A British version of “24” with nakeder Mandys, “Strike Back” comes from American writer-producer Frank Spotnitz (“The X-Files,” “The Lone Gunmen,” “Robbery Homicide Division,” the 2005 version of “Night Stalker”).
I gather that Cinemax is actually airing the second season of “Strike Back.” The first, Spotnitz-free season, with future “Walking Dead” star Andrew Lincoln, hit Britain’s SkyOne about 15 months ago. (This sort of echoes what happened with “Torchwood,” which spent three seasons on the BBC before its fourth season landed on American pay-cable channel Starz.)
a British variation on “24” that offers reasonably competent action scenes, depressingly casual depictions of torture and death, and a comic-book conspiracy story line while also being an efficient nudity delivery system. It’s the kind of show in which an agent doesn’t realize there are terrorists in the hotel lobby because he’s upstairs having it off with the waitress he met 10 minutes ago. … won’t make anyone forget “24” or “MI-5” or even “The Unit,” but it has its pleasures for the aficionado of guns and flesh in exotic locales. …
Those jonesing for "24" may find some comfort in Cinemax's new foray into original content, a hostage-taking, bullets-flying, explosion-rattled special ops drama called "Strike Back." … But it's more methadone than madness; where "24" was the archetypal tale of the lone gunslinger operating within the grim realities of newly revamped military protocol (i.e., torture), "Strike Back" is, at its heart, a buddy movie, a simmering life-or-death bromance between its two male leads: the upright and gorgeously clenched Sgt. Michael Stonebridge (Philip Winchester), who is British, and the morally cavalier Damien Scott (Sullivan Stapleton), who is American.
… bloody and predictable. … In typical “24” fashion, no one can be trusted and double-crosses ensue. In the first two episodes, there are numerous folks skulking around the hotel with rifles and much script-convenient stupidity. …
Strip away the counterterrorism lingo and this is really just a mismatched buddy copshow … Strike Back" does incorporate a few wrinkles regarding its leads, with hints of a larger plot to guide its 10 episodes. Mostly, though, pretty much everyone is reduced to geopolitical stereotypes …
The Pittsburgh Post Gazette says:
… shows off high production values and an intense, fast-paced story reminiscent of "24" or "Sleeper Cell" that occasionally dips into the ridiculous (secret codes; a running conspiracy story; Stonebridge catches a bomb in episode two). … It's too bad the show's graphic nature, especially the bloodshed, is so off-putting as to make the series unwatchable.
… does succeed in wresting plenty of high-level suspense out of these low-aiming scripts—no small miracle. … As the series rolls on to other destinations and newer battles, plot cohesiveness becomes, at best, spotty.
10 p.m. Friday. Cinemax.
