Special Ops: Lioness – Season One [2023] on Paramount+

Special Ops: Lioness is a good Paramount+ show. Saldaña provides the energy of a Lioness, but the show could have been better with a shorter runtime.

Arguably more absorbing than any of these recent streaming shows. Special Ops: Lioness is a swing and a miss for Tyler Sheridan in his attempt to tackle the world of the military. Surprisingly, the show kind of works, on the backs of its stars who are engaging enough to watch, even as the story fails them.

With a total of 8 episodes, the show clearly needs work.

First, let’s talk about the story. I’m happy to see that CBS/Paramount finally invested some of their billions into getting Arabic speaking folks to play Arab characters. However, there isn’t enough content there to justify the runtime. I get why we had a peak into Zoe Saldana‘s side story, as a mom, to humanize her, but by the end of the show, it felt more like a useless filler instead of a main character.

In fact, Nicole Kidman‘s unexplained role in the show made way more sense than Saldana’s side story. Putting that aside, Zoe Saldana and Laysla De Oliveira live up to the title of this series as fierce warriors. Few series have hooked me after one episode the way Special Ops: Lioness has, even when I’m getting tired of the “America saves the world by intervening in other countries and creating a mess” genre.

However, I felt a little deceived with the marketing campaign focusing on Morgan Freeman as part of the cast. Appearing in two episodes and a total of maybe 10 minutes of screentime, I wanted more. He’s one of the few characters that I enjoyed watching.

Should You Watch It?

With all the weaknesses of the season, Lioness pushes plausibility and plays on a black-and-white board of allies and foes. It does so with certain cleverness by establishing the characters as a pair of opposites

Where Can I Watch It?

You can stream Special Ops: Lioness exclusively on Paramount+.