“You’ve got a reckoning coming for you, Reecer.” There are voices — and a deadly tumor — in the head of James Reece (Chris Pratt) as The Terminal List returns to Prime Video for Season 2. Reece is a fugitive after killing everybody he told himself he had to. But in shows like this, former friends can become enemies, and those hunting Reece might require his skills the most.
THE TERMINAL LIST: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Opening Shot: James Reece (Pratt), 172 days at sea, has gone full Hanks in Cast Away. He hallucinates Ben Richards (Taylor Kitsch), former SEAL teammate, former ally, and the final name on Reece’s list of people to kill.
The Gist: Terminal List Season 2 uses shouty cameos from Bill Maher and SEAL-turned-podcaster Jocko Willink to establish Reece’s story as headline-making, hashtag-breaking news. While he sails solo to Mozambique, hoping to find refuge with the family of his old buddy Raife Hastings (Tom Hopper), journalist Katie Buranek (Constance Wu) is his biggest defender in the media. She knows the conspiracy Reece’s death crusade uncovered is all too real. Sure, he’s a fugitive, and a killer. But he was fighting on the side of truth.
At the same time, Amin Al-Nawaz (Shadi Janho), leader of “the new Al-Qaeda,” has orchestrated a massive bombing in London, and the CIA has turned up links between Al-Nawaz and Mohammed “Mo” Farooq (Dar Salim), who we know from Dark Wolf, the recent Terminal List prequel. The Company thinks finding Reece could be key to locating Mo, which could lead to Al-Nawaz, and a win for a world on edge.
In all this, is Russian oligarch Vasili Adrenov (Costa Ronin) a friend or foe? Buranek will find out as she reports from his inner circle. Terminal Season 2 will also bring in Hopper as Raife, a fan favorite character from the Jack Carr books; this season adapts True Believer, #2 in the series. And as Reece finds new life on land in Africa, he’ll be joined Gabriel Luna as Freddie Strain, another operator gone CIA operative, plus even more people we know from Dark Wolf, like Luke Hemsworth as Jules Landry and Shiraz Tzarfati as Mossad agent Tal Varon.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? So, Terminal List S2 has a lot of Dark Wolf DNA. But it’s also rocking with a ton of Lioness vibes.
Our Take: Will those Lioness vibes translate to us caring more for James Reece’s bloodsoaked personal vendettas? A series can become a globetrotting action thriller with all the trappings, like gunfights in faraway cities, choppers flying over grand vistas, and techies clacking keyboards in blue-lit situation rooms. But if the characters are rote, flat, or worse, unlikeable — we’re looking right at you, Chris Pratt as James Reece — it could have trouble making us care about them.
Performance Worth Watching: The Ben Edwards that resurfaces alongside Reece in Season 2 of Terminal is only a figment of the imagination. But Taylor Kitsch is so good in the role, we still wish Dark Wolf wasn’t a prequel.
Parting Shot: At a hunting reserve in Mozambique, Reece makes contact with Richard Hastings (Arnold Vosloo), Rafe’s father.
Our Call: STREAM IT. With aspirations to encompass the globe as a contemporary action thriller, The Terminal List Season 2 has a solid chance to outrun the grim tone of its first go-round.
Johnny Loftus (@johnnyloftus.bsky.social) is a Chicago-based writer. A veteran of the alternative weekly trenches, his work has also appeared in Entertainment Weekly, Pitchfork, The All Music Guide, and The Village Voice.