Gone Is the Illusion of Order

Suspense is tremendous in this climax to the Lioness assassination mission, shot with top-drawer production values, and the entire cast on screen. Writer/creator Taylor Sheridan maximizes depth here, by shrewdly incorporating the conflicting attitudes and motivations of the various interests, including the Executive Decision team back in Washington in the situation room monitoring long-distance.

The power of Oliveira is in full force here, under immense pressure, with the viewer's identification with her and her "impossible" situation wonderfully cemented. The segment's atual violent climax is brilliantly staged by Aussie movie director John Hillcoat -just marvelous realism and catharsis with Oliveira versus the villains of the piece.

The team's extraction of our heroine is swift and exciting, and more importantly, Taylor puts the underlying national security and "world order" issues into bold relief, matched against the personal issues and personalities of the two magnificent lionesses. Quite an achievement.

Wow this series gave a new perspective to this types of shows usually I wouldn't be interested in a female lead but the actress that plays the undercover agent does and amazing job, I remember here from Locke and key series never could I have imagined here playing such a part just hands down. The series left me with a cliff hanger and I am so much caving for more the only thing I would prefer maybe for next shows is less scenes with Zoe daughter they were so boring and pointless I just skipped them... Anyways highly recommended and please have a second season I really would love to see where this characters develop.

Ps without the main actress (undercover spy) I'm less interested in a season 2.

This series should be a red flag for anyone watching a Taylor Sheridan again. Endless terrible writing attempting to merge a Special Operations mission and a family drama. Except Taylor doesn't have any experience with the military so we get a horrendous heavily fictional series with loads of women crying. And throw in a lesbian love story to make it unique.

This season finale was down right laughable. So many mistakes and let's keep pushing the arguing over and over and over.

Morgan Freeman gets his picture on the series screen shot but has a total of 4 lines in this episode, and another 4 in a previous one. Nearly the same with Nicole Kidman. Adding good actors doesn't make for a good show.

Gawd Awful.

Really enjoyed this finale to a great new show. I hope there's another season next year. I liked how the show explored the emotional struggle of the female characters reconciling their personal feelings with what was required of them to complete the mission. We've all seen plenty of these kinds of shows where these same types of characters are male. This time they're female. Do the male characters feel these same feelings but keep them to themselves? Would those other shows be as well received if the writers allowed the male characters to express these same feelings as the female characters in Special Ops: Lioness? I don't know but I enjoyed the freshness of Taylor Sheridan's new show.

To put it simply, "Special Ops: Lioness" has one of the best pilot (first) episodes I've seen in quite some time. I was utterly entranced and amazed that show creator Taylor Sheridan (of Yellowstone & Co. Fame) might have another hit right out of the gate. Unfortunately, "Lioness" could not sustain such momentum and lost a bit of steam with every concurrent installment.

For a very basic overview, "Lioness" tells a fictional story about the real-life Lioness program, in which female soldiers are recruited to get close to high-priority targets to gather intel and set up sting operations. In this case, Joe (Zoe Saldana) recruits Cruz (Laysla De Oliveira) to make friends of Aaliyah (Stephanie Nur)--whose father is a high-profile terrorist. But with the situation constantly changing as Cruz is undercover, will the Marine be strong enough to complete the mission or be compromised along the way?

Truth be told, when the focus is on Cruz and the undercover mission, "Lioness" is pretty compelling from beginning to end. Cruz's friendship with Aaliyah is fascinating and full of twists/turns--enough so to keep viewers invested right up to the endgame.

There is also some emotional material involving Joe's family back home--notably a husband (Dave Annable) & a daughter (Hannah Love Lanier) who struggle mightily without the entire family intact. All are solid enough actors to be truly emotionally compelling.

Where the air leaks out of the "Lioness" balloon, however, are some of the odd choices Sheridan & Co. Make. These include...

-Casting Nicole Kidman & Morgan Freeman--then barely utilizing them.

-Having the rest of the Marine Lioness unit go on side missions that only muddy the waters and take the focus off the compelling espionage material.

-Getting a bit heavy-handed or on-the-nose (politically/socially) in the finale after having such a good balance for most of the proceedings before that point.

Basically, the experience I had with "Lioness" was the initial "wow--this could be a special series" slowly turning into "this is a missed opportunity". I'd potentially return for a second go-round--but on a shorter leash, as the basic structure now has more to prove that it can sustain more than a lot of somewhat-bland 6-or-7 star episodes all the way through.