Review: Netflix’s “Bodyguard” an Addictive Thriller Series

Streaming giant Netflix regularly acquires content from overseas to feature as “originals” on its slate of offerings in the United States. 

The six-episode BBC series “Bodyguard” is one such offering, and it’s a good one. 

My friend Barb Thompson recommended I watch the series — figuring it was something I’d enjoy. I’m glad she did. 

“Bodyguard” is an espionage thriller following the exploits of Police Sergeant David Budd (Richard Madden).

Budd is a war veteran who served in Afghanistan. When “Bodyguard” opens, our protagonist is traveling on a commuter train to London’s Euston Station with his young son and daughter. 

Note: Budd is reading a book on the train titled “A Powerful Adversary” by Lance Sinclair. A cursory Google search revealed that neither the book nor author exists, but it caught my eye: 

Unfortunately for Budd, this isn’t a routine trip, and he finds himself having to thwart a terrorist plot to detonate an explosive device on the train.  

The early moments in “Bodyguard” set the stage for a taut story that combines a geopolitical thriller with a shot of police procedural. 

The result is a contemporary tale harkening back to the glory days of the Kiefer Sutherland series “24” (one of my favorite shows). While the concept guiding “Bodyguard” might not be as novel as “24,” in its prime, the result is just as fresh and intriguing. 

I won’t give away any spoilers, but the meat of the first season finds David Budd assigned as a Protection Command bodyguard for Home Secretary Julia Montague (Keeley Hawes). The hawkish Montague was a strident supporter of the Iraq War — something that creates conflict within Budd, who suffers from PTSD and has certain doubts about his service in Afghanistan. 

Political tensions in Great Britain are at a boiling point due in part to MP Montague’s support for legislation that will impinge on the civil liberties of the citizenry (in an effort to provide more comprehensive surveillance to law enforcement agencies). 

Budd soon finds himself embroiled in a conspiracy where nothing is as it seems. He starts to question his friends, co-workers, and associates as he struggles to keep things together, and do his bit for queen and country. 

Madden does a solid job playing a war veteran about to come unhinged in “Bodyguard.” There is a quiet intensity to his performance. He does a good job alternating between heroic and tragic as he navigates the narrative during the six-episode first season.

I’ll be honest... I wasn’t familiar with actor Richard Madden before I watched “Bodyguard.” He apparently starred in the HBO series “Game of Thrones” (playing Robb Stark) and has received a number of award nominations for his work. 

Madden just won a Golden Globe for “Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series - Drama” for his performance as P.S. Budd in “Bodyguard” (the show was also nominated for “Best Television Series - Drama”). 

The accolades are well deserved, in my opinion. 

“Bodyguard” was quite popular when it aired in Great Britain on BBC One, and Richard Madden has hinted in interviews that a second season is in development.

It’s no secret that I’m something of an Anglophile when it comes to my TV viewing preferences. “Bodyguard” is right up my alley in that regard. More than that, it is a terrific thriller perfectly suited to binge watching. 

Definitely worth your time. 

Previous post: "Book Review: 'A is for Astronaut' By Astronaut Clayton Anderson"

Review: Amazon’s “Jack Ryan” Series is Flawed, But Entertaining

This is not the review I expected to write. 

When the Super Bowl ad aired for Amazon’s new streaming series “Jack Ryan,” it looked like a slam dunk. 

I started reading Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan novels in 1989. I was a sophomore in high school, and my English teacher (who loosely followed the prescribed curriculum) gave us the option of reading a Clancy or Ludlum novel in the final weeks of the semester. 

I chose to read “Patriot Games”... and the rest is history. Clancy’s novels spurred my passion for reading espionage-related fiction. 

The five theatrical movies based on Clancy’s novels — “The Hunt For Red October,” “Patriot Games,” “Clear and Present Danger,” “The Sum of All Fears,” and “Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit” — are pretty solid. 

In my opinion, “The Hunt For Red October” is the entry that truly captures the essence of the Jack Ryan character (Alec Baldwin was very good in the movie).  

