Prime Video's The Terminal List is getting a prequel. The Chris Pratt action drama has been a big hit with audiences, and one of the fan favorite characters is bad guy Ben Edwards, who is going to be the focus of the new series. The new show promises to show how Edwards descended into villainy, no doubt with lots of action along the way.
The show first aired on Prime Video in mid-2022 and followed former US Navy SEAL James Reece, played by Pratt, who embarks on a journey of revenge after a mission goes terribly – and suspiciously – wrong.
That story continues in a second season, which has already been greenlit, and will go back in time for the prequel. We don't know how far back in time it's going to go, however, and while we know it'll enter production early this year we don't have any indication of when we'll be able to stream it. Still, that means there's plenty of time to watch the first season on one of the best streaming services and to avoid reading the reviews.
The Terminal List: loved by fans. By critics, not so much
The Terminal List is sitting with a pretty woeful 40% on Rotten Tomatoes and a whole platoon of negative reviews. Yahoo Movies says that it is "a dire concoction of clichés", while the Irish Independent says it's a "muddled and maddening bore". Slate says it's something we've seen many times, "a classic American fantasy about the goodness of the SEALs, the corruption of high-level government officials and corporate shills, and the purifying quality of righteous violence."
One of the common threads in the more negative reviews is that The Terminal List feels like an action movie that's been stretched way beyond its ideal running time to make it into a series. As Newsday puts it, "In the days before the streaming revolution, "The Terminal List" would have been turned into a big screen summer action blockbuster and over and done within about two hours. Instead, audiences are being asked to stick with it for hours of bingeing."
But the most damning summary may be the one from Empire, which says: "If you enjoyed Jack Ryan and Reacher, this is the show the algorithm would say you should watch next. Ignore it." Perhaps you should watch one of these military thrillers instead.
The Terminal List is streaming now on Prime Video. The prequel will begin filming in early 2024.
