Chris Pratt stars in The Terminal List, which is streaming now on Amazon Prime Video, and The Daily Beast is freaking out about the military thriller’s politically incorrect plot and villains, going so far as to call it “an unhinged Right-wing revenge fantasy.”
The streaming series is based on Navy veteran Jack Carr’s novel of the same name. As I noted a few weeks ago, if the series stays true to the novel, then certain people might not be happy about it.
Based on the early reviews of it, it looks like the series may indeed remain relatively faithful to the book. The best example of this so far is a June 29 review from The Daily Beast that proclaimed, “Chris Pratt’s ‘The Terminal List’ Is an Unhinged Right-Wing Revenge Fantasy.”
Whenever you read a headline that amusingly frantic, you can only hope that what follows is filled with as much frantic panic. Thankfully, the review does not disappoint.
The first line is a doozy that sets the tone. “The Terminal List features Chris Pratt going vengefully homicidal due, in part, to a serious mental condition in Amazon’s latest, which follows in the tradition of Jack Ryan and Jack Reacher by delivering gung-ho macho action-drama tailor-made for fortysomething Call of Duty players.”
And the next line that finishes out the opening paragraph is just as good. “Still, if this adaptation of Jack Carr’s novel mostly fits itself into a particular dad-entertainment streaming niche, it also, to a large extent, comes off as a wet dream for militia-minded anti-establishment kooks, replete with a Pratt performance as a Navy SEAL who responds to injustice by murdering the guilty with extreme prejudice.”
Look at all those buzzwords and phrases – “macho,” “fortysomething Call of Duty players,” and “dad-entertainment.” And, of course, the best one of all – “wet dream for militia-minded anti-establishment kooks.”
This is The Daily Beast at its very worst/best. It’s possible to pick out something hysterical in nearly every paragraph, but the last contains one of the best gems.
“The Terminal List’s decision to posit Reece’s reign of terror as virtuous is ultimately its defining characteristic, affording a window onto a conservative-America mindset that views the government as inherently corrupt (and anti-soldier), and lone-wolf military men as the only figures capable of making the world a more honorable place.”
I’ve no idea how accurately that sums up the series, but it sure does offer an insight into the author’s mindset. So if you want a chuckle, go read the whole thing.
Other media outlets have also given The Terminal List poor reviews. They haven’t come close to Daily Beast-level hysteria, but there are lines suggesting that they also aren’t happy with the series veering away from the Leftist narrative.
For instance, on June 29, The Hollywood Reporter wrote that, “Each episode could have been trimmed to 15 minutes with no loss of nuance or characterization, and I suspect it would have made the series’ target demo — tuning in for patriotically waving flags, substance-free military jargon and the very rare tautly edited suspense set-piece — just as happy.”
And on June 30, Variety opined, “Reece’s story is baleful, and it’s made clear to us that he’s fighting the establishment as much as he’s fighting for revenge, but if this series were an op to desensitize us against military violence, it couldn’t have been made more effectively.”
Still, not every review has been so negative. Collider gave it a decent review while also providing legitimate critiques of it. Regardless of whether the series is good or bad, The Daily Beast decrying it as “an unhinged right-wing revenge fantasy” tells us that The Terminal List isn’t going to please the woke. So if nothing else, it at least has that going for it. And that might be enough to get viewers to flock to it.
NEXT: Variety: Netflix’s Interceptor Takes On ‘Right Wing Conspiracy Theories’