Amazon’s new entry in the “Ryanverse” is a mixed bag. The first half of the 8-episode season feels uneven and (at times) awkward. 

The setup for the first season of “Jack Ryan” is fairly routine. Jack Ryan (John Krasinski) is a former U.S. Marine and Wall Street analyst who works for the CIA’s T-FAD (Terror, Finance, and Arms Division). 

Ryan is a desk jockey who scrutinizes “money movement” in an effort to track down various “bad actors” around the globe — including potential terror organizations. 

In the first episode, Ryan uncovers millions of dollars in transactions tied to a suspicious player in Yemen named Suleiman. Ryan and new boss James Greer (Wendell Pierce) head overseas to investigate — to an American installation where they’re holding a pair suspected of involvement. 

It turns out one of the men is Suleiman himself — a man with nefarious plans. Unfortunately, Ryan doesn’t realize the man is Suleiman until it’s too late. That sets into motion a tangle of knots our protagonists spend the first season of “Jack Ryan” working to untie. 

We’ve seen these “follow the money” setups a number of times in the geopolitical thriller realm. 

I don’t say that as a criticism. It is just well-worn territory. 

The strongest aspect of “Jack Ryan” is John Krasinski. Some of you will remember Krasinski from the 2016 MIchael Bay movie “13 Hours” (about the 2012 tragedy in Benghazi). In my opinion, that film was basically a “demo reel” for Krasinki’s turn as Jack Ryan (Bay is an executive producer for the series). 

Krasinski is solid in the titular role — bookish, affable, tough, and daring. 

I also liked Abbie Cornish as Dr. Cathy Mueller, an epidemiologist (eye surgeon in the novels) who is Ryan’s love interest in the first season. 

The main rough spot in the first season involves a pointless subplot involving a drone pilot. (I won’t get into spoilers, but I think you’ll understand what I mean after watching the season.) 

There were also a couple of completely unnecessary sex scenes in the first half of the season. I’m not a total prude, but those instances cheapened the overall narrative and at least one was completely gratuitous.

I also have mixed emotions about some of the changes from Clancy’s source material. In particular, the James Greer character is a surly, disgraced intelligence officer in the Amazon series (not the straight shooting former vice admiral seen in the books). 

Wendell Pierce is a terrific actor (who has some great one liners on the show), but I felt the writers tried too hard to give the character a unique "angle."

Ultimately, I think the series will improve in subsequent seasons. 

The reason I say that is because the first season became very compelling by the time the final four episodes rolled around. 

The pacing improved, Krasinski had more screen time (always a good thing), and there were some truly suspenseful moments (the subplot involving Suleiman’s wife Hanin were among the most enjoyable sequences in the first season). 

For my money, the fifth season of “24” serves as the “gold standard” for espionage-related thrillers. 

“Jack Ryan” doesn’t rise to that level, but it is entertaining. If you can get past the flaws — and look at future potential — “Jack Ryan” is a good launching pad for upcoming seasons (it has already been renewed for a season season). 

>> If you enjoyed my review of “Jack Ryan,” consider following me on X/Twitter for more great content — @TheJonCrunch 

Previous post: Review: Netflix Series "Safe" is a Twisty Mystery Channeling Its Inner Harlan Coben 

"American Assassin" Review: "It's About the Mission, Not About You!"

Since the “Jason Bourne” series of movies proved to be very popular with movie-goers, Hollywood has churned out a number of high-profile espionage thrillers focusing on young protagonists caught in a web of intrigue.

The movie “American Assassin” is based on the Mitch Rapp "political thrillers" written by the late Vince Flynn. Flynn (a Minnesota native) died from prostate cancer in 2013. 

If you aren't familiar with Flynn's writing, his novels serve as the blueprint for the "post-Tom Clancy" era of espionage novels -- fast-paced, easy-to-read thrillers that lacked the subtlety of Clancy and Ludlum in their heyday, but were a perfect elixer for an anxious post-9/11 world. 

