Comedy
Bodkin
Ireland is frequently listed as one of the safest countries in the world. But the same cannot be said for the Irish Bodkin.
Station Chief Joe exists only in the present and the future. It’s not helpful for her to remain in the past.
Her present is consumed with the realities of war and working to take down terrorists in Syria and across the Middle East. Her future is filled with worries that her CIA female undercover agents, known as Lioness Special Operatives, will be found out and killed. Her past confirms that this is, and has been, possible.
When she’s at home, Joe tries to be available to her husband Neil and her two daughters. Although sometimes, they wish she’d just stay out in the field and not interrupt their daily rhythms; their life without her.
But when she’s out in the field, in the thick of things, she can’t think about troubles at home or the life she could have built had she left behind her ties to the government and the military.
Her only goal is to assimilate new agents. To place them among women connected to high value targets, teach them to earn their trust and then wait for the perfect moment to kill said targets.
It’s the polar opposite of a lax job. And it really all depends on the success and cooperation of her team, which includes CIA agents Bobby, Two Cups, Tucker, Randy and Tex. And, perhaps most importantly, Cruz Manuelos.
Cruz is her latest operative. Aggressive and fierce, Cruz is the perfect fit for the role: a wounded warrior with a broken past. She never knew her father; her mother passed away when she was in high school. One brother is dead, the other in prison. Cruz took to stripping and dancing to make money and tacked on an abusive, demeaning boyfriend along the way.
The United States Marine Corps has been a sanctuary for Cruz. But if she’s going to survive–if any of them are going to survive–they’ll have to learn to work together to fight the war they’re in, and to overcome the personal battles each of them have been in their entire lives.
…Comes a show that’s unlike Yellowstone. Sort of.
We’re not watching people herd cattle in Montana or fight over a family ranch. But we are watching war break out, operatives going undercover and people clinging to their positions to stay alive.
That’s the basics for Special Ops: Lioness, a new, TV-MA show streaming on Paramount+.
This is a star studded cast, featuring names like Zoe Saldana, Nicole Kidman, Morgan Freeman and Laysla De Oliveira. From such a big cast, you’d probably expect greatness. And there are some moments in the first episode that may hint at just that.
In my opinion, the most compelling character (at least her storyline) is that of Cruz Manuelos, a woman who goes through abuse that is both difficult to watch and just as hard to hear.
This is then, really, a story about Cruz and Joe. How their lives differ, how they intersect and, it seems, how they’re going to have to work together to perform dangerous missions. Especially for American women who are hidden within the ranks of terrorists.
I can see the appeal here. Secret, undercover missions and a bonafide spy-thriller. But the cringey lines and predictable acting can make this feel stale, especially when compared to a huge hit like Yellowstone.
Unlike Yellowstone, the sexual content seems to have been taken down a notch (from the first episode, that is), but that doesn’t mean we escape those problems entirely. Joe and her husband get in the sheets (although their acts are insinuated), and at one point Cruz is forced to take off her clothes in front of Joe and we see her breast and nipple for a brief second.
Besides the sexual content, there is also plenty of drama, thick profanity and violence and abuse that are difficult to watch and cannot be ignored.
There’s something here, but the TV-MA rating makes sure that it’s not something for the entire family.
Joe sacrifices an undercover operative for the welfare of her entire team. Shortly after, she must replace her lost agent with another. A young woman joins the Marines as an escape from her horrifying life.
Marines fight off a group of terrorists, shooting and killing many with guns and via an air strike. Buildings and vehicles explode.
Cruz’s boyfriend punches her in the face and belittles her in front of others, agreeing to his friend’s notion that he needs to “trade that b–ch in for a new model.” This same man also asks Cruz why she doesn’t strip and dance for money anymore or desire to engage in intercourse. Later, Cruz hits him in the face with a frying pan and then runs for her life, barely escaping his wrath.
ISIS members drag a woman out from her hiding place and beat her. Joe makes it clear that had she not called a hit on them, they would have raped her and filmed it. Two women hit one another in a petty fight.
Joe and her husband kiss and make out, and we see Joe in shorts with a robe covering her shirtless upper body (we see a bit of her stomach and the outline of the front of her breasts). A female agent is forced to take off all her clothes in front of Joe and we see her bare rear, as well as cigarette burns on her arms and a scar on her back from a beating with an extension cord.
Men and women alike consume hard liquor and beer. An agent vomits after a night of drinking. Joe’s daughter says that she hates it when her mother is home.
God’s name is misused twice, once paired with “d–”. The f-word is heard over 30 times while the s-word is heard twice. A man calls a woman a “b–ch” many times. “A–hole” is used once.
Kristin Smith joined the Plugged In team in 2017. Formerly a Spanish and English teacher, Kristin loves reading literature and eating authentic Mexican tacos. She and her husband, Eddy, love raising their children Judah and Selah. Kristin also has a deep affection for coffee, music, her dog (Cali) and cat (Aslan).
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