"The Terminal List" on Amazon Prime

[Ben]

Apparently Amazon is doing a series based on Jack Carr's "James Reece" character, to be released in July:

https://youtu.be/UJsT-O8iQTY

I only just recently discovered and started reading the books and am halfway through book 3. From the promo, it appears the series is going to be only loosely based on the books. Without giving spoilers, two characters that were almost immediately killed off in book 1 seem to be prominent characters in the series. It might still work out okay. I liked the "Shooter" series, which was quite different from the books or even the movie.

On the tangent, I am liking the books. Other than holy hell, these retired operators sure do shill for their buddies. The product placement in book 3 is more than annoying. He has to mention something the protagonist is using not once, but like every other paragraph. Reece doesn't just get up in the morning and grab a cup of coffee, he grabs "delicious Black Rifle Coffee". And it's not just once. He'll make the Black Rifle Coffee, he'll drink the Black Rifle Coffee, then he'll put down the Black Rifle Coffee cup. That's just one example. He does the same with holsters and stuff too. Not just giving the brand once, then saying "holster", but giving the brand and model pretty much every time. It wasn't quite as bad in the first two books, but #3 is a freaking SEAL product catalog. 

I have noticed this in other "ex-operator" books as well. It's getting kind of annoying.

[Devonai]

Jeez I feel self-conscious just mentioning which guns by make and model my characters use.

[Ben]

Jeez I feel self-conscious just mentioning which guns by make and model my characters use.

Obviously I'm biased as gun nut, and maybe your average non-gun owner doesn't like it, but I don't mind things like make and model of the gun, or even what holster or optic is being used. It's just fully repeating the brand name every time, especially for stuff like the coffee, that irks me.

I mean, even the brand name is okay if the author describes, for instance, the "Sig P320 X-Carry customized by Wilson Combat" the first time, then afterwards refers to it as the Sig or the P320 (and Carr does in fact do that with most guns). I don't see any reason to say "Black Rifle Coffee" almost every time the character drinks a cup of coffee.

Or, for instance, Carr (and I guess SEALs) really like Salomon shoes. Fine. Give me the full model description once. After that, just put on your dang "shoes" or even your "Salomons", but not your Salomon GRX TIVO Gortex grabber sole in grey with black accents shoes."

[WLJ]

Apparently Amazon is doing a series based on Jack Carr's "James Reece" character, to be released in July:

https://youtu.be/UJsT-O8iQTY

I only just recently discovered and started reading the books and am halfway through book 3. From the promo, it appears the series is going to be only loosely based on the books. Without giving spoilers, two characters that were almost immediately killed off in book 1 seem to be prominent characters in the series. It might still work out okay. I liked the "Shooter" series, which was quite different from the books or even the movie.

On the tangent, I am liking the books. Other than holy hell, these retired operators sure do shill for their buddies. The product placement in book 3 is more than annoying. He has to mention something the protagonist is using not once, but like every other paragraph. Reece doesn't just get up in the morning and grab a cup of coffee, he grabs "delicious Black Rifle Coffee". And it's not just once. He'll make the Black Rifle Coffee, he'll drink the Black Rifle Coffee, then he'll put down the Black Rifle Coffee cup. That's just one example. He does the same with holsters and stuff too. Not just giving the brand once, then saying "holster", but giving the brand and model pretty much every time. It wasn't quite as bad in the first two books, but #3 is a freaking SEAL product catalog. 

I have noticed this in other "ex-operator" books as well. It's getting kind of annoying.

Like Paul Harrell

[Ben]

I didn't know Chris Pratt was under this much attack by the progs and snowflakes.

https://screenrant.com/chris-pratt-backlash-terminal-list-show-prove/

I can actually see why MCU fans would want to cancel him, since so many of them are liberal pansies. The article is kinda funny to me though, because the author questions whether Jack Carr fans will want to watch The Terminal List if Pratt is in it. I'm thinking he has zero idea regarding the majority of the demographic that reads Carr's stuff. 

[Bogie]

So, what are  you guys thinking about this? I'm 2/3 of the way through the first episode...

[Ben]

I've only finished episode 1. It appears I was wrong about certain characters not being killed off as they were in the book.