In my humble opinion, the Kiefer Sutherland vehicle “24” was basically a Vince Flynn novel come to life (in fact, Flynn himself was a consultant on the fifth season of that television series), and the character of Jack Bauer shares a number of similarites with Mitch Rapp. 

It was only a matter of time before Mitch Rapp came to the big screen. There were a number of attempts to bring Flynn's series to cinemas (Chris Hemsworth was originally offered the role of Rapp), but there were mistarts and redirections along the way. 

CBS Films finally brings us "American Assassin." The movie is loosely based on Flynn's 2010 "prequel" novel of the same name. 

The story follows the rise of Mitch Rapp from unassuming college student to one of the top U.S. assassin/counter-espionage operatives. 

When the movie begins we see Rapp (Dylan O'Brien) vacationing at a resort in Spain, proposing to his girlfried Katrina (Charlotte Vega). Before the two are able to celebrate this defining moment, a group of terrorists (led by a man named Al-Mansur) attack the beach, AK-47s tearing apart the unwary vacationers. 

Rapp's girlfriend dies in the melee, which sets the college-age Rapp on the path toward becoming America's most effective (and unassuming) assassin. 

Fans will note that this bit of Rapp backstory is a departure from Flynn's novels. In the books, Rapp's girlfriend is killed in the 1988 Pan Am Lockerbie bombing. Filmmakers obviously wanted to update things for the current generation, and I had no problem with that as a viewer. 

The movie then moves forward a year-and-a-half to find Rapp eschewing his studies at Brown University (he played lacrosse at Syracuse in the novels) and logging hours at MMA gyms and gun ranges, while also practicing throwing knives against a wall in his apartment in Providence, RI — building his mental and physical stature into that of an all-out badass. 

In addition, Rapp is attempting to be recruited by a terrorist organization (via conversations on the deep web) in an effort to infiltrate the group and seek revenge for his fiance's death. 

Naturally, this gets the attention of the CIA — especially a deputy director there named Irene Kennedy (Sanaa Lathan). The organization keeps tabs on the upstart Rapp, and eventually recruits him (after rescuing him from Al-Mansur's organization). 

What then unfolds is a more "official" development and training regimen with the surly Stan Hurley (Michael Keaton) — who is sort of a cross between Yoda in “Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back” and Mickey in “Rocky.” Hurley trains black ops personnel at a remote, rural facility, and uses unorthodox methods to test the pool of recruits. 

The movie then jumps overseas for a pretty intriguing (if not altogether unpredictable) story about black market plutonium and a nuclear trigger. 

The one thing I can say for “American Assassin” is that the story never lags. Director Michael Cuesta (a relative unknown who directed the pilot episode of the Showtime series “Homeland”) keeps things moving along at a brisk pace. 

As a result, the character development in the film is adequate, but never gets bogged down in lengthy exposition. Some new fans might be disappointed in that aspect of the narrative, but I wasn't bothered by it (especially considering the fact that we're dealing with a 2-hour movie, not a 10-episode television series). 

Dylan O'Brien does a solid job becoming the embodiment of Mitch Rapp on the silver screen. I've been reading the Flynn's novels for a little over a decade now, and (as you can imagine) I have a fairly well-defined image of Rapp in my mind's eye. 

I suppose the main question is whether or not O'Brien meets that expectation. 

As far as I am concerned, O'Brien fits the role of an “athletic and unassuming college student turned assassin” much better than Tom Cruise fit the role of a sandy-haired, 6-foot-plus Jack Reacher (in the movies based on Lee Child's novels). 

Not only that, O'Brien simply “looks different” than many of the young actors brought in for this type of role in Hollywood today. “American Assassin” benefits from the fact that he looks like the sort of unkempt young man who can navigate in worlds where a blonde-haired, blue-eyed, ex-military operative might stick out like a sore thumb. That's the vibe of the character Vince Flynn created, and O'Brien seems up to the task of that role. 

Viewers should take note that the film is bloody, violent, and pulls very few punches. Fans of the novels know that “enhanced interrogation” is something featured in Flynn's books (especially later entries in the series), and there are a couple of uncomfortable moments of torture in the movie. 

