Should You Watch 'Death Row' with Chris Pratt?

On July 1, all eight episodes of the Death List miniseries, based on Jack Carr's novel of the same name, aired on the Amazon Prime streaming service. First of all, the project attracts the attention of the producer Antoine Fuqua, who personally directed the first series. This author is known for the films Training Day and The Great Equalizer. And the main role in the series was played by Chris Pratt, familiar to everyone from Jurassic World and Guardians of the Galaxy.

Add to this that Carr himself served in the special forces, which he writes about (the main character is a partial alter ego of the author). Project showrunner David DiGiglio has been working on the exciting Strange Angel. It would seem that with such components, an excellent action movie should turn out.

But something went wrong. The "Death List" in the first two episodes intrigues with an unusual plot. But only in order to later disappoint the most obvious and banal denouement.

Intrigue turns to boredom

Lieutenant Commander James Reese (Chris Pratt) leads the Navy SEALs. They are sent on a special mission, but the team is ambushed. All the military die, except for Reese himself and another officer - Vickers (Jared Shaw). After the failure of the mission, the latter is sent to the United States with the bodies of his comrades, and then allegedly commits suicide.

But the main character is sure that both the ambush and the death of Vickers are the result of a conspiracy. There's just a problem - Reese got a head injury, he gets the sequence of events confused, and sometimes he even sees dead people. Therefore, the military and doctors believe that the officer invented everything.

The first two episodes of "Death List" are the best in the series. And the less you know about this project, the more interesting it is to watch. It all starts with a classic action movie about special forces. Then the atmosphere changes dramatically. And as soon as it seems that everything is too simple and this is a traditional detective story, the story will turn over again.

The very idea unreliable narrator, whose memory problems are associated with post-traumatic stress disorder, could turn the "Death List" almost into an analogue of "Jacob's Ladder", except perhaps without mysticism. Well, or at least in the "Secret Window". After all, from a certain point there is a suspicion that Reese is not just confused thoughts. He is dangerous and becomes the prime suspect himself.

But then the authors of the series simply abandon the most powerful and controversial idea. Already from the third episode, the subjective perception of the hero fades into the background, and the viewer finds out what is really happening. From now on paranoid mind games thriller turns into an ordinary detective thriller. Which, alas, does not shine with originality.

By tradition, the protagonist has a standard set of assistants: a close and very cool friend who will always come to the rescue, an honest journalist with whom they do not get along well. Together they try to get to the bottom of the truth. Although following the characters is not very interesting: for those who have watched at least a few of these films, the answer is clear almost from the very beginning.

However, it gets even worse. By the end, even the last intrigues remain only a background. In the center of the plot is just a story of revenge.

Perhaps the "Death List" would have looked much better in the format of a full-length film from the same Antoine Fuqua. Even a similar plot, packed into two hours of dynamic narration, and not into eight hour-long episodes, would certainly not have had time to tire. In reality, with each episode, watching what is happening is getting more and more boring.

Ideas and morals are obsolete

Amazon Prime has already established itself among fans of series about tough guys and special missions. Since 2018, Jack Ryan based on the books by Tom Clancy has been released on the platform with stable success, recently Reacher based on the works of Lee Child has been added to it. Yes, and Chris Pratt has already appeared on the service in the fantastic action movie Future War.

However, even against the backdrop of all these projects, the "Death List" looks simply outdated. In the same "Jack Ryan", unlike Clancy's previous adaptations, the main character was made simpler: in the first season, he is just starting to work as a field agent. The Reacher also pleases with non-toxic masculinity: the huge protagonist does not rely only on strength and sometimes feels awkward from his intimidating appearance.

But the creators of the "Death List" seemed to be guided by militants eighties. The hero of Chris Pratt does not have a drop of doubt that he is right, at some point he will say: “I am justice.” At every opportunity, Reese grabs a gun and shoots first, then asks questions.

Perhaps the actor wanted to move away from the role already familiar to everyone: in all his famous roles, Pratt, although he saves the world and fights villains, at the same time entertains the viewer with comical scenes. Now he's playing the toughest commando imaginable. But the character looks as implausible as the grotesque heroes of Commandos and Invulnerable.

Although in this regard, the classic action movies with Schwarzenegger look even better. Good and evil are clearly separated in them: there are bandits, and there are good, tough military men. Yes, and adrenaline in them many times more. The "Death List" aims at more ambitious, but completely banal ideas: those in power are always corrupt and do not value people's lives, and you can deal with bastards only by force.

The visuals are too dark

There are many projects that suit cold tones in the picture. It is enough to rememberOzark” with its gray-blue filter or the German “Darkness”. And it seems that the creators of the "Death Row List" decided that the cruel story of revenge would go pale and gloomy. But in most scenes, they just made the visuals inadequately dark, occasionally diluting it with some interesting solutions.

The strip club will feature the traditional red tones, while the home of one of the villains will feature a warm yellow light from the fire. But in most cases, the screen is just dark, in which it is difficult to see anything. The problem reaches its apotheosis towards the end, when Pratt's character sneaks in at night, dressed in all black and smeared with paint on his face. Yes, this is plausible, the special forces really do this to make the military harder to notice. That's just the viewer is not a victim, he just needs to see the hero.

It's a shame, but the "Death Row List" could have made a good movie or even a TV series. But for some reason, the authors themselves abandoned the intriguing idea that they introduced at the beginning, and turned the plot into a set of banal elements combined with stupid brutality. Perhaps such stories should have stayed in the eighties.