TV-MA | 13 episodes | Thriller | 2025
An inter-agency task force ought to be like an all-star team of law enforcement talent. Special Agent Nathan Blythe (Eric Dane) takes a different approach. He requisitions the misfits who are unlikely to be recalled back to their agencies before the case is closed. Yet they all have the determination to get the job done, even if it means dying in the line of duty. That just might happen to some of them in creator-showrunner-writer Derek Haas’s “Countdown.”
LAPD Detective Mark Meachum (Jensen Ackles) pursues police work like he has a death wish, but he doesn’t; reasons will be revealed later. Agent Amber Oliveras (Jessica Camacho) resents the damage done to her reputation by her deep, immersive undercover assignments. The rumors that dog her are mostly unfair, but not entirely groundless. Much to their mutual surprise, the two troubled law enforcement officers understand and complement each other quite well in the field.
Blythe’s task force represents the first opportunity junior FBI Agent Evan Shepard (Violett Beane) has had to demonstrate her potential. Similarly, Agent Keyonte Bell (Elliot Knight) hopes to finally emerge from the shadow of his late father, a celebrated senior agent. Although LAPD officer Luke Finau (Uli Latukefu) is well liked on the force, the passive cop should perhaps manage his career more proactively.
Rounding out the team, is the second-in-command, Homeland Security Agent Damon Drew (Jonathan Togo). He has Blythe’s full confidence, even though he remains deeply distressed by tragic events in his personal life. In contrast, Blythe pointedly freezes Los Angeles District Attorney Grayson Valwell (Merrick McCartha) out of the investigation, because he intuitively distrusts the camera-seeking political deal-cutter.
Radioactive Smuggling
Apparently, the drug cartels have been smuggling radioactive material into Los Angeles on behalf of a mysterious Belarusian lone wolf terrorist. Flashbacks reveal the ruthless “Volchek” (Bogdan Yasinski) was once a trusted military officer and then a prosperous businessman. He fell from official favor, leaving Belarus in disgrace.
Asterpov, the extravagantly sleazy local Belarusian counsel (Pasha D. Lychnikoff), perversely obstructs the task force’s investigation as best he can. In return, they respond with decidedly undiplomatic tactics that would well suit Agent Jack Bauer in “24.”
Instead of creating a fictional regime, Haas deserves some credit for identifying a real country, Alexander Lukashenko’s oppressive Belarus as a corrupt wild card. This complicates Blythe’s investigation to avoid offending any dictators (and risking access to the markets the bad guys control). Admittedly, braving Belarus’s ire seems like a minimal sacrifice. Nevertheless, it invests “Countdown” with greater realism as a result.
Real Danger
Regardless of the villains’ deliberately murky ideology, the porousness of the southern border and the role cartels play in the unfolding scheme add further topicality to “Countdown.” There is even a targeted assassination of a customs and border control agent, which should remind viewers of the very real dangers they regularly face. In fact, the terrorism scenario is alarmingly credible, even if the decision-making judgement at the character-level is sometimes questionable.
There is also plenty of action during the first season’s initial eight episodes, a largely self-contained story arc (which were provided for review). Most of the fights and chases prominently feature Ackles, who embraces the “edgy cop” persona. Meachum, a military veteran with blue-collar sensibilities, was raised in a hardscrabble desert community near Needles, California, where the investigation soon takes the team.
Ackles also develops terrific chemistry with Camacho’s Oliveras. They generate a lot of heat together, while (mostly) maintaining a professional relationship. Eric Dane is also entertainingly steely as Blythe, in a not-suffering-fools-gladly kind of way. He is a tough boss; it is easy to believe he gets results. Although not as charismatic as Dane, Beane, Knight, and Latukefu are reassuring supporting players, who help solidify the kind espirit de corps that all good police procedurals need.
Likewise, McCartha shamelessly chews the scenery as the ethically slippery DA Valwell. Yasinki is too coldly reserved and calculating as Volchek to viscerally register with viewers. Lychnikoff (who recently appeared as Koltsov, the Russian Arctic commando leader in “Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning”) is gleefully slimy and shifty as Asterpov.
Haas and the battery of directors (including Eric Stoltz) always manage to keep Blythe’s team just one step behind the bad guys. Even though the writing is smarter when devising macro-terrorism schemes than filling in the tactical investigative steps, “Countdown” keeps viewers consistently hooked.
The series works on a procedural level, thanks to the team comradery and the unusually high stakes. Recommended for fans of “24,” even though it does not quite reach the same lofty level of quality.
“Countdown” streams on Amazon Prime Video.
‘Countdown’
Showrunner: Derek Haas
Starring: Jensen Ackles, Jessica Camacho, Eric Dane, Violett Beane, Uli Latukefu
TV Parental Guidelines: TV-MA
Episodes: 13 (approx. 50 minutes each)
Release Date: June 25, 2025
Rated: 3 1/2 stars out of 5
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