I Watch TV: Professionals

 

Professionals

Billionaire Peter Swann (Brendan Fraser) tries to launch a satellite, Panacea, which will track disease worldwide, but the rocket blows up. His girlfriend, epidemiologist Grace Davila (Elena Anaya) calls up her ex, mostly-retired mercenary Vince Corbo (Tom Welling) to investigate. Almost immediately they find themselves being attacked and Corbo calls up some of his PMC pals to protect Swann and his family.

Filmed before the covid pandemic, it had unfortunate timing; the second half of the season revolves around an outbreak of some sort of haemorrhagic fever in the Congo and the show was released during summer 2020. Like the people writing near future techno-thrillers in 1988 it was overtaken by events. (The epidemic response was based on how smallpox outbreaks were dealt with during the campaign to eradicate it, though no one says that as the show is more interested in people being kidnapped by local warlords).

There are various sub-plots, some mostly resolved in a single episode (Swann’s daughter is involved with an abusive rapper, and concerned that she might be kidnapped by whoever is behind the rocket launch they spend an episode tracking her down and kidnapping her themselves). Others take longer – Corbo’s brother has fallen foul of an international gangster, so Corbo steals evidence against him which sets some Europol agents on their trail.

It's light-hearted adventure fun with lots of explosives and automatic weapons, except when it isn’t and it’s brutal family drama, murder, slavery and bad mercenaries (unlike the good ones led by Corbo*).

Each episode starts in media res with a stunt (often jumping off somewhere) and then we go back to find out how we got there. It feels, if anything, a little old-fashioned, trying to be a fun adventure and also a gritty drama, and a big idea thriller, and a plotting, back-stabbing mystery. It also has 23 executive producers, which makes me wonder how it got made at all**.

Some of the stunts are good. Some of the jokes are funny. Occasionally one of the leads gets to do some acting. I enjoyed it, despite the many, many flaws built in from the very start.

Watch This: An action thriller TV show made obsolete before broadcast by events outside their control
Don’t Watch This: Even forgiving their inability to forsee the future, it’s just a silly show with fun stunts and a charming cast

 

* It’s worth pointing out that most mercenaries are not just in it for the pay, but choose their causes, or at least their opponents, which does nothing to excuse the violence, mayhem and general lawlessness that follows in their wake.

** In general an executive producer is someone who had the chance to say no to a show.  On the other hand, it’s also a title you hand out that may mean nothing – if you bought the rights to a book then it’s the job title you give the author who may have no input at all – or everything, as this is often the job title of a creator and showrunner. Anyway, either this required a lot of hoops to jump through or they just gave everyone who passed through the office an executive producer job title, or perhaps a bit of both as it’s filmed in a lot of countries and does a lot of different things and each of those need someone to make it work.