Lioness TV Series - Paramount + (Taylor Sheridan/Zoe Saldana, Morgan Freeman, & Nicole Kidman/July 23rd)
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malbaker86
Gators
daemonova
hit it, & I didn't go Erykah Badu crazy, #yallmad
Canada Goose
Pooping on your head :umad:
Well this is a pleasant surprise 
I thought this show was one and done.
I guess Cruz isn't the Lioness in this season?
I thought this show was one and done.I guess Cruz isn't the Lioness in this season?
daemonova
hit it, & I didn't go Erykah Badu crazy, #yallmad
That Arab chick fione as hell, we'll see what she ends up in next
daemonova
hit it, & I didn't go Erykah Badu crazy, #yallmad
It's no secret that Taylor Sheridan has made waves in the entertainment industry, especially at Paramount. Having pushed himself into the television sphere back in 2018 with his hit neo-Western drama Yellowstone, the past few years have seen the filmmaker and writer broaden his interests. In 2023, he added the drama series Lioness (formerly titled Special Ops: Lioness) to his repertoire, proving that long-form military and spy thrillers are alive and well. With a powerful cast that includes Zoe Saldana and Nicole Kidman both of whom also serve as executive producers it's no wonder that Lioness was renewed for a second season. Having seen the first four episodes of this sophomore outing, it's clear that Sheridan and company have managed to extend the narrative as organically as possible, offering hope for the future of this series.
Last year, I wrote a piece about why Lioness doesn't need a second season. The irony of that statement is that now I'm the one writing this Season 2 review, which has forced me to eat at least some of my words. The way Season 1 concluded, with an emotionally wrecked Joe (Saldaa) in the arms of her husband, Neal (Dave Annable), was indeed "a harrowing picture to end on." While there were still some loose ends in need of tying up concerning Joe's family, the main plot was effectively finished. The mark that the season's events left on those involved, especially Laysla De Oliveira's Sergeant Cruz Manuelos, was powerful. Lioness had something real, something harsh, to say about the way military operations are sometimes handled, and the profound effect that they can have on those who carry them out. In short, Lioness Season 1 felt largely self-contained, and that was to the show's benefit. Yet, now here we are, with a Season 2 that aims to do the same.
This season of Lioness aims higher than before, and (if the first four episodes are any indication) will hopefully stick the landing. Chief among the show's strengths, which has proven weightier this time around, is the conflicting relationship that Joe has with both her work and her family. On the one hand, there is no one like her. She is the Lioness program, and without her, it would not function or maybe even exist. Her willingness to throw herself in the fire again and again and make it out still breathing is remarkable. As one of the show's new characters puts it in the Season 2 premiere, "Beware the old soldier, he's old for a reason." Joe might not be that old, but she's certainly well-worn and battle-hardened. On the other hand, her family means everything to her. They are why she fights, even if every mission risks turning her husband into a widower and leaving her children without a mother. It's a powerful juxtaposition that no doubt feels real to many military families across the country.
This tension between duty to country and duty to family makes Lioness such a gripping series to watch. Sure, the gunfights are exciting, and the camaraderie between Joe's QRF is always enjoyable Jill Wagner, LaMonica Garrett, and James Jordan play off one another as well as ever this season, with more characters added in for good measure but Lioness is such a compelling drama because we understand why Joe must continue to put herself in the line of fire, even as we wish more than anything that she would stop. But where Season 1 largely centered around only Joe's struggles in this specific department, Season 2 ups the ante by spreading this theme out among more than one character, namely through newcomer Genesis Rodriguez, whose own interpretation of this theme is even more deadly.
Again, Zoe Saldana is the most effective asset in this series. The way in which she switches from Joe the soldier to Joe the wife and mother is terribly impressive, even as one identity starts to bleed into the other. Joe's struggle to reassimilate into everyday life after having just executed a host of enemy operatives is an inspired picture, and Saldaa proves that she was the only woman for this role. There's a moment in the first episode, after her team completes a mission, when she calls her family to check in. While they're back home having a normal breakfast, she's out in the desert, holding back tears at the sound of their voices, desiring more than anything to hold them at that moment. It's scenes like these that are the real meat and potatoes of Lioness, with Sheridan giving his actors the most emotionally rich set of circumstances to work with. Frankly, Saldana deserves an Emmy.
But that's not all there is to love about Lioness this season. In my aforementioned article about the dangers of giving Lioness a second season, I likewise noted that the show would be better off following the example of Sheridan's most profound motion picture, the 2015 Denis Villeneuve thriller Sicario. In some ways, the Paramount drama listened. Not only does the central plot of this season involve the same sorts of Mexican criminal enterprises that Sheridan explored in the 2015 film (complete with a border crossing scene that, if one has seen Sicario, might have been expected to go another direction), but the dangers feel far more real, and more personal, than the foreign terrorist plot of yester-season. Joe's struggle to work more closely with CIA colleague Kyle (Thad Luckinbill, who was, ironically, a producer on Sicario) feels somewhat akin to Emily Blunt's relationship with Josh Brolin. No doubt, it's an interesting dynamic to add to the show. Thus far, Joe has only ever had superiors or subordinates, but Season 2 pushes her into an unwelcome partnership with Kyle that only makes an already delicate situation all the more uneasy.