I still don't have enough data though, to see how far from the books they went. I see that the blond reporter (some say Katie Pavlich) has been replaced by diversity. No big problem with the actress so far. We'll see how they do SEDEF (some say Hillary Clinton). The original op seems to have changed a bit, and the hallucination angle is new. I don't know that it makes as much sense as the headaches.

Anyway, it seems pretty good so far, but I'll need to watch more to see if SEAL Jack Carr, or woke Amazon interns won the day (or series). 

[Ben]

Oh yeah, my biggest complaint about the series so far is that they hired the same freakin' cinematographer who filmed the final episode of Game of Thrones. The night scenes are so incredibly dark that I had to go in and manually adjust my TV settings to not be looking at a pitch black screen.

I don't know what this "let's make night scenes too dark for viewers to see" stuff that has been happening the last few years is, but I don't like it. Turn off the artsy fartsy and turn on the damn lights.

[HankB]

Oh yeah, my biggest complaint about the series so far is that they hired the same freakin' cinematographer who filmed the final episode of Game of Thrones. The night scenes are so incredibly dark that I had to go in and manually adjust my TV settings to not be looking at a pitch black screen.

I don't know what this "let's make night scenes too dark for viewers to see" stuff that has been happening the last few years is, but I don't like it. Turn off the artsy fartsy and turn on the damn lights.

It's the visual equivalent of the auditory "let's turn up the background music so people can't hear the dialog."  Same problem of shoddy cinematography with the latest Caped Crusader movie, "The Batman." It wasn't enough to film everything at night, they had to put a sepia tone filter over the lens as well. (Or maybe they did it in the post processing.) And there wasn't much dialog from the hero either - I guess they didn't want to pay the writer by the word.

Speaking of which . . .

. . . Or, for instance, Carr (and I guess SEALs) really like Salomon shoes. Fine. Give me the full model description once. After that, just put on your dang "shoes" or even your "Salomons", but not your Salomon GRX TIVO Gortex grabber sole in grey with black accents shoes."

"Salomons" gets you paid for 1 word. "Salomon GRX TIVO Gortex grabber sole in grey with black accents shoes" gets you paid for 12. And maybe a few extra bucks from the maker for product placement. $$$

[dogmush]

Oh yeah, my biggest complaint about the series so far is that they hired the same freakin' cinematographer who filmed the final episode of Game of Thrones. The night scenes are so incredibly dark that I had to go in and manually adjust my TV settings to not be looking at a pitch black screen.

I don't know what this "let's make night scenes too dark for viewers to see" stuff that has been happening the last few years is, but I don't like it. Turn off the artsy fartsy and turn on the damn lights.

Wife and I watched the first 6 episodes on Amazon yesterday.  Maybe because Ben had primed me to notice, but there was a TON of brand name tactical stuff, with logo's on full display.  Off the top of my head, Eberlestock, BCM, Costa, Toyota LandCruisers, Aimpoint, 5.11, Magpul, Crye, and I probably noticed others that escape me.  There was also some pretty specific dialog:  "Wait, he used his Team pistol? Yeah, I love my Sig" or "This is Boozer's favorite gun, a Kimber 1911"*, and EVERYOPNE has a Cryptex Phone.


It kinda reminds me of the first MHI book, where I thought Larry was a tad "gun guy" in his description of all the weapons.  I think he toned that down in later writing.  In Grimnoir he was precise without being nerdy when describing JMB's later [notional] guns. 

That said, the show is pretty fun.

*That was the only line that broke my suspension of disbelief.  I could buy a Seal preferring a 1911, but no shooter's favorite gun is a Kimber.   

[Ben]

*That was the only line that broke my suspension of disbelief.  I could buy a Seal preferring a 1911, but no shooter's favorite gun is a Kimber.   

 

I've only got two down. I'm trying to do just one an evening since I'm having trouble finding stuff I like right now*.

I'm liking it, but still have nits. I don't know why they eliminated the reporter's and Reese's family history. That connection was important in a background kinda way.

