The Terminal List review: Chris Pratt, Constance Wu’s series fires a lot of shots, all of which miss the mark

When the only enjoyable thing about an eight-episode series is the eight times Chris Pratt smiles on camera, that is when you know the series is just another dull, badly paced story about an army guy out for revenge.

The Terminal List

Story: Lt. Commander James Reece is the only survivor of a mission gone horribly wrong behind enemy lines. As he returns home, he is occupied with memories from the past and a fading mind. He soon starts uncovering a massive conspiracy as he heads out for revenge, all guns blazing. 

 Review: Is a movie or a show ever a thriller if it's a story that you have already seen too many times and with twists that you can see coming a mile away? The Terminal List gives you the answer to this question, because clearly, the only thrill you had while watching this was trying to brew the right pot of coffee to make sure you didn’t doze off while watching it. 

Chris Pratt has come a long way as an actor, from playing roles in movies and shows such as Wanted and Parks and Recreation to becoming a leading man following the success of his MCU role in Guardians of the Galaxy. And The Terminal List is proof of this, as he gets his generic Hollywood action hero film, where a trained ex-army man goes off the rails with semi-automatics. The series is a feast for all the gun nuts who are keeping an eye out to see how the action star handles a gun and is part of a never-ending series that is just too long for the regular viewers. 

Pratt plays Lt. Commander James Reece in the show, who leads his team of SEALs into what was expected to be a regular mission behind enemy lines. The mission goes horribly wrong as they are ambushed, leaving Reece as the only survivor. The first episode is the only enjoyable one in the eight-episode series, mostly thanks to a well-shot scene inside a crumbling tunnel. Antoine Fuqua directed said episode, and that should explain why it stands out from the rest when it comes to technical excellence. 

As Reece returns home, his mind is taken for a ride as he starts seeing his people who are not really there, memories of his family and nightmares about that fateful mission. We slowly (I mean extremely slowly) learn what is going wrong and how our hero has been wronged by the system. Following the death of his wife and child (as it must in a revenge drama following a former army man), he sets out to hunt down everyone who was at fault for what happened to his men and his family. 

While the show just keeps dragging on, it also takes away the parts of Chris Pratt that were actually enjoyable. Because let’s face the truth. Pratt is a charming individual who can make you laugh without much effort, but when it comes to an unstoppable man with a set of specific skills seeking blood, Pratt just isn’t your man. While the show shouts out "miscast" as loud as it can, Pratt actually does a decent job as an actor. Taylor Kitsch, who also appears as the best friend turned trusted ally, also does a decent job. But, it is Constance Wu's performance as Katie Buranek, a reporter ready to go the extra distance to uncover the truth, that actually takes the cake in the show. 

The Terminal List is just more proof that Hollywood just isn’t ready to let go of the "ex-army man on a rampage" storyline, where we get to see a muscular macho man wield guns and take out the government. But what makes the show unbearable at some points is how blatantly annoying it is by simply being too much on the nose. Couple that with the fact that the show is just poorly paced, and it becomes something that you would rather sit out. But I am sure there is a very select group of people that would enjoy the series, because at the end of the day, it does have a chiselled army guy on the loose. 

It also feels like the show tries way too hard to try and make us feel for the hero who has lost his family. So much so that we get to see more memories of Reece with his family than flying bullets, and that is saying something. While they even do the whole, "look at what my daughter drew" thing, there is really no real essence to it all for us to be emotionally attached to any of the characters or their pain. 

The politics of the show are as thin as its characters. While it wants to try and say that the government does not care for its men and women at war and would throw them under the bus the first chance they get, the makers also want us to back the "man who has lost it all" on a rampage. While higher ups killing soldiers for the sake of it is wrong, according to the show, it also wants us to see a man killing people because he can, as the hero. While the cinema logic of "who we point to as the hero, is the hero" is very much in play, The Terminal List is really not that deep for anyone to use critical thinking while watching it. 

Verdict: The Terminal List has a story that has already been told countless times by Hollywood, but this time, starring Chris Pratt. The actor appears to be a serious miscast in the role, but the show has other flaws that overshadow this. The thrills and twists in the show also seem juvenile, often feeling like it was written for the sake of being written, and when coupled with being wrongly paced, The Terminal List becomes a show that misses the mark.

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