DVD Corner

Special Ops: Lioness Season 1 Blu-ray Review

“Special Ops: Lioness” is another winner from Taylor Sheridan.  

In the 8 episode debut season of Taylor Sheridan’s Paramount Plus series “Special Ops: Lioness,” the story revolves around a Marine (Cruz Manuelos) who is recruited by CIA field agent (Joe) to join the Lioness program. Cruz, who has been through hell in life, goes through further hell in order to prepare for the program. Cruz’s mission is to infiltrate the life of the daughter (Aaliyah) of a known terrorist. Cruz gets a little too close to Aaliyah which complicates her mission and messes with her head. Elsewhere in the series are plots around Joe (who struggles to balance family life with work life) and Joe’s Quick Response Force team which gets in some hot water.

After delving into westerns, neo-westerns and crime thrillers, Taylor Sheridan dips his toes into spy thriller territory with “Special Ops: Lioness.” The somewhat patriotic series is based on the real-life Lioness program and it’s clear there’s an attempt at authenticity here (as tends to be the case with Sheridan shows). 

Some of the side stories can feel a bit too soap opera esque (particularly Joe’s family plots), but when the show focuses on Cruz it soars. There’s a nice build-up towards the thrilling climax where the tension becomes downright unbearable as Cruz’s mission becomes more and more dangerous. Plus, seeing the psychological ramifications that the spy job has on her character is nothing short of fascinating. She really changes over the course of the season and becomes more hardened. It will be curious to see where her character goes if there is a season 2.

The show is loaded with talent like Zoe Saldana, Morgan Freeman, Nicole Kidman, Martin Donovan, LaMonica Garrett, Stephanie Nur, and Michael Kelly, but this is very much Laysla De Oliveira’s show. This is her big breakout role and she carries the show as Cruz. The audience follows her journey. Of course, the veteran presence of Saldana, Freeman, and Kidman certainly helps. Saldana in particular has a good amount of screentime and gets a significant role to work with.

Video/Audio:

Presentation: 2.00:1 1080p. Grade: B+

Audio Track: Dolby TrueHD 5.1. Grade: B+

Extras:
* “Behind The Story”- Behind-the-scenes featurettes for all 8 episodes that contain interviews, episode clips, and story and character discussions.
* “Embedded With Special Ops: Lioness”- A 21 minute featurette which contains interviews, set footage, discussions about how various people came on board the project, character discussions and more.
* “Battle Forged Calm: Tactics And Training”- A look at the weapon and soldier training and the strive for authenticity.
* “Inside The Series”- LaMonica Garrett hosts this 19 minute behind-the-scenes special that sells the series.

January 29, 2024 - Posted by nicklyons1 | Blu-Ray review | Morgan Freeman, Nicole Kidman, Special Ops: Lioness Season 1 Blu-ray Review, Spy Series, Taylor Sheridan, Zoe Saldana