fbpx
Skip to content

The Terminal List: The Series that the Left Hates, but You will Love

the terminal list chris pratt

Leer en Español

[Leer en español]

THE TERMINAL LIST is a new Amazon Prime Video series produced by and starring Chris Pratt that has sparked opposite reactions from audiences and paid critics alike, making it the glorious return of the American action hero.

Most mainstream media paid critics to hate it for being “right-wing revenge porn” and accuse its fans of being conservatives and gun-loving rednecks brimming with toxic masculinity. At the same time, audiences praise it for its fast-paced action and suspense, its production quality, and for bringing back the shine to the action thriller genre, which the woke ideology had lately tarnished.

This series based on the novel of the same name by Jack Carr has become Amazon’s most-watched production after its premiere last July 1. It can be inferred that audiences were thirsty for stories with the classic elements of action cinema and that the woke narrative spoon-fed by progressive critics is starting to crumble.

What is The Terminal List about (spoiler alert)?

The Terminal List follows the vicissitudes of Navy SEAL Lieutenant Commander James Reece after his platoon is massacred in an ambush during an undercover mission.

the terminal list chris pratt
Chris Pratt is Lieutenant Commander James Reece in The Terminal List (EFE/EPA by Nina Prommer).

Suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome, James Reece returns home to his family tormented by guilt, and a series of strange events make him doubt whether he is the victim of a political conspiracy or whether it is all the result of a pathological paranoia caused by neuronal damage.

These doubts and lack of self-confidence nurtured in the first chapters make us fear that the series will become the umpteenth story of the deconstruction of a male character and that it will turn into a psychological drama in which the real protagonist will be the therapist who makes him see that the violence so typical of the male gender is not the way and that everything will be overcome by accepting his innate guilt for being a family man, a Christian and a military of the American empire.

But no. These doubts are dispelled in one fell swoop in the second of 8 episodes, and both James Reece and the viewers embark on a satisfying journey of revenge, action, and legitimate violence like we haven’t had the opportunity to see in a big-budget production in a long time.

Released all at once and designed for late-night binge-watching – the tone of the series is very dark both chromatically and plot-wise – The Terminal List draws you into a story in which you genuinely care about what happens to its hero and in which you suffer and enjoy in equal measure with each name he crosses off his list of targets.

The series is a guilty pleasure, like the action hero movies of the 80s, but much more realistic and believable, with a sublime production quality that is a milestone for Amazon’s commitment to its streaming service.

You know James Reece will stop at nothing and no one to fulfill his vengeance, and you fervently wish he wouldn’t stop, even if he has to tear down the foundations of the Deep State in Washington DC, Arlington, or Langley.

It is probably the latter that makes the specialized critics, always so prone to genuflect to the establishment, so nervous. The toxic masculinity is merely an excuse to attack The Terminal List for exposing political corruption with pharmaceutical corporations, which conspired to conduct experimental drug trials on soldiers without their consent.

Ignacio Manuel García Medina, Business Management teacher. Artist and lecturer specialized in Popular Culture for various platforms. Presenter of the program "Pop Libertario" for the Juan de Mariana Institute. Lives in the Canary Islands, Spain // Ignacio M. García Medina es profesor de Gestión de Empresas. Es miembro del Instituto Juan de Mariana y conferenciante especializado en Cultura Popular e ideas de la Libertad.

Social Networks: @ignaciomgm

Leave a Reply

Total
0
Share