The Terminal List was a successful streaming series that came out in 2022. It starred Chris Pratt and Taylor Kitsch. It was based on the book that came out in 2018 by Jack Orr.  The show was so successful with audiences that it spawned a spinoff. The Terminal List: Lone Wolf focuses mainly on the Kitsch character even though Pratt’s character does show up in a few episodes. It is a prequel to the previous show and deals with a lot of the same things the earlier show dealt with. Fans of the other series, which played on Amazon Prime Video, will definitely love this one as well. It’s a lot of the same kind of action and espionage.

This series takes place years before the original show. It mainly deals with Ben Edwards (Taylor Kitsch), who is a Navy Seal. He and his team do special operations for the military. They work out of a base in Mosul Iraq. After a mission to return a terrorist back to his people goes bad, this never sits well with this man and his team. They figure a way to track another arms dealer using the guise of going after the man they handed over earlier. This causes a series of events that get him kicked out of the Navy. His specific set of skills don’t go to waste as a man from the CIA recruits him to do his bidding. Under the shadow of the United States government, he gets to continue his agenda as it was of doing what’s right. Of course, these kinds of missions can get compromised. 

Kitsch and Pratt aren’t the only cast members in this show. Throughout the series, there are multiple teams that go on various high security operations. The cast is filled with these men and women. Tom Hopper, back from the first show, reprises his role of Lt. Raife Hastings. He’s a major part of the story because he’s so close with the lead characters. Dar Salim (Guy Richie’s: The Covenant) is another member of both teams. He’s an Iraqi Mohammed Farooq who’s a reliable team member that everyone, Kitsch, Pratt, and Hopper’s characters can count on. The rest of the cast are Jules Landry (Luke Hemsworth), Elizabeth Parash (Rona Lee-Shimon), and Tal Varon (Sharaz Tzarfati).They have a CIA handler, Jed Haverford (Robert Wisdom), who’s got some ulterior motives. Everybody in the show does a fantastic job. I was genuinely interested in their characters and what they brought to the series. This was a very good cast.

These type of shows have a certain believability to them that if they aren’t executed properly, they aren’t very good. These day spy shows like this have gotten better and better because of the writing and direction as well as the caliber of acting, which I already mentioned. The scripts, of course, are based on Jack Orr’s books, but David DeGilio grounds this series in realistic military tactics and dialogue. I believed every word these people were saying from beginning to end of this show. This is one of the most realistic series of this nature I’ve seen in recent years. Similar to my thoughts on the previous show. I honestly believe this stuff can and does happen, and we as citizens have no idea it’s going on around us.

The action sequences were well choreographed. The fight sequences with many fun shootouts were gripping and very intense. All the actors knew how to handle themselves in these roles.The gun play throughout was pretty awesome.These action scenes were on par with big budget films. All the directors did a great job setting these sequences in locations that made sense or in war scenarios. I’ve seen my share of war films and action movies, and this show is on par with the best I’ve seen. The series is grounded in reality with themes of political intrigue. Subplots involving Iran and US government oversight are littered throughout the show. It’s so good to watch all of this type of thing unfold before my eyes.

Two other things I loved about this show were the globe-trotting locations from Iraq to Germany, Istanbul, and Tel Evieve. The show went everywhere, it seemed in Europe and the Middle East. All of the various locations also help with the believability that the series is going for. The production design and costumes are all very good as well. There are plenty of realistic guns and weapons of all kinds. Another that had me right away was the music. The soundtrack from Metallica, CCR, Tool “Sober” and Linard Skinard “Simple Man” were all terrific. This is the kind of music I love. To play these kinds of bands in this show was right up my alley. I rocked out to these bands for many years. The technical aspects of this series are second to none. This is how you add things that make a show like this one as authentic as possible.

Kitsch is an actor who I’ve seen do similar work as in this show before with Lone Survivor and American Assassin. He seems to have found a niche, though in streaming shows similar to this and with American Primeval a western on Netflix. I was keen on him in John Carter, a fantastic sci-fi film based on the famous novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs. He’s been doing some great stuff, including these two series that could translate to more. This is the kind of thing I want to see him in because he’s realistic as these types of characters he’s playing in this show. The days of teen television shows are in his rear view window. I think fans are all in on him now more than ever. Mainly because these series are up the alley of American audiences. 

One of the things that make this show so good is all the twists and turns it has.There are so many characters and multiple subplots that it’s hard to keep track of all of them, but in a good way. A joint Mossad and US operation causes a lot of chaos. It’s hard to determine who’s on who’s side sometimes. I liked this, though, because it kept things very interesting. I was completely enamored with everything that was going on in this series. The amazing writing combined with all the action set pieces made for a fantastic show that is a worthy successor of The Terminal List. The Terminal List: Dark Wolf is one of the best of the year of any kind, let alone action drama. I’m sure more spinoffs and / or sequels to The Terminal List are coming down the pipe. It’s Amazon/MGM’s way. They’ve done a great job adapting literary works like this before. And I’m sure they’ll continue to do so in the future.

The Terminal List: Dark Wolf is currently streaming on Prime Video 7/7 Episodes Review’d

4 1/2 stars

Dan Skip Allen