Entertaining But Needs More Action and Tighter Pacing
Summary
Jensen Ackles once again proves he should be a huge star and Countdown has some entertaining moments, but the season goes on too long and at times it gets a little talky when it really should be explodey.
Plot: An LAPD officer joins a secret task force to investigate a suspicious murder, but uncovers a sinister plot that requires the team to unite and save millions in the city.
Review: *Mild Spoilers ensue* I was really looking forward to Countdown as I’ve always felt Jensen Ackles had action hero written all over him; he’s never seemed interested in being a huge star and I think he prefers doing TV.
Countdown starts off well and has your typical task force put together to stop a terrorist storyline, but I really liked all the characters and there are great performances all round.
I thought Eric Dane was perfectly cast as Nathan Blythe; he gives off authoritative vibes while also seeming to carry the weight of the world on his shoulders. He feels believable and is arguably my favourite character on the show.
Ackles himself plays Mark Meachum, an LAPD cop who joins the taskforce after spending months undercover in prison. The fact that we get a fight scene in the opening episode while Meachum is in prison was a highlight, but sadly we don’t get too many more in the show. We find out early on that Meachum has a terminal brain disease which gives him headaches making him a liability in the field, but he takes too long to actually tell anyone and it gets annoying after a while.
On the action front there are some shoot-outs and it gets quite tense at times, but I did find it dragged at times and the season should have ended after 8 or 9 episodes rather than going to 13. The threat is taken care of by episode 9, but then a another storyline starts which felt weird.
Countdown sadly has that ugly de-saturation filter or whatever it is to make the colours look dull; it’s LA, let’s see the sunshine properly and not be afraid of some vibrancy.
There’s the obligatory will they/won’t they between Meachum and Amber Oliveras (Jessica Camacho) which is fun for a while; the other characters are all fine too and not everyone will make it to see season 2…
Overall, Countdown has a few decent action scenes but this is more of a thriller than an action show which is disappointing; it also goes on for too long, but it has such an epic cliffhanger that if we get a second season then I have to watch it.