The Terminal List Season 2 Review: A Pulse-Pounding, High-Octane Thriller for Espionage Aficionados

The excitement around The Terminal List Season 2 was warranted: Chris Pratt reprised his role and, I will say it without shame, delivered the best performance of his career. But the anticipation wasn’t simply because the first season was an adrenaline-fueled, action-packed, and suspenseful ride. It’s the kind of “dad” television that has made Prime Video a household name with Reacher, Neagley, and Cross.

However, the series also brilliantly employed metaphor and imagery to explore the psychological trauma experienced by Veterans living with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This is where Pratt excelled, and where The Terminal List Season 2 seems to have moved away from it, which is a shame, since most critics missed it in the first chapter and failed to recognize the nuance the creators and Pratt brought to the role.

The second season finds Pratt’s Lt. Commander James Reece on a walkabout, searching for himself after trauma fundamentally changes him. On the surface, this should be fertile ground for compelling character development. Instead, Prime Video appears to have taken the The Terminal List: Dark Wolf route, leaning into the modern-day spy thriller with pulse-pounding results.

What is Prime Video’s The Terminal List Season 2 about?

The last time we saw Reece, well, in the current timeline, ignoring his cameo in the prequel spinoff series, he discovered that his best friend, Ben Edwards (Taylor Kitsch of Friday Night Lights fame), a CIA Ground Branch operative, had betrayed Reece’s SEAL team for a cool $20 million. The unintended consequence was that the bad guys also murdered Reece’s wife and daughter.

Reece confronted Ben aboard his boat in Peru, where we assume he killed him, before taking the vessel and sailing off toward Mozambique, Africa. He even drops the “list” into the ocean, leaving the part of his life behind. Of course, he cannot escape his past. We see Reece, delusional, hallucinating, talking to Ben as he works through his grief and betrayal.

We also get one of the series’ more useless characters back. That would be Katie Buranek (Fresh Off the Boat‘s Constance Wu), who helped expose the military’s experimental drug program. She is back, and Reece has made her an infamous figure in the world of politics. Katie works with Raife (Tom Hopper), a Navy SEAL, as the investigation into missing military weapons begins.

Prime Video’s The Terminal List Season 2 Review

Executive produced by Chris Pratt and Antoine Fuqua, the second season is based on Jack Carr’s novel True Believer. Showrunner David DiGilio (Strange Angel) shifts the focus from Reece’s deeply personal quest for revenge to an international espionage thriller that somehow carries less dramatic weight. That doesn’t mean the story doesn’t entertain, just that Pratt has less meat to chew on.

To do this, the show takes significant liberties with Carr’s second novel, which I suspect is part of the problem. Gabriel Luna joins the cast as Freddy, a CIA operative who brings Pratt’s Reece out of the shadows with an offer to clear his name. However, the series trades that personal storytelling for a broader, globe-trotting narrative that takes the action across multiple borders.

The sacrifice of emotional depth for international intrigue will likely satisfy most fans, as Reece’s powerful and moving backstory remains firmly etched in their minds. The transition takes a few episodes to establish the series’ new tone and pace. However, once it finds its footing, it becomes a pulse-pounding thriller that avoids becoming as action-overloaded as the first season.

Is Prime Video’s The Terminal List Season 2 worth watching?

Chris Pratt is still very good here, delivering a more subdued performance than we’ve ever seen. Pratt has a few scenes that showcase his emotional range, conveying vulnerability without sacrificing physicality. The role plays against his natural screen persona, which I suspect is why he took on the project in the first place.

There will be no need for Mouse Rat ballads or a dance-off inspired by “O-o-h Child” by the Five Stairsteps in this role, though one can’t help but wish Little Sebastian had somehow made an appearance.

The Terminal List‘s second season is an action spectacular, stronger because they expanded Hopper’s role, after a superb turn in the Dark Wolf prequel. Like that series, the show is exciting; I mean, what action spy thriller isn’t? Yet, the story is fairly predictable when it comes to who the traitors are. Otherwise, it will satisfy fans of the show and the genre, trading emotional payoff for international intrigue, but it hasn’t lost its ability to entertain.

Stream The Terminal List Season 2 in its entirety, premiering exclusively on Prime Video October 21st! We screened all eight episodes for this review.

The Terminal List Season 2 Review: A Pulse-Pounding, High-Octane Thriller for Espionage Aficionados