For the very first time, Netflix has released one of TV’s most popular military thrillers on its platform, and audiences have immediately responded. This seven-season series has already climbed into the streamer’s top 10 both globally and in the United States, just two days after it dropped.
Combining gritty, high-stakes combat sequences with emotionally raw performances and relatable personal backstories, this new Netflix hit is a far better frontline action thriller show than The Terminal List, which is Prime Video’s closest equivalent. Indeed, it’s probably the biggest military drama series of the past decade, and has inspired Taylor Sheridan to launch his own rival series on Paramount+.
When it premiered back in 2017, SEAL Team instantly drew comparisons with Sheridan’s movie Sicario for its immersive approach to shadowy cross-border black ops missions undertaken by a small group of elite soldiers. Now, this connection has come full circle, as Sheridan has hired SEAL Team’s lead writers to run two of his Yellowstone spinoffs.
Meanwhile, his spy thriller Lioness clearly owes a debt of gratitude to Netflix’s newest hit. Besides being one of the best military TV shows out there, SEAL Team is arguably the closest thing on the small screen to Clint Eastwood’s 2014 biopic American Sniper, which tells the story of prolific Navy SEAL marksman Chris Kyle.
SEAL Team Is Now The Biggest Military Thriller On Netflix
Fronted by Angel and Bones lead actor David Boreanaz, SEAL Team is a fast-paced, close-quarters submersion into the world of the most elite unit in the United States Armed Forces. Boreanaz plays the chief of Bravo Team, a subunit of the Naval Special Warfare Development Group, which is itself more commonly known as SEAL Team Six.
The team is routinely thrown into the most dangerous combat situations the American military can offer without almost no warning or preparation. As well as their extraordinary talents in the heat of battle, we’re exposed to the personal costs of their work, from physical and psychological injury to fractured personal relationships with loved ones at home.
We shouldn’t be surprised that SEAL Team has already entered the Netflix charts just days into its run on the streaming platform, since the appetite for military thrillers of its kind has never been bigger. For those who don’t have Netflix, it’s also available to stream on Paramount+, alongside Taylor Sheridan’s similarly successful special-forces thriller Lioness.
For those who do, SEAL Team isn’t the only drama series to focus on elite combat forces. In fact, a French show actually titled Elite Forces climbed took the number one spot on the platform’s global chart back in July, although it tells the story of a special team within the French National Gendarmerie, rather than a military unit.
Still, this dramatization of Navy SEALs special operations around the world is the standout military drama on Netflix right now by a long way. In almost every respect, from narrative scope to production budget, cast list to set and costume design, it’s quite possibly the most comprehensive and authentic depiction of the American military’s most mythologized force anywhere on streaming.
It Blends Aspects Of American Sniper With The Stylistic Approach Of Taylor Sheridan
Drawing on real-life Navy SEAL missions and American military campaigns across the past three decades, SEAL Team brings us as near to the action as it possibly can. It may not have a single true-story inspiration like American Sniper, but in visual terms it feels just as close to reality. What’s more, in emotional terms, it arguably hits even harder.
When it comes to dialogue and pacing, SEAL Team has a lot in common with the works of Taylor Sheridan. The show expertly balances the technical aspects of its genre with compelling characterizations that present weighty subject matters in accessible terms.
It approaches the portrayal of a special team carrying out black ops missions within wider military contexts in much the same way Sheridan does in his TV show Lioness, as well as his Sicario movies, applying the similarly broad brushstrokes to interpersonal drama and overarching themes.
It’s no wonder that Sheridan has made SEAL Team creator Benjamin Cavell the new showrunner of his Texas-based TV Western Dutton Ranch, or that he put a leading writer of the series, Spencer Hudnut, in charge of Kayce Dutton’s Yellowstone spinoff Marshals. This military thriller is written to have mass appeal, as underlined by the immediacy of its Netflix success.
- Release Date
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2017 – 2024-00-00
- Directors
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Jason Cabell
