Strike Back: Cinemax Season One

Originally developed as a British action series about international intelligence agents infiltrating enemy organizations and stopping terrorist threats around the globe using a mix of spy-craft and violence, Strike Back was reworked as a co-production between Britain's BSkyB cable channel and Cinemax, and relaunched with a new cast (the version presented here). Philip Winchester stars as Sgt. Michael Stonebridge, a British agent in the super-secret covert Section 20, and Sullivan Stapleton costars as former (dishonorably discharged) Delta Force member Damien Scott, who is drafted to help out when a colleague is captured by terrorists in Pakistan. Also on hand are Amanda Mealing as Section 20 leader Eleanor Grant, and Eva Birthistle as veteran officer Kate Marshall, while guest stars include Jimi Mistry, Liam Cunningham, and Iain Glen. Although the show has been compared to 24, Strike Back plays more like a supercharged MI-5 by way of a Bourne movie, with high-energy action, lots of gunplay and explosions, maverick field operatives, politically-minded commanders, and loads of conspiracies and double-crosses. While lacking the intelligence or complexity of, say, a top-notch HBO drama, Strike Back is reasonably clever and delivers plenty of well-executed action sequences, nudity and sex, and gritty violence. Compiling all 10 episodes from the 2011 debut season, extras include episode commentaries, with the Blu-ray release adding bonus DVD and digital copies. Recommended. (S. Axmaker)