Special Ops: Lioness takes Taylor Sheridan to the world of female spies

Taylor Sheridan’s TV empire conjures up the image of a man on the vast plains of the West, knocking back a (domestic) beer and grunting ’Murica with a mixture of admiration and sadness, before turning his eyes back to a weathered copy of one of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s celebrated novels. Taylor Sheridan understands America more than you: its might and majesty; its joy and sadness; who it celebrates and who, above all, it ignores.

The new Paramount Plus Series Special Ops: LionessSheridan looks with contemplative eyes at the female members of the military. Supposedly based off a true-life CIA team, LionessThe show follows a group of female agents who are placed in the lives and homes of women near assassination targets. It’s a nasty subject, the morality of which the show briefly acknowledges while breezily asserting its necessity and launching headfirst into the meat of the show: a character-driven spy thriller.

Lioness orbits around two women: Joe (Zoe Saldaña), who leads the Lioness team, and new recruit Cruz (Laysla De Oliveira), a driven woman with nowhere to go but the Marines when her abusive boyfriend finally goes too far. Its first episode — the only one in the two-part premiere made available to critics in advance — is mostly concerned with grounding its characters in the audience’s mind through moments of crisis.

Viewers meet Joe during an operation gone wrong, when a Lioness agent gets made by enemy soldiers and Joe decides to drone strike the entire scene, sparing the Lioness from torture and humiliation while also protecting the secrecy of her program and not risking any of her support team in what would’ve likely been an unsuccessful rescue. Joe’s actions immediately reveal his character. While most characters in shows of this nature are prepared to go to extremes to accomplish their goals, Joe goes to great lengths to safeguard her team. Even if others can’t see that’s what she’s doing.

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Cruz is fueled with anger and a sense of injustice by her abusive life. She impresses Marine recruiters by showing her physical ability and tenacity, and gets almost immediately recommended for the Lioness programme. It’s not a natural fit: Joe’s team is clandestine and not built around the The oorahCruz is irritated by Joe’s distance and the brotherhood of Marines. Her qualms stay limited to technique, though — for now.

The first episode is now available. Lioness ends when the actual spying begins, and as Cruz gets embedded with her target, it’s possible that the series could prove more thoughtful than it You can learn more about it here. in its premiere. As the series progresses, the ugly work of spycraft might expose Cruz to women who were abused and taken advantage of the way she was — the way she is in the Lioness program — and become a better story for it. As easy it is to paint Sheridan’s work with a broad brush, his TV empire is more complex than the Cabela’s Fourth of July sale it seems like at a distance, occasionally turning to contemplate the storm clouds on the edge of the American Dream.

Now, Special Ops: LionessIt is not just 24-lite, a well-paced drama with plenty of action and a liberal sprinkling of movie stars (Nicole Kidman appears as Joe’s government handler, and Morgan Freeman shows up later). It’s not compelling enough to overcome the shortcomings of this kind of story — the jingoism, the Foreign Country Piss Filter, and so on — but strong performances and a tight eight-episode run could add up to something worthwhile. At the very least, it’s nice to watch a Sheridan show that’s not about a goddamn ranch.

Special Ops: Lioness Paramount Plus premieres the movie on 23 July.