TV tonight: Strike Back
Summer burn-off season continues Friday night with the debut of a new international conspiracy thriller series, Strike Back.
Photograph by: Handout, HBO Canada
Summer burn-off season continues with the debut of a new international conspiracy thriller series, Strike Back, a U.K. Sky Broadcasting co-production originally commissioned for the HBO-owned movie channel Cinemax and debuting Friday in Canada for the first time.
The plot will ring a bell with anyone familiar with 24, the U.K. series Spooks and any number of espionage knock-offs. An international terror group is plotting an attack, and the only thing standing between the baddies and peace and quiet is a charismatic former U.S. Special Forces operative, who links up with a covert British tactical unit.
Australian actor Sullivan Stapleton plays the lantern-jawed He-Man tasked with saving the world as we know it. Philip Winchester, last seen in the short-lived adventure series Crusoe, plays the more by-the-book team leader who serves as the hero's moral sounding board and father confessor. The supporting ensemble is rounded out by Amanda Mealing as a rule-breaking tough gal, and Richard Armitage -- the actor, not the former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State, though, given the subject matter, you could be forgiven for confusing the two -- as a covert agent who manages to get himself captured and held hostage in the series opener.
Strike Back was written in part by one-time X-Files executive producer Frank Spotnitz and was filmed in Hungary and South Africa, filling in for England, Chechnya, Malaysia and India, so you know pretty much what to expect: a brisk, fast-paced, not overly demanding action thriller. Perfect for summer viewing, in other words, if you're too tired to go out to the movies and look for something more substantial and meaningful, like The Whistle Blower.
Strike Back is actually the second season of a series, even though it's being pitched to viewers as something entirely new. The first season, based on the novel by former Special Air Service commando Chris Ryan, also featured Armitage, but otherwise featured different characters and actors in a tale loosely based on real-life events in Basra, Iraq, and set in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. The new Strike Back has yet to air in the U.K., where its name has been changed to Strike Back: Project Dawn.
Whether it's for you depends on your taste. Critics' notices of the first season ranged from the qualified rave ("a Die Hard-style thrill around every corner!") to the decidedly muted ("a pathetic male fantasy"). As always, the truth is likely to fall somewhere in the middle.
(HBO Canada, Friday 10 p.m. ET/9 p.m. PT)
The plot will ring a bell with anyone familiar with 24, the U.K. series Spooks and any number of espionage knock-offs. An international terror group is plotting an attack, and the only thing standing between the baddies and peace and quiet is a charismatic former U.S. Special Forces operative, who links up with a covert British tactical unit.
Australian actor Sullivan Stapleton plays the lantern-jawed He-Man tasked with saving the world as we know it. Philip Winchester, last seen in the short-lived adventure series Crusoe, plays the more by-the-book team leader who serves as the hero's moral sounding board and father confessor. The supporting ensemble is rounded out by Amanda Mealing as a rule-breaking tough gal, and Richard Armitage -- the actor, not the former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State, though, given the subject matter, you could be forgiven for confusing the two -- as a covert agent who manages to get himself captured and held hostage in the series opener.
Strike Back was written in part by one-time X-Files executive producer Frank Spotnitz and was filmed in Hungary and South Africa, filling in for England, Chechnya, Malaysia and India, so you know pretty much what to expect: a brisk, fast-paced, not overly demanding action thriller. Perfect for summer viewing, in other words, if you're too tired to go out to the movies and look for something more substantial and meaningful, like The Whistle Blower.
Strike Back is actually the second season of a series, even though it's being pitched to viewers as something entirely new. The first season, based on the novel by former Special Air Service commando Chris Ryan, also featured Armitage, but otherwise featured different characters and actors in a tale loosely based on real-life events in Basra, Iraq, and set in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. The new Strike Back has yet to air in the U.K., where its name has been changed to Strike Back: Project Dawn.
Whether it's for you depends on your taste. Critics' notices of the first season ranged from the qualified rave ("a Die Hard-style thrill around every corner!") to the decidedly muted ("a pathetic male fantasy"). As always, the truth is likely to fall somewhere in the middle.
(HBO Canada, Friday 10 p.m. ET/9 p.m. PT)
Read more: http://www.canada.com/news/canada-in-afghanistan/tonight+Strike+Back/5246619/story.html#ixzz1UpS15xWN
No comments:
Post a Comment