Critical Condition: SEAL Team

SEAL Team | Prime, 8.30 Friday

➢ “Given that a broadcast show is rarely if ever going to approach the complexity of a show like Homeland, SEAL Team makes a strong effort to bring the human element of the fight against amorphous terrorists to the broadcast audience. And to the show’s credit, the emphasis of the show is less on its gung-ho action sequences than it is on the close-knit team of people conducting those complicated missions. There’s an attention to detail about military life and forays into faraway lands that lends an atmosphere of the appreciably romantic. And by the end of the pilot, the ensemble feels rock-solid — a promising indicator of long-term success.” — Variety.

➢ “David Boreanaz leads a clandestine American-badass unit in the new CBS military procedural SEAL Team … But the show’s portrayal of modern warfare is too simplistic, as convincing as a gritty Army advertisement … The first few episodes are directed by Christopher Chulack, whose fluid and kinetic work gave ER and Southland a special luscious grit. Boreanaz looks suitably jacked as the lead SEAL Teamer, and a couple scenes with his family nudge toward the difficult personal cost of warfare.” — Entertainment Weekly.

➢ “SEAL Team typifies the CBS procedural: by-the-numbers, safe and predictable enough to satisfy even the most casual viewer. That’s not to say that the military drama, starring David Boreanaz (late of Bones), doesn’t have its plusses. It does, in that meat-and-potatoes, formulaic kind of way that neither surprises or disappoints …  If you’re into broad, military-themed dramas — minus the pathos and pulse-pounding of a series like Homeland, for instance — then SEAL Team is your kind of vehicle.” — New York Post.

➢ “The series works mostly because it’s not reaching beyond its comfort zone. Following a team of Navy SEALs carrying out covert operations with the aid of the CIA, it’s an uncomplicated action series without twists or unnecessary spectacle, at least so far … The drama plays to the strengths of its network, and its star. The missions are simple and paint the soldiers as patriotic and unimpeachably good.” — USA Today.

➢ “The politics of SEAL Team are probably best described as jingoistic-lite, which is a tremendous improvement over the ‘Every foreigner is a rapist, murderer or corrupt official’ ideology of Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders. Every so often in the early episodes, somebody implies something slightly misguided about American foreign policy before the ‘Our country, right or wrong’ message slips in. More broadly, the show fits with CBS’ general ‘Men being men’ conservatism.” — The Hollywood Reporter.