Flynn wrote another "prequel" story about Mitch Rapp called “Kill Shot” back in 2012. Some fans have speculated that they'll do that story if a sequel to “American Assassin” is made. 

Personally speaking, I'd rather they adapt one of the other Rapp novels (like the terrific “Consent to Kill”) because I think some of the other entries better embody the strength of Flynn's series. 

Of course, filmmakers these days are willing to stray from source material (as was the case with “American Assassin”), so my feelings might be a moot point anyway.  

“American Assassin” might not navigate the most original territory when it comes to recent espionage stories put to film, but its driving pace, macho bravado, and solid performances make it well worth your time. 

Previous post: Two-Paragraph Tuesday: Apple Slices 

Jack Bauer…President

The fall TV season is only a couple weeks old, but there are some promising offerings on this season's network slate.

One of the shows ABC highlighted over the summer was "Designated Survivor" starring Kiefer Sutherland (“Designated Survivor” is currently streaming in on Netflix, which picked up the show after the second season).

The show centers around Sutherland's character Tom Kirkman, a low-level cabinet member (about to be axed by the president) who ascends to the presidency when an explosion rips apart the U.S. Capitol during the State of the Union address.

As the "designated survivor" for the evening, Kirkman is viewing the address from a secured, off-site location -- put there in order to maintain continuity of government (in the event disaster strikes).

Kirkman is the administration's Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. He has never been elected to office, and has little in the way of ambition.

I was a big fan of Sutherland's series "24," which saw his Jack Bauer character race against the clock to defend truth, justice and the American way for the fictional Counter Terrorist Unit (CTU).

(I talked about the cultural significance of "24" in a previous post here).

In many instances, Bauer was the reluctant hero whose noble virtue was that he'd freely give of himself to defend the United States.

In that regard, Tom Kirkman on "Designated Survivor" is an evolution of Jack Bauer -- less hard-nosed, more intellectual, pressed into service in the blink of an eye.

About a decade ago you could find merchandise touting "Jack Bauer for President" (I have such a t-shirt somewhere).

When I first saw the promos for "Designated Survivor," I said, "Finally! We get President Jack Bauer!"

That isn't to say Kiefer Sutherland's performance isn't nuanced. Rather, his previous stint as Jack Bauer creates instant credibility as viewers watch President Kirkman navigate treacherous geo-political waters.

I was thinking back to the days when techno-thriller author Tom Clancy was at the top of his game, and employed a very similar plot point to elevate Jack Ryan to the Oval Office in the book "Debt of Honor."

As the days and weeks progress, Tom Kirkman is likely to face similar issues to those that challenged Ryan in those Clancy novels.

That means heaping helpings of interesting possibilities for the character. If the first two episodes of "Designated Survivor" are any indication, we are in for global and domestic intrigue, political machinations, and a myriad of twists and turns coming to the fore.

Viewers will be fortunate to have President Kirkman at the helm during these troubled times.

"Designated Survivor" promo:

>> If you enjoyed my post on “Designated Survivor,” follow me on X/Twitter — @TheJonCrunch 

Read yesterday's blog post here: What Am I Thinking?

Pop Culture Influences of 9/11

Many things changed in our world and in our daily lives 15 years ago.

The events of September 11, 2001, had a far reaching impact on the national psyche in the days following those tragic events.

As is the case with monumental moments in our lives, the impact influences popular culture -- music, movies, television... among other art forms -- for years thereafter, leaving an indelible fingerprint.

We've seen the influence that major events like Pearl Harbor, the JFK assassination, and the Vietnam War have had on the world entertainment.

The emotional impact permeates the world around us.

9/11 stands as one of the keystone moments in the lives Generation Xers. Much in the way our parents remember where they were when President Kennedy was assassinated, our generation remembers where they were when the Towers came down.

The Music
In the days, months and years following 9/11, a number of musicians sang about the tragic and horrific events of that day -- taking different approaches with their musical stylings.