One thing that caught my attention was the cussing. Not that I'm prudish about it, but I don't think Carr dropped the F bomb more than a dozen times in the entire book series so far. With Amazon (as with Netflix) it seems they have some requirement to drop "mother *expletive deleted*er" every two minutes in every one of their originals. I get that snake eaters cuss, but if the real snake eater keeps it to a reasonable amount, you'd think Amazon would as well. Sometimes that overdone "edgy" stuff just kills the continuity for me.


*I just started rewatching "The Last Ship" on DVD. While the final season went a bit off the path, that was an overall great network TV series. Sometimes it's nice to watch something where you can tell the good guys from the bad. 

[HankB]

. . .
*That was the only line that broke my suspension of disbelief.  I could buy a Seal preferring a 1911, but no shooter's favorite gun is a Kimber.   

Not even the one who gets a check from Kimber, or maybe a free gun, ammo, or other consideration for product placement?   

[T.O.M.]

I've read all of the books, but haven't started the Amazon series yet.  I've also become a fan of Jack Carr's podcast...Danger Close...which has some really good interviews of some people with interesting stories.  A couple of his episodes involve Carr reading negative reviews of his books.  He's often taken to task for his product detail, which he explains by saying he is a gear guy, and writes books in the way he would want to read them.  He explains that he often  learns a lot about people based upon the gear they carry and use. 

Now, if I remember right, in the book he doesn't specify that the gun is a Kimber 1911, but just refers to that SEAL being a 1911 guy.  So Kimber may have come from a script writer or was a name tossed out by an on-set armorer.

[Unisaw]

I finished season 1 last night.  I echo the earlier comments about the dark scenes.  I get that Seals like to operate at night but the viewer shouldn't have to guess what is happening.  Several scenes (beyond the Kimber reference  ) required suspension of disbelief but, overall, the show was pretty enjoyable.  And, it was nice to see Jack Carr make a cameo appearance.

[MechAg94]

I have heard good comments about the new series.  I haven't seen it.  I don't currently have Netflix if that is where it is.

[Unisaw]

It’s on Amazon.

[Bogie]

Which is the Carr cameo?

[Unisaw]

Which is the Carr cameo?

Check your PMs in a few minutes.

[Jim147]

I read a story today that said critics hated it but rotten tomatoes score was great. He said that made him move it up to the top of his list for things to watch.

I'll be busy in a way for a week or so. I'll watch as soon as I can.

[Ben]

I have two more to go. It's not five star, but I still like it, especially for something Amazon millennials most certainly had input on regarding changes from the book. I was pretty shocked to see that Amazon did the intestine scene, albeit in a completely different context. In fairness, I keep comparing everything in the series to the book, which likely biases my opinion.

A review:

https://www.techradar.com/news/a-slab-of-barely-heated-red-meat-critics-rip-apart-prime-videos-new-action-thriller

I laugh about it, because if they're doing the "white supremacist red meat" thing for the series, they might be shocked by what's in the books. 

Not that Carr is far right. From interviews I've seen and from his own podcast, and as far as these former snake eater guys go, he appears to be closer to the Black Rifle Coffee / Evan "porno 'stache" Haffner philosophy than to the Warrior Poet Society / John "My wife made me shave my beard" Lovell philosophy.

[WLJ]

I just saw a click bait YT video title that calling it anti-woke and the libs are up in arms over it.
I didn't click on the video

Anyone who's watched it care to comment to that?

[dogmush]

[shrugs] I'm not as sensitive to that stuff as a wokie.

It's a show about a military alpha male type going on a revenge fueled killing spree outside the law, so that's probably not high on their list of good?

It could be argued to be anti-Mexican, as one of the side character bad guys is Mexican, but one of the side character good guys is also Mexican, so a wash?

Cast seems pretty diverse racially and gender-wise.  Not sure why they'd dislike that.

I suspect they just got to the "white military guy with gun BCM Recce-14 MCMR with Aimpoint Micro T-2, Aimpoint 3X-C Magnifier and AN/PEQ-15  is the hero" and started screeching. 

[Jim147]

It was #1 for the weekend. Pratt's second year in a row doing that.

[Ben]

It was #1 for the weekend. Pratt's second year in a row doing that.

I actually think a lot of the negative reviews are only because Pratt is starring in it. A segment of the left really hates him right now.

[Jim147]

Orange hair man bad!