Never leave a Goggins behind.
Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.
History's SIX, a new action-drama centered on counter-terrorism unit SEAL Team Six, isn't here to glorify combat or gloss over the ugliness and messiness of black ops missions, but it's also not offering up anything new.
Premiering Wednesday, January 18th, SIX is, presumedly, what you'd expect. And that may serve you well if you're not looking for mold-breaking TV. You're going to get a tight knit crew of SEALs -- complete with their own doubts, infighting, and homefront troubles -- who are able to rein it all in, push it all aside, and put their lives in each others' hands when a mission comes around.
That's not to say there aren't interesting elements present here in the first episode. For one, the entire crux of this premiere involves one of the team's former members, Walton Goggins' haunted and seething Richard "Rip" Taggart, getting captured by Boko Haram soldiers in Africa. It's not clear how many of the show's initial eight episodes will focus on Rip's rescue, but that's the setup here.
Rip washes out due to personal issues -- plus a huge mistake during a mission in Afghanistan that worked to splinter the group -- and now, as a security merc-for-hire, he sort of stands as this symbol of the lost lamb, even if he also remains a huge point of contention for those still remaining in the unit.
The rest of the team consists of Barry Sloane's God-fearing Bear, Kyle Schmid's naughty-but-noble Caulder, and Juan Pablo Raba's family man (with family bills) Buddha. The series gets points right out of the gate for giving us a nice assortment of characters, but overall the tension and turmoil falls flat. The real-life intensity of combat doesn't translate here in a way that makes it exciting so many of the scenes meant to convey danger just feel like run of the mill shoot-em-up TV.
Goggins, after The Shield and Justified, is no stranger to inner conflict and shades of gray. He's a sublime anti-hero but he's given little to do here in this first episode. Maybe as the series progresses we'll learn more about Rip's darkness, but at the outset here it all just feels empty and formulaic.
The Verdict
SIX doesn't make dumb dramatic mistakes, it's just underwhelming. Everything's fairly cut and dry here, from the characterizations of the heroes to the non-energy put into the villains. The idea to set us up with a rescue mission as the initial premise, and to have Walton Goggins play the wayward soldier in need of saving, adds a nice twist, but overall SIX is pretty bland.
SIX premieres Wednesday, January 18th on History.
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