Navy SEALs fight our nation’s enemies. That is literally their job. Frustratingly,
far too many movies and TV series try to make our own military and intelligence
services out to be the bad guys. (Take The Painter as a shameful recent
example.) That just would not be credible in a military-focused show like SEAL
Team. Combat takes a lot out Bravo Team, but they are fighting genuine
terrorists and agents of oppression. Bravo Team must now contend with Venezuela
and Iran in the five-episode story arc making its network premiere this
Thursday.
Things
got bad while Bravo Team was operating in Africa—really bad. Master Chief Jason
Hayes’s traumatic brain injury has only gotten worse, nearly leading to
catastrophic consequences for the entire team. Special Operator Clay Spenser
hates to leave his wife, Stella Baxter, while their prematurely born infant is
still confined to an incubator, but he feels dutybound to watch over and out
for Hayes. Special Operator Sonny Quinn is also dealing with family issues,
when his ex decides to relocate, along with their toddler. At least, Chief
Warrant Officer Ray Perry is doing relatively okay, having largely dealt with
issues related to his PTSD treatment.
“Head
On” introduces a particularly tricky new assignment for Bravo Team, because
they will be almost entirely on their own. From the Columbian side of the
border, they need to hatch a plan to stop the Venezuelan regime’s attempt to
jump-start their nuclear program with the help of Iran’s chief nuclear
scientist. You should definitely ask yourself why two countries whose economies
are built on petroleum would be so interested in developing nuclear capabilities.
Regardless,
Hayes decides their best option will be taking out Dr. Nuclear is a phony
accident, whereas Spenser and Clay argue for abduction and interrogation. In
his state, Hayes interprets their arguments as disloyalty, but events will
prove them right.
Frankly,
this storyline is even more timely now than when it premiered online. The Chavist
regime is openly threatening Guyana’s borders for the sake of newly discovered
oil deposits. Yet, there is (unsurprisingly) stony silence from professional “anti-imperialists,”
even though the integrity of Guyana’s territory goes back to 1899.
Obviously,
preventing a nuclear Venezuela is a valid mission for Bravo Team. “Violence of
Action” covers the waiting part of “hurry and wait.” All that time on their
hands reveals the growing fissures in Bravo Team’s unity. However, one team
member finally starts accepting help in “Keys to Heaven,” whereas another threatens
to spiral out of control.
Regardless,
they all must get it together and work as a team in “Pillar of Strength” to
take out the Iranian-backed Venezuelan nuclear program once and for all. Notably
directed by lead actor David Boreanaz, this episode has some particularly good
action, set amid the titular foundational pillars of the structure housing the
nuclear facility. Of course, the exfiltration and the aftermath are always
messy, as viewers see in “All Bravo Stations,” which ends with a new mission and
a season-ending cliffhanger.
Every leftist guerilla organization always just turns out to be a drug-running
terrorist group. It is hard to think otherwise, especially when you find
yourself captured by one, like American research scientist Amber Chesborough. When
a “new” revolutionary group takes her hostage in Colombia, they quickly put her
to work in a drug lab owned and operated by the Venezuelan government.
Ordinarily, her chances for release would be minimal, but her husband and
brother are highly motivated special operators in creator Mark Boal’s Echo 3,
which premieres today on Apple TV+.
The
well-heeled Prince (indeed) and the white-trash Bambi just became brothers-in-law,
but they still argue heatedly and increasingly bitterly. It will only get
worse. Chesborough planned an expedition into the Colombian rain forest hoping
to find natural compounds that could counteract the chemical effects of addiction.
However, guerilla activity is the rise (real-life events have somewhat
outstripped Boal’s series, considering the terrorists are now in power). It is
a particularly fraught time for Chesborough to visit, since she may or may not
have had freelance ties to the CIA that she tried to keep secret, even from her
new husband. In retrospect, the military-grade tracking device he sewed into
her pack was also a bad idea.
Graciela’s
hipster terrorist gang is not about to release Chesborough anytime soon and the
U.S. State Department is determined to avoid conflict, like always. However,
the Colombian military is not wholly unsympathetic, even when Prince and Bambi
start going rogue.
Echo
3 has
a great premise (adapted from the Israeli series When Heroes Fly),
executed with a very high degree of military, political, and cultural accuracy—at
least based on the first five (out of ten) episodes provided for review. This
series gives viewers an excellent sense of boots-on-the-ground realities in
Venezuela and regions of Colombia. On the other hand, there are pacing issues,
including an inconveniently slow opener (helmed by Pablo Trapero) and an entire
episode devoted to one incident that easily could have been condensed to
fifteen minutes or so.
Nevertheless,
Echo 3 has some nifty scenes of urban warfare and commando-style action.
Boal, who wrote and produced Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty, has
solid understanding of and affinity for characters like Bambi and Prince. Most
of their scenes ring true, while most non-political government officials, like
the Embassy Chief of Mission, are crisply professional rather than lazy
caricatures. Just wait till all the professionally over-sensitive-and-easily
offended, who were so unhinged over The Terminal List get a load of Echo
3.
The
series also has great sympathy for the average Colombians and Venezuelans who
are suffering under leftist terrorism, who are embodied by Violetta Cardiz, a dissident
Venezuelan journalist working in Colombia, whom the terrorists also target. Portrayed
with great subtlety by Martina Gusman, Cardiz’s perspective and traumatic
background really adds a lot to the series.
Oil and gold-rich Venezuela's dire poverty should prove once and for all that
natural resources are almost inconsequential when it comes to average people’s
standard of living. Far more important are the rule of law, transparent
governance, and a market economy. None of these things exist in the Venezuela
of Nicolas Maduro and Hugo Chavez. Filmmakers Maxx Caicedo & Venezuelan
Nelson G. Navarrete chronicle the grassroots resistance to the oppression and
privation of the Chavist regime in A La Calle, which screens as part of
the 2020 online edition of DOC NYC--now screening through the 11/20-11/29 encore.
Filmed
surreptitiously on the streets of Venezuela, from 2014 to 2019, A La Calle chronicles
the rise of the regime, starting with its glory years under Chavez to its
current state of international disrepute. Navarrete & Caicedo largely follow
events from three perspectives: formerly imprisoned opposition leader Leopoldo
Lopez, street-level activist Nixon Leal, and Randal Blanco, an average citizen
struggling to get by (with Juan Guaido, the interim President recognized by
nearly every real democracy, playing an important role in the third act).
For
those unfamiliar with the ongoing Venezuelan tragedy, A La Calle documents
step-by-step how Chavez and Maduro eroded constitutional checks-and-balances, criminalized
the opposition, and rigged the electoral system in their favor. For a while,
they were able to placate the populace with massive, irresponsible public spending
binges, but when petroleum prices started falling, the stagnant economy completely
cratered. Soon, all the people had left was a dictator who jealousy clings to
power.
It
is hard to imagine a socialist declining free stuff, but Maduro did exactly that
when he perversely refused to allow emergency relief supplies to enter
Venezuela, despite the critical shortage of food and medicine. As a result,
Venezuelans have launched what one of the film’s experts calls the largest ever
collective exodus from a country not currently waging war.
