Militaristic revenge with a slight nuance.
Broadcast date: Wednesday, November (Apple TV+) throw: Luke Evans , Michelle Hausmann , Jessica Ann Collins, Martina Guzman, James Udom, Maria Del Rosario, Alejandro Firth, Hu Ann Pablo Rabar, Bradley WhitfordCreator: Mark Boll
Through the first half 10 – Season 1, it may be too early to know whether Boal’s efforts to improve a genre whose followers are content to remain crude and violent will pay off. By far, I appreciate the effort and willingness to at least dig a little under the surface more than the execution.
Prince (Michelle Huisman) and Bambi (Luke Evans) are Special Forces buddies, trained comrades in arms Experienced in entering foreign countries, doing the impossible and getting out safely. They’re also about to become brother-in-law, as Prince is getting married to Bambi’s sister, Amber (Jessica Ann Collins). A lavish wedding at Prince’s family estate — his father (Bradley Whitford, who steals the scene in a mostly cameo scene) is a wealthy industrialist with military connections of his own — The wedding was upstaged when Bambi and Prince had to travel to Afghanistan early for their mission. The next morning, much to Amber’s chagrin.
After the boys have endured some international adversity, it’s time for Amber to travel to Colombia, where she’s researching the properties of hallucinogens, a drug recovery method. The trip doesn’t go well either, as Amber is taken hostage by rebels who suspect her motives. They didn’t know, at least not at first, about Prince and Bambi, nor did they know that Amber wasn’t a wallflower herself.
On the face of it, the Echo 3 could easily be a two-hour movie. If the bad guy pokes two bears with a specific set of skills instead of one, it’s basically Taken. That approach won’t give Boal the breathing room he enjoys here, though. So we got an extended fancy wedding that helped establish not only our main characters, but the somewhat one-off characters in their world. Amber had the opportunity to give an entire TED talk on addiction—it happened in Amber and Bambi’s blue-collar rural families—and why cultures with shamanic traditions associated with tripping don’t have addiction problems. A chance to see how Bambi and Prince deal with the Colombian government bureaucracy, showing why the genre’s traditional trope of Liam Neeson (or Chris Pratt as his TV counterpart) just goes somewhere It is unbelievable that a place and start killing people at will. It allows preparation and strategy to take precedence over indiscriminate shooting and throat slits in rescue operations. Most importantly, it meant time to make a full-length series that focused entirely on Amber, her captor and a cellmate played by Franka Potente.
Patient and methodical texture Echo 3 Reminds me of Amazon’s instead of The Terminal List ZeroZeroZero, probably only people Watched, but six of them liked it. The Echo 3 directors, led by Pablo Trapero, Claudia Llosa and Boal, got their value from the Columbia location shoots. With architectural and physical geography in their own right, Trapero and the cinematographer team establish an immediate visual language, often placing human evil against the backdrop of beautiful mountains or verdant river valleys.
Sometimes Trapero shoots epic sweeps and action sequences that must have whizzing bullets and soaring helicopters, though the camera is often aimed at intimate actors who border on uncomfortable.
With character touches like an indescribable accent and hints of alcoholism, Bambi is the more dynamic of the two leads, while Evans adds the necessary gruffness swagger. Tracking Huisman’s performance is harder as Prince is being groomed to be a future statesman (Kate Burton plays a senator offering advice) and the gap between the silver-spoon rich kid and the super-soldier has never been been confronted exactly. Collins (The Nine, Rubicon) is a frequent TV wife/girlfriend who has already landed a series of worthy Emotional variety and sweaty, muddy danger, she shines when asked to host standalone episodes all alone.
Much of the series is in Spanish, while the standout side of the story includes Martina Gusman as the hard-nosed reporter and Sofia Buenaventura and Maria del Rosario as the two main rebels By.
With The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty, Boal Demonstrated ability to deliver scripts that combine suspenseful urgency with context derived from his journalistic background. Feat-like elements were there for half of the first season of Echo 3, but so far, they’re free-floating rather than meshing. Provides details about FARC and the cartel’s operations in Colombia (and the SEBIN intelligence service in Venezuela), but without much depth. Some members of the Colombian military and the rebel crew have personalities or hints of backstory, but are not real people. Meanwhile, the various missions to save Amber hang in the balance without any overall momentum or built-up tension. I’m curious to see if this is all really good stuff or just gratifying well-meaning wishes.
