Strike Back
Cast & Key People
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Our Review
The best action show nobody talks about, a UK/US coproduction that plays like 24 with better cardio and worse impulse control. Section 20, a deniable British intelligence unit, globe trots to stop terrorists, arms dealers, and assorted villains with a body count per episode most shows don’t manage per season. Sullivan Stapleton and Philip Winchester as Damien Scott and Michael Stonebridge are one of TV’s great action duos: one a yank who can’t follow orders, the other a Brit who quotes regulations while headshotting roomfuls of men.
The plot is a clothesline for set pieces, and the set pieces are superb, real locations, long takes, stunt work that puts network TV to shame. It’s not deep. It knows it’s not deep. By the later seasons (the rebooted cast keeps the caliber high) it’s essentially a flesh and blood videogame with better dialogue than it needs.
Verdict: Watch it for the most underrated action TV ever made. Nobody’s claiming it’s The Wire. Watch this, not that.
