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  • Special Ops: Lioness Reviews Slam New Taylor Sheridan Series – A downgrade from Yellowstone -TGN

Special Ops: Lioness Reviews Slam New Taylor Sheridan Series – A downgrade from Yellowstone -TGN

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  • “Special Ops: Lioness” has been criticized for wasting a talented cast on standard female characters and overindulging in spy dramas.

  • Many critics find the series propagandistic and lacking in originality, with formulaic and cliché-riddled storytelling.

  • The show is seen as a missed opportunity given the pedigree of the talent involved, and the lack of nuanced and diverse perspectives is a recurring problem.

Special Ops: Lioness has been criticized by critics for several reasons. The series, coming to Paramount+, was created by Yellowstoneis Taylor Sheridan. It is loosely based on a real-life organization, following a group of female CIA operatives known as Lioness and one agent in particular who must go undercover and get into the inner circle of a young woman whose father is a suspected terrorist. The cast of the series includes Zoe Saldaña, Laysla De Oliveira, Nicole Kidman and Morgan Freeman.

Critics have expressed their views on Taylor Sheridan’s first episode Special Ops: Lioness ahead of its July 23 premiere. For the most part, the series has been criticized for wasting a talented cast on stock female characters, indulging in spy drama tropes, and being propagandistic. Even many of the critics who liked the series and found it exciting or aesthetically pleasing have expressed doubts about one or more of those qualities as well. Watch excerpts from selected reviews below:

Kristen Baldwin, Weekly entertainment:

Taylor Sheridan never showed much interest in writing fully realized women; Beth Dutton may be a lot of fun to watch, but she’s also a combination of clichés. For Lioness, Sheridan has collected a handful of strong female character tropes and sent them to war – resulting in a serviceable intelligence drama that escapes mediocrity thanks to its two protagonists.

Louis Chilton, Independent:

That Lioness never really roars is a shame, given the pedigree of talent in front of and behind the camera. De Oliveira is prickly porcupine on screen, and not helped by the predictable dry writing. Nicole Kidman, who plays another CIA figure, seems only half-engaged with the material. Michael Kelly (House of Cards) speaks out better as Joe’s no-nonsense superior. The biggest name on the call sheet is Morgan Freeman, in a rare TV regular role. Not that he was present in episode one.

Dan Einav, Financial times:

From the procedural title to the credits montage of guns, drones and American flags, and throughout the formulaic, cliché-riddled first episode, the Paramount+ series plays out like a generic composite of every counter-terrorism film and show made in the past 20 years.

Alison Herman, Variety:

Just because “Liones” features more female protagonists doesn’t mean Sheridan has become more nuanced in his portrayal of them… The show is an unabashed work of military propaganda that positions the armed forces of the United States as the “strong” who “protect the weak”, a group that apparently encompasses all of the Middle East as well as vulnerable members of American society.

Tanya Hussein, Collider:

Sheridan’s lone-wolf writing antics in many ways mischaracterize the two female leads, turning them into stereotypes, making them cold or distant, abusive and hurt, which again can be argued as a demonstration of their PTSD. But it’s symptomatic of a larger problem outside of Sheridan’s writing room, which is that there’s no room for diversity or women’s voices, only the single understanding of life through one man’s perspective, perpetually rooted in patriarchal values.

Nick Schager, The everyday beast:

Taylor Sheridan has publicly pointed out that he touts his role as the main (if not sole) author of his TV ventures while decrying the chambers of collaborative writers, meaning he’s responsible for his Yellowstone devolving into a morass of soap opera clichés and his latest, Special Ops: Lioness, going for the jugular through nothing but generic maneuvers. A military thriller minus any suspense, originality, or nuance, it seems destined to follow the path of its previous Paramount+ hits: a show featuring many talented people wasting their time on second-rate material aimed directly at viewers in the red state.

Special Ops: Lioness can be a hit anyway

At the time of writing, Rotten Tomatoes does not yet have an official rating for it Special Ops: Lioness. Given the scope of these reviews, it will most likely turn out to be Rotten, or just over the 60 percent cusp in Fresh territory. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean the show will turn out to be a bust.

Then Sheridan’s hit series Yellowstone premiered in 2018 and earned 56 percent from critics on Rotten Tomatoes. However, audiences gave it 83 percent and the show went on to become one of the most watched series of the modern era. There are now also a wide variety of Yellowstone spin-offs, including 1883 And 1923 along with multiple upcoming series.

It remains to be seen whether Special Ops: Lioness has the same stamina as Yellowstone. However, the earlier series proves that a Sheridan show can find its audience and then take critics along for the ride (every other season of Yellowstone has been rated Fresh by critics). In this new show, however, he’s operating outside of his familiar neo-Western vein, so it might not be able to find as much audience for that reason.

Source: Various (see above)