{"id":6049,"date":"2022-07-12T13:11:16","date_gmt":"2022-07-12T13:11:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=6049"},"modified":"2026-01-13T11:08:51","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T11:08:51","slug":"media-the-terminal-list-amazon-prime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=6049","title":{"rendered":"FiLM REViEW: The Terminal List, Amazon Prime, 2022"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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I have to confess I binge watched this entire mini-series last night. Not a terrifically wise decision, given I started watching it at about 9-10pm! I\u2019m guessing it must have been about 5am when it finished? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was hankering for some enjoyable adrenal-gland stimulation, that could be administered lying down. And in that respect, this new show – premiered July 1st – ticked the box. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Author and former SEAL, Jack Carr.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The story is based on a book of the same name by former Navy SEAL turned author, Jack Carr. Rather surprisingly, whilst the TV show has a Wikipedia page, Carr himself does not. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m not going to delve too deep into Carr\u2019s real life or military career, nor am I going to synopsise the entire TV series. This is just going to be a fairly basic review\/reaction to having just watched the entire show. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The fetishisation of macho violence is total.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m giving it three stars, for now. Why? Well, it was entertaining and compelling enough that I stayed up most the night to watch it. But it is also rather troubling – very<\/em> worrying, frankly – in how it relates to the current rise in neo-Fascist aspects of contemporary American Conservatism, US gun culture and modern ideas of masculinity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Jaws so square they could chisel granite.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What it highlights for me is the incredibly dangerous intersections of whole constellations of myths and reality in the psyche of the modern American right. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To highlight what I\u2019m talking about, let\u2019s just very lightly unpick one aspect of the story\u2026 the private contractors hired to provide security for various characters, large numbers of whom wind up as just so much cannon fodder. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This idea is quite well parodied in one of the Austin Powers movies; at one level these functionaries are really just guys doing a job, feeding their families. But here they\u2019re no more than meat for the grinder of \u2018righteous\u2019 hatred!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Fails his family\u2026<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The attempt to have Reece as both a loving family man, as well as a war hardened super ninja, is, ultimately, as another reviewer I read elsewhere (I can\u2019t recall where) says, really quite boneheaded. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Offing countless mercenaries to get to his targets, some of whom (the latter esp\u2019) he brutally tortures – he\u2019s more successful as a killer and a sadist than as a family man – just doesn\u2019t square well with \u2018nice ordinary guy\u2019. Dude\u2019s a freakin\u2019 psycho!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2026 but excels as sadistic executioner.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Jack Carr loves his weapons, especially his guns, as you might imagine a Navy SEAL would. He hunts big game at home (mountain lion recently, I read somewhere). And he\u2019s hunted humans too, as a sniper, whilst serving overseas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He goes to gun shows, and gives interviews to people like Soldier of Fortune <\/em>and The Federalist<\/em>. The former essentially being \u2018Mercernaries Monthly\u2019, the latter a Conservative media organ that has shamelessly spouted anti-vax bollocks, and declared support for Trump\u2019s blatant lies around the whole \u2018stolen election\u2019 fraud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2018Lock and load\u2019 is one thing. \u2018Pray and spray\u2019!?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In his SOF<\/em> interview (read that here<\/a>) he describes the story, accurately enough, as \u2018a story of revenge without constraint.\u2019 His hero Reece goes on the warpath, Stateside, to kill those – on his \u2018terminal list\u2019 – who he holds responsible for the deaths of his entire squad (mostly overseas), and his wife and daughter, once back home. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the same SOF<\/em> piece Carr expands: Reece kills \u2018those involved using the tactics and techniques used by the enemy in Iraq and Afghanistan, so at another level it\u2019s about someone abandoning the rule of law and becoming the terrorist and insurgent he\u2019d been fighting \u2026 it\u2019s about a veteran of the War on Terror bringing that war home.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That sounds quite interesting as an idea. There is a chickens coming home to roost side to the \u2018war on terror\u2019 that America seems to fundamentally fail to grasp. But that potentially interesting thread is poorly served here, in the end. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The suits and their spooks, always corrupt.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The plot is further complicated by other strands in the story. I\u2019ll refrain from spoilers. Despite these attempts to be confusingly interesting, however, the over familiar \u2019conspiracy from within\u2019 trope is rather convoluted, and, frankly, veers towards the silly. But it just about<\/em> serves its purpose, as a plot driver. Don\u2019t examine anything too closely though. It bears very little scrutiny!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ultimately this one of those recurring and popular fantasies of older right wing males: \u00fcber machismo uncorked. And ultimately it\u2019s pretty revolting. The ending being particularly dumb and horrid. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the untethered ego of the hero survives! So\u2026 all is well, is it? Really? If I was Carr\u2019s wife, I\u2019d be pretty worried about his priorities and general mental health. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Black, red,white? Wasn\u2019t there a little Austrian chap that liked this combo\u2019?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Returning to the neo-fascist threads, these are on display everywhere, from the unctuous tattooed bodybuilder villain, to the rites of the US military itself, to Reece, part hillbilly demon, part sensitive beautiful powerful man! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a toxic self-regard at the heart of this macho male military culture, in which everything and everybody else is merely an ancillary appendage to the hero\u2019s ego. Not at all attractive, to me at any rate!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Most real world villains prob\u2019 spend less time in gyms and salons.*<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In the end it\u2019s all just a rehash of everything from Clint Eastwood to James Bond to Rambo. The lone hero, against pretty much the entire world. Mean, moody. A hardass mo\u2019fo\u2019, who\u2019ll slit you from gullet to gizzard just as readily as buy you a brew.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clearly made with a huge budget, and pretty decently acted, albeit in a world of cartoonish simplification, I did enjoy \u2018the ride\u2019. But as a film that might have anything to leave the viewer with, after the adrenaline subsides? Pretty bleak!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Reece hangs with his bro\u2019.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

* I\u2019m sure real-life super vain super villains like Trump spend plenty of time and money on their appearance. They just clearly do so far less successfully than some of the specimens Hollywood style casting agents clearly prefer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have to confess I binge watched this entire mini-series last night. Not a terrifically wise decision, given I started watching it at about 9-10pm! I\u2019m guessing it must have been about 5am when it finished? I was hankering for some enjoyable adrenal-gland stimulation, that could be administered lying down. And in that respect, this … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “FiLM REViEW: The Terminal List, Amazon Prime, 2022”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[89,15,74,68],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paGwUa-1zz","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6049"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6049"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6049\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29177,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6049\/revisions\/29177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}