Special Ops: Lioness

Special Ops: Lioness is an American spy thriller television series created by Taylor Sheridan that premiered on July 23, 2023, on Paramount+.
Premise
Force Recon Marine Cruz Manuelos is tasked with befriending the daughter of a terrorist financer who is on the CIA’s kill list.
Cast
Main
Zoe Saldaña as Joe, a CIA officer in charge of the Lioness program in the field
Laysla De Oliveira as Cruz Manuelos, a Force Recon Marine and rookie operative in the Lioness program
Dave Annable as Neil, Joe's husband and a pediatric oncology surgeon
Jill Wagner as Bobby, team leader for the Lioness program's QRF
LaMonica Garrett as Tucker, QRF member
James Jordan as Two Cups, QRF member
Austin Hébert as Randy, QRF member
Jonah Wharton as Tex, QRF member
Thad Luckinbill as Kyle, a CIA officer and Joe’s colleague
Stephanie Nur as Aaliyah Amrohi, the daughter of a suspected terrorist
Hannah Love Lanier as Kate, the teenage daughter of Joe and Neil
Nicole Kidman as Kaitlyn Meade, a high-ranking CIA official in the Lioness program and Joe's boss
Recurring
Michael Kelly as Byron Westfield, the CIA Deputy Director and Kaitlyn's supervisor
Martin Donovan as Errol Meade, Kaitlyn's husband, a high ranking financial investor
Michael Tow as Dr. Hammond, Neil's colleague
Guest
Morgan Freeman as U.S. Secretary of State Edwin Mullins
Jennifer Ehle as Mason
Ray Corasani as Ehsan
Sam Asghari as Kamal
Carla Mansour as Malika
Adam Budron as Sami
Bruce McGill as NSA Advisor Hollar
Sean Avery as Delta Force operator in bar
Bassem Youssef as Asmar Ali Amrohi, father of Aaliyah Amrohi and target billionaire businessman with ties to terrorist organizations
Episodes
Production
Lioness was announced in September 2020 as part of a Paramount+ programming slate unveiling. In February 2022, Zoe Saldaña was cast to star in the series, and joined as an executive producer alongside Nicole Kidman. Laysla De Oliveira joined the cast the following month. In June, Sheridan took over as showrunner of the series from Thomas Brady following the conclusion of the show's writers' room. Casting continued in September, with the additions of Dave Annable, LaMonica Garrett, James Jordan, Austin Hébert, Jonah Wharton and Hannah Love Lanier. In January 2023, Kidman and Michael Kelly joined the cast alongside Morgan Freeman.
Filming began in Mallorca in January 2023. In May 2023, it was announced that the series title was changed from Lioness to Special Ops: Lioness although the title card remained unchanged.
Andrew Lockington composed the soundtrack for the series, having previously worked with Taylor Sheridan in Mayor of Kingstown. Lakeshore Records has released the series' soundtrack.
Inspiration
The series is loosely based on the premise of "Team Lioness", where in Iraq in 2003 the decision was made to send female soldiers out with patrols, aiming to stop insurgents from using women to smuggle material because male US soldiers found it difficult to search Muslim women. These teams found themselves in direct combat situations, in violation of the Combat Exclusion Policy (changed only a decade later), which hindered the soldiers from getting veteran benefits after service.
Reception
The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 53% approval rating and an average rating of 6.1/10, based on 32 reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "Zoe Saldaña provides the energy of a Lioness, but these Special Ops are largely derivative and unconvincing." On Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 56 out of 100 based on 19 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".
Reviewer Mike Hale, writing for the New York Times, wrote that the show "turned out to be a moody, suspenseful, textured genre piece with characters you cared about," and that "Sheridan found a form, the action thriller, that suits him better than the western soap operas and contemporary crime dramas that he has produced up to now." Initially, when only screening the first episode, Hale wrote the show "looks like an awful lot of other counterterrorism thrillers, with a visceral punch to its action and a ticky-tacky, backlot feel." Also based on the first episode, Variety criticised it as "cliché" and "shameless military propaganda".
Accolades
References
External links
on Paramount+
2020s American drama television series
2023 American television series debuts
American spy thriller television series
English-language television shows
Paramount+ original programming
Television series about the Central Intelligence Agency
Television series created by Taylor Sheridan
Television shows filmed in Spain
Terrorism in television