Drama
The Rainmaker
This adaptation may lack the depth of its source material, but it isn’t a bad option if you’re itching for a new legal drama.
[Note: Spoilers for The Terminal List are contained in the review below.]
What could cause a man to turn against a friend?
Ben Edwards knows.
The SEAL team member learned that hard truth firsthand in Iraq, when his friend, Daran, opted to blow himself up in a suicide bombing at the U.S.’s Camp Metherell in 2015. ISIS leaders had killed his wife and kidnapped his children.
One of the men responsible for pushing Daran over the edge was ISIS leader Al-Jabouri. Ben knew Al-Jabouri was secretly an asset for the CIA, leaking information to the Americans in exchange for immunity. He didn’t care; when he discovered Daran’s daughter in his compound, Ben executed the handcuffed man.
Good riddance.
Ben’s fellow SEALs, Raife Hastings and James Reece, helped cover for Ben: Al-Jabouri had initiated combat, and Ben, despite his best efforts, had been forced to neutralize him. Still, the CIA wants justice for their slain asset, so Ben and Raife are stripped of their ranks and sent home.
Before they can get there, however, they’re approached by CIA spymaster Jed Haverford. He knows what really happened with Al-Jabouri, and he’s impressed with the guys’ gusto. He’d like to hire them as operatives for covert missions, missions that would see them hunting down the other man responsible for pushing Daran over the edge: weapons dealer Massoud Danawi.
What could cause a man to turn against a friend? What could cause Ben to, years later, betray James Reece and the SEALs?
As Ben agrees to join Jed, he starts down a path that’ll teach him exactly how.
Dark Wolf is a prequel series to The Terminal List. In that show, Chris Pratt’s James Reece finds himself the target of a great conspiracy following the deaths of every member of his SEAL team. And though James turns to longtime friend Ben for assistance, it isn’t long before he learns that Ben was behind the hit to begin with. Dark Wolf seeks to flesh out Ben’s eventually betrayal by providing the backstory that leads up to it.
For fans of the book series, that means James takes a backseat in this story. Whereas the original show is based on Jack Carr book series about James Reece, Dark Wolf is itself an original piece created by Carr for the screen. Still, those who watched the original show will find the content within to be very similar.
Violence is at the forefront here: We see dozens and dozens of people die throughout, and we witness the resulting blood and visceral wounds. When Ben takes up his new covert job, the deaths stack up further.
Language is likewise an issue, with characters tossing out f-words like they’re going out of style. And while we’ve yet to see any sexual scenes in any episode, the title sequence unfortunately contains a woman’s naked rear.
Sure, Ben’s new job may be dealing in covert operations, but the content in the show is clear as day.
(Editor’s Note: Plugged In is rarely able to watch every episode of a given series for review. As such, there’s always a chance that you might see a problem that we didn’t. If you notice content that you feel should be included in our review, send us an email at letters@pluggedin.com, or contact us via Facebook or Instagram, and be sure to let us know the episode number, title and season so that we can check it out.)
Ben and team seek to capture a high-value asset in Mosul, Iraq. But when enemies convince a friend to engage in a suicide bombing, Ben goes against orders to seek revenge.
We see plenty of bloodshed; dozens of ISIS terrorists die when they’re struck with bullets. Civilians perish, too. A few are executed on the side of the road, and one dies when she’s hit by a stray bullet. Other hostages, strapped with bombs, get blow away in explosions. Someone commits suicide in a bombing. One man suffers a bullet wound to the leg which exposes blood and gore; he later returns with a prosthetic. We see bodies hanging from the side of a bridge. IEDs explode. A man beats a woman.
We see a woman posing in lewd photos; one of them shows her rear to the camera, and the other partially reveals her bra. Someone makes a sexual joke about another man’s mother. A man and woman kiss.
A Muslim man prays facing Mecca. His wife tells him that God will keep him safe for her. Terrorists write on a wall: “He who abandons the caliphate abandons God.” A Muslim woman yells at an American, saying, “Allah kills you infidels.” Someone praises God that his wife is alive. We hear the AC/DC song “Hell’s Bells.”
A man smokes a cigar. People drink liquor.
We hear roughly 50 uses of the f-word, including a few instances preceded by “mother.” The s-word is used four times. Other profanities include “a–,” “d–n,” “h—,” “p-ss” and “d–k.” God’s name is taken in vain three times, including one instance with “d–n.”
Kennedy Unthank studied journalism at the University of Missouri. He knew he wanted to write for a living when he won a contest for “best fantasy story” while in the 4th grade. What he didn’t know at the time, however, was that he was the only person to submit a story. Regardless, the seed was planted. Kennedy collects and plays board games in his free time, and he loves to talk about biblical apologetics. He’s also an avid cook. He thinks the ending of Lost “wasn’t that bad.”
This adaptation may lack the depth of its source material, but it isn’t a bad option if you’re itching for a new legal drama.
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