wheelhouse
00:31:13
for books. But if you had to give this
00:31:15
episode a letter grade just compared to your expectations
00:31:18
going in, what would you say? I think it's a solid B plus.
00:31:23
I think this episode is like a solid B plus like a minus like
00:31:29
and probably part of my score is dictated.
00:31:33
I wonder if if we had truly recorded this after I'd only
00:31:36
watched one episode, what I would have given it because it's
00:31:39
I I've I've unfortunately, I've seen two more episodes and we we
00:31:44
originally planned to record these like stand alone, but you
00:31:48
know, life gets in the way. Teeth get pulled, pneumonia.
00:31:52
I had pneumonia. Mike head back to school.
00:31:56
And have to pot in the yard, yeah.
00:31:58
Mike is potting in the backyard. You know, we are just two humble
00:32:01
men who do this on the side, so. Anything for the BOD, Anybody.
00:32:05
Anything for the BOD? I think I it's a solid B plus,
00:32:09
you know, it, it does enough. It does more than enough.
00:32:13
Get me excited. I'm I'm definitely watching the
00:32:17
next episode after I watch this, but it's it's not like a minus.
00:32:21
I'm hooked for the season already.
00:32:23
You know what I mean? Well, yeah, I think I I lowered
00:32:27
expectations a little because after the Terminalist TV show, I
00:32:30
went in with too high of expectations because I love the
00:32:33
book and it was a clear example of I went in too high.
00:32:36
So it was a clear example of damn, nothing could be as good
00:32:39
as the book like the first read of the book.
00:32:41
And I told this on the the earlier episodes when we covered
00:32:45
both the book and the TV show. I can remember precisely where I
00:32:48
was. And this is 6 years ago at the
00:32:51
book come out even more than that.
00:32:53
Whatever. 6-7 years ago the book came out.
00:32:55
I picked it up a little bit later.
00:32:57
I remember reading what happens to James Reece, James Reece and
00:33:00
his family. I can think of the exact spot on
00:33:03
campus I was back at Catholic University, exact spot on
00:33:05
campus. I sat down on the curb and I
00:33:10
just thought I just, I just, it's one of those books that
00:33:15
makes you just stop and question things or think about things or,
00:33:20
or maybe I would say prioritize things.
00:33:22
And I, and I remember just sitting on the curb 5-10
00:33:25
minutes. I don't even know, just that
00:33:27
that scene did so much to me. And so when I didn't really get
00:33:30
that exact feeling from the TV show, I, I raised my
00:33:32
expectations too high. So for this one, I came in with
00:33:34
lower expectations. And because of that, it blew me
00:33:37
away. I'm going straight A, not an A
00:33:39
plus. I would say that's I'm just
00:33:41
slight Dings from an A+, but I'm going straight A for episode 1
00:33:44
because it did so much that I wanted it to do and I was so
00:33:47
pleasantly pleased. OK, All right, cool.
00:33:52
Yeah, a lot of potential. We we have a lot more episodes
00:33:57
to cover. We should pause so we can talk
00:34:00
about episodes two and three. So let's do it.
00:34:04
Thanks guys for tuning in. If again, Mike's out of the top,
00:34:08
but if you guys like this episode, this is your first time
00:34:11
listening. Go check out We have three other
00:34:15
seasons of no limits. We started out covering all of
00:34:21
the trap we have all of Brad Thor and then right now on the
00:34:25
thriller podcast covering thrillers, thriller universe.
00:34:29
We we we might even dip into a little bit of sci-fi.
00:34:31
We me and Mike research read project hell, Mary and we both
00:34:34
loved it. So yeah.
00:34:37
And and special thanks to our patrons.
00:34:39
Shout out to Deputy Director Sherry F and Brad E Special
00:34:43
Agents Adam, Mike, Ben, Daryl, George, Matt, Dawn and Chris.
00:34:48
So and as always, just let Ben be Ben.
00:34:55
There you go. Just like Chief be Chief, Chief.