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Laysla De Oliveira and Genesis Rodriguez in \u201cLioness.\u201d (Ryan Green\/Paramount+)<\/p>\n
Season 1 leaned into the Lioness program\u2019s unique conceit, at least as interpreted by the TV series: sending female operatives undercover in the orbit of high-value targets, \u201cgoing where no man can\u201d and all that. But whereas nearly all of that freshman run was spent watching Laysla De Oliveira\u2019s U.S. Marine Cruz Manuelos cozy up to the daughter of a terrorist financier, Season 2 spent only a few episodes on U.S. Army helicopter pilot Josephina Carrillo (Genesis Rodriguez) returning home under false pretenses to \u201cturn\u201d her estranged father, a money launderer for a cartel.<\/p>\n
For Season 3, there is no new Lioness to initiate. Instead, Cruz and Josie, along with the rest of Joe\u2019s bad-ass QRF team, are tasked with identifying and neutralizing a ruthless threat that has struck far too close to home for their collective liking.<\/p>\n
Joe\u2019s team has two missions, actually, given that the eight-episode season \u2014 once again written in full by Sheridan, who also reprises his role as wry Delta Force vet Cody Spears \u2014 opens by walloping you with a harrowing sequence that launches one manhunt, before cutting to the \u201cSix Months Earlier\u201d timeline teased above. The shock delivered by that cold open is only rivaled by how the first episode ends.<\/p>\n
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Morgan Freeman, Michael Kelly, Nicole Kidman and Zoe Salda\u00f1a in \u201cLioness.\u201d (Ryan Green\/Paramount+)<\/p>\n
In addition to Salda\u00f1a, De Oliveira and Rodriguez, returning faces include executive producer Nicole Kidman (as Joe\u2019s icy supervisor Kaitlyn Meade), Morgan Freeman (Secretary of State Edwin Mullins), Michael Kelly (CIA Deputy Director Byron Westfield) and Dave Annable (Joe\u2019s husband Neal), plus executive producer Jill Wagner, Thad Luckinbill, LaMonica Garrett, James Jordan, Austin H\u00e9bert, Jonah Wharton and Hannah Love Lanier (as Joe and Neal\u2019s older daughter Kate).<\/p>\n
Martin Donovan also is back as Kaitlyn\u2019s husband Errol, a fantastically enigmatic financial investor who reliably and oh-so-gently drops mind-blowing truth bombs about geoeconomics between sips of morning coffee on the patio. He\u2019s been a scene stealer since Season 1.<\/p>\n
New to the mix for Season 3 are Ian Bohen (\u201cYellowstone\u201d) as Grady, a Delta Force operator\/K9 handler who is skilled in battlefield tactics \u2014 content warning: doggos in peril! \u2014 and Ukrainian actress Elizaveta Neretin (\u201cMayor of Kingstown\u201d) as an international operative. Of the two, Neretin is showcased best in the three episodes made available for review.<\/p>\n
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Ian Bohen, Sandi Todorovic, and LaMonica Garrett in \u201cLioness.\u201d (Emerson Miller\/Paramount+)<\/p>\n
In its first season, \u201cLioness\u201d was a serviceable and frankly sexy proof of concept; Season 2 evolved into something far more kinetic, off-setting its sadly truncated Lioness arc with an action-packed, finale set piece that rivaled many a motion picture. Season 3 has plenty of guns a-blazing and doors being kicked \u2014 including, timely enough, an extraction sequence set in war-torn Ukraine \u2014 but it also slows its roll in well-chosen places to carefully and smartly unpack the delicacy of the operations being conducted in the two timelines.<\/p>\n
It is here where \u201cLioness\u201d continues to excel, above and beyond its high-octane action scenes. While I cannot personally vouch for the accuracy of the spycraft tactics and strategy laid out by the CIA characters, the fact is Sheridan\u2019s scripts and cast sell you on every syllable being said. To cite one example, Deputy Director Westfield in Episode 2 initiates a hushed restaurant confrontation that will chill you as much as it does the Russkies sitting opposite his CIA shot-caller. Episode 3 then serves up a lesson in the forever-tenuous United States-Russia-China coexistence that is so perfectly, if painfully, illustrative, you\u2019ll hear a lightbulb flick on over your head.<\/p>\n
Such dialogue is so confident in its specificity, there\u2019s never the sense you\u2019re getting some \u201cTradecraft for Dummies\u201d version. Sheridan counts on you to follow along, and the viewer in turn is rewarded with a wholly immersive story.<\/p>\n
For all its strengths, \u201cLioness\u201d absolutely can fall prey to its own formula at times. I\u2019m pretty sure each season premiere has (vividly) shown Joe and Neal in the throes of passion, to suggest how steadfast their oft-tested marriage is. (Relatedly, any given viewer can probably recite the couple\u2019s frequent \u201cYour job, or our family?\u201d argument from memory.) The QRF team members continue to share an amusing jocularity in their banter, but actual character development for anyone beyond Wagner\u2019s Bobby remains nearly non-existent.<\/p>\n
Of the Season 3 performances, Salda\u00f1a once again shines \u2014 not because of Joe\u2019s explosive ferocity, which was well-displayed in Season 2, but because of the greater but quiet consideration she must give every move made in Season 3. Kidman and Kelly continue to exude a dangerous, \u201cWhatever it takes\u201d energy in every scene they get; Luckinbill has more to do this time, and dicier notes to play, as Kyle pulls out all the stops to ID an enemy; and Annable is given his most complex material to date in what at times has risked being a Forsaken Husband role. No, his and Salda\u00f1a\u2019s characters go to some of their darkest places yet, in a season that may very well get you wondering if it will be the final one.<\/p>\n
\u201cLioness\u201d Season 3 premieres Sunday on Paramount+.<\/p>\n
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