In my mind, Bruce Springsteen's album "The Rising" stands as the defining pop album chronicling that moment in our nation's history. The album was released in 2002 for the anniversary of 9/11, and the songs serve as an elegy to the anguish and devastation of those events.

"Into The Fire" features lyrics that are at once haunting, and capture the emotions of that day:

The sky was falling and 

streaked with blood 

I heard you calling me, 

then you disappeared 

into dust 

Up the stairs, into the fire 

Up the stairs, into the fire 

That same year, country artist Toby Keith released a decidedly different take on the state of affairs in our nation with his song "Courtesy of The Red, White and Blue (The Angry American)" on the album "Unleashed." 

Unlike Springsteen's "The Rising," the "Unleashed" album itself wasn't a tribute to the events of 9/11. In most respects, it was pretty typical of country/pop albums of that era.

But the song "Courtesy of The Red, White and Blue (The Angry American)" swirled with all sorts of hard-nosed, macho, patriotic fervor, with Keith acting as cheerleader of sorts as he belted out:

Hey Uncle Sam put your name 

At the top of his list 

And the Statue of Liberty 

Started shaking her fist 

And the eagle will fly 

And there's gonna be hell 

When you hear Mother Freedom 

Start ringin' her bell 

And it'll feel like the whole wide world is rainin' down on you 

Brought to you courtesy 

Of the Red, White and Blue

Whether or not one would consider either song unofficial themes for that time in history is subject to debate.

Movies & TV

Much in the way that Springsteen and Keith represent the differing emotional tones and attitudes surrounding the events of 9/11, so too have movies and television shows in our post-9/11 world. 

There were serious tomes produced like Paul Greengrass's "United 93" and Oliver Stone's "World Trade Center."

There have also been numerous films focused on the subsequent military actions in the Middle East. Movies like "American Sniper," "The Hurt Locker," "Zero Dark Thirty," and "Lone Survivor."

In my mind, the one fictional character to step to the forefront during the years following 9/11 was Kiefer Sutherland's Jack Bauer on the show "24." 

Much like Sylvester Stallone's John Rambo in the 1980s, Jack Bauer was a character who epitomized the geo-political world of the 2000s.

Both film icons acted as vessels of catharsis in our society -- providing relief from strong emotions toward the world around each during his respective place in history (even if their exploits seemed far-fetched and over-the-top at times).

The creators of "24" put Jack Bauer through a myriad of struggles and impossible situations during a lone day, and he would always come through.

Jack Bauer became the prototype for basically every modern counter-espionage character on the small and big screen. He was a contrast to Tom Clancy's bookish hero Jack Ryan... more of a 21st century mix of Ryan and the aforementioned John Rambo.

I remember an episode of the Tina Fey comedy "30 Rock" where Jack Donaghy tells Liz Lemon that he is going to a party thrown by John McCain and Jack Bauer, and Lemon suggests Bauer isn't a real person:

Like Stallone in the 1980s, and John Wayne during World War II, Sutherland's character epitomized this sort of rough-and-ready ideal that viewers hoped was out there, fighting for them in the early 2000s.

Life and Art 
Oscar Wilde once wrote: "Life imitates art far more than art imitates life."

People have drawn their own conclusions about that statement over the years, but it seems poignantly apropos of seminal life events as time progresses.

Future generations will remember 9/11 and its immediate aftermath based on an amalgamation of historic recollections and footage -- as well as the pop culture influences of the day.

Those of us who weren't around in the 1960s have a vague snapshot of the decade culled from history books, archival footage, music, movies, tv shows, books, and fashion.

I have nieces and nephews who weren't alive when 9/11 happened, and it seems hard to believe sometimes.

But the world keeps moving forward. Time has a way of healing wounds.

As Springsteen crooned on "The Rising" album, in the song "Waitin' on a Sunny Day":

Hard times, baby well 

they come to us all 

Sure as the tickin' of 

the clock on the wall 

Sure as the turnin' 

of the night into day... 

I'm waitin', waitin' 

on a sunny day 

Read yesterday's blog post: Search and Navigate Apple TV Like a Pro