The Terminal List: Dark Wolf Review - A Gripping Story You Can't Look Away From

"The Terminal List," an adaptation of Jack Carr's novel of the same name, starred Chris Pratt as James Reece, a Navy SEAL who sees his entire team wiped out — and then for good measure, his wife and daughter are shot and killed too. Over eight grueling episodes and several confusing moments, Reece goes after anyone who was even tangentially involved in the murder plot. "The Terminal List" was a right-wing fever dream that, in at least one case, spit in the face of science. And it was made even more absurd by the fact that outside of all the killing and loyalty to his men, Reece didn't have much going on. One of the few bright spots in the show was Taylor Kitsch as Reece's military buddy Ben Edwards, a man who supported him no matter what. He at least showed flashes of personality in his time onscreen. So I was curious if "The Terminal List: Dark Wolf," a prequel series centered on Edwards and created once again by David DiGilio and Carr, would be more of the same or something better.

I'm happy to say that "Dark Wolf" is eons better than "The Terminal List." Instead of a more or less lone warrior exacting vengeance on a host of targets, most of whom don't know he's coming, Edwards' story is different. He starts as a Navy SEAL in Iraq, where he leads a team that is training native Iraqi soldiers to take control of their country's military, a job he's soon handing off to James Reece and his platoon. But before that can happen, he gets kicked out of the SEALs for something he does, along with his number two, Raife Hastings (Tom Hopper).

As they're making their way back to the States, they have a layover in Germany, where they are approached by Jed Haverford (Robert Wisdom), a CIA officer who requires their skills. With no other prospects and Haverford offering the chance to finish what they started, they take the job and find themselves on a team that includes more men from the military, including Mohammed Farooq (Dar Salim) and Jules Landry (Luke Hemsworth), and two Mossad agents, Eliza Perash (Rona-Lee Shimon) and Tal Varon (Shiraz Tzarfati). Through their work, which includes double crosses and betrayals, Edwards finds things aren't so straightforward, but that's nothing a gun can't fix.

Yes, there's a lot of gunplay in "Dark Wolf." How could there not be? But it's in service of a far more interesting story and characters than the original "Terminal List." And that makes for a far better show. This takes place in 2015, before Reece's mission of vengeance and before Edwards became a CIA operative. In fact, the posters for the series claim this is an origin story. But while it shows Edwards going from the military to the CIA, it's what's in between that drives the story, and what truly makes this show tick.

"The Terminal List: Dark Wolf" is told in basically three parts. There's the part before Edwards and Hastings get kicked out of the military; the part where Edwards and Hastings are working for Haverford; and then the final part, where Edwards takes on some military men by himself. Throughout, the story is propelled by a throughline of tough guys and girls who all want basically the same things but have different ways of going about it.

Taylor Kitsch, who's ostensibly the star of the show, has come a long way from his days as Tim Riggins in Friday Night Lights. Kitsch is fantastic playing an operative who's a mess in his personal life but great in a fight, yet the show around him is even better. In particular, Tom Hopper as Hastings, Rona-Lee Shimon as Eliza, and Robert Wisdom as Haverford have outsized roles in the story. Each member of the cast pulls their weight, and each is up for the challenge. Even Luke Hemsworth, whose character at first seems like a buffoon, then a predator, then a savior, plays his part well, even if it's written inconsistently.

Hopper is particularly good. He played Luther in "The Umbrella Academy," and while he's completely different in "Dark Wolf," he's just as successful. Outside of an accent that at times has shades of Chris Hemsworth in it (Hopper is British, while his character is African, not Australian like Hemsworth), he's believable as a career military man who's calm and collected on the outside but is at a loose end, and therefore, takes a similar gig.

That said, "The Terminal List: Dark Wolf" is almost unrelentingly dark. And I don't mean the tone — I mean it's literally dark, even in the middle of the day. This is a problem shared with "The Terminal List." I wondered about it there too, but it seems even more out of place here because a lot of the action takes place in beautiful places in Europe like Geneva and Vienna. But instead of using outdoor locations, they instead have a lot of the action take place in tunnels, subway stations, and houses that aren't properly lit. And if their settings are well-lit, like Iraq in broad daylight, everyone is dressed in colors that seem designed to blend into their surroundings. Contrast tends to be actively rejected and, while this may be the case in a real-life military setting, it shouldn't be on the screen. It's a choice, but not a good one.

That said, the story in "Dark Wolf" is so intriguing you may not care. Outside of the lack of contrast being frustrating when trying to follow certain elements of the plot, the darkness on screen doesn't stop you from understanding the narrative, and that's what really matters. And what a way they have of telling this story. From quickly dispatching a bad guy on a train to Edwards taking on an army all by his lonesome, there are exceptional — and frequently brutal — action scenes in this show, and they're all in the service of a well-told story. If you liked "The Terminal List," you may not like the very different "Dark Wolf." But if you liked better shows like "Jack Ryan" or "Reacher," you'll enjoy this. 

The first three episodes of "The Terminal List: Dark Wolf" hit Prime Video on August 27. New episodes follow weekly until September 24.