
Why it’s like The Terminal List: M*A*S*H is actually quite different from The Terminal List in terms of the overall tone of the series. Fond of practical jokes and revenge, the doctors, nurses, administrators, and soldiers often find ways of making wartime life bearable. With little help from the circumstance in which they find themselves, they are forced to make their own fun. Synopsis: “The 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital is stuck in the middle of the Korean War. Many more misfires and I might bother finding out who the other Chrises are.1.

Pratt is now starring in precisely the sort of projects he used to lampoon: lame Jurassic Park sequels and this grunting pile of guff. Pratt’s Parks & Rec character had fantasy alter egos as a ninja named Johnny Karate and an FBI agent called Burt Macklin. It also features some frankly unforgivable sunglasses. The difference is that Jack Reacher is a beloved hero and his TV incarnation was executed with style, swagger and wit.
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Reece acquires a string of interchangeable sidekicks who stay mystifyingly loyal to him as the corpses pile up.Īmazon enjoyed success earlier this year with Reacher – another eight-part thriller adapted from a bestselling series of novels. Law enforcement are constantly having the case taken off them by a higher power, then going rogue and pursuing it anyway. Every time Reece unmasks a villain, a bigger bad appears in the background. In between, it’s padded out with endless plot twists. Some fight sequences are serviceable but they invariably happen in the dark, meaning viewers must peer into the murk to work out who’s killing who.

It’s essentially a mediocre action movie, strung out for eight hours. Its budget is far bigger than its brains. It has pretensions to be a psychological drama but comes off like a less subtle Rambo. Unfortunately, it’s hidden beneath an impenetrable layer of beards, brawn and genre clichés. There’s an interesting story hiding somewhere deep within The Terminal List about billion-dollar defence contracts and the commercialisation of war. Meanwhile, po-faced Pratt is saddled with lines such as: “Bring them to justice? I am justice.” To signal that he’s a sensitive soul underneath, he gets sentimental about his daughter or whips out an acoustic guitar, like David Brent with bigger biceps. Not ideal timing, with America’s recent spate of mass shootings and ongoing gun control debate. The camera often lingers lovingly on weapons. The Terminal List combines violent cynicism with an over-romanticised view of the US military and fetishisation of firearms. One torture scene featuring a hatchet is nauseatingly graphic. By the time Reece is detonating bombs in downtown San Francisco, he’s less a vengeful hero than a domestic terrorist. Reece is soon crossing names off a literal list as he takes out targets one by one, with plenty of collateral damage along the way. All the soldiers are noble warriors, while the top brass and politicians are dastardly swines. It’s that hoary old thriller trope: a conspiracy that goes right to the top. Pratt is often reduced to staring into space looking baffled and whiskery, resembling a grizzly bear with mild concussion.Ī miscast Pratt isn’t the only problem with this eight-part pudding of a production.

His trauma is represented with flashbacks and dream sequences which soon become as irritating as they are confusing.

Sole survivor Reece returns home to be quizzed about what went wrong – but his account differs dramatically from the official records.ĭespite suffering migraines and memory loss, Reece realises dark forces are at play and a cover-up is in progress. When they’re ambushed during a covert mission in Syria, all his comrades are killed. He plays Lt Commander James Reece, leader of an elite platoon of US Navy Seals. Now Pratt returns to TV for lumpen military thriller The Terminal List (Amazon Prime Video ), adapted from Jack Carr’s bestselling novel. He’s since hit the gym, lost several stone and become a bona fide leading man. Chris Pine, Chris Pratt, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth… Who has the time or inclination to tell them apart? That being said, Chris Pratt is marginally my favourite, thanks to his breakthrough role as endearingly goofy slacker Andy Dwyer in mighty NBC sitcom Parks & Recreation. There are simply too many of them, all identikit hunks starring in similar superhero and sci-fi franchises.
