SEAL Team

SEAL Team makes a strong effort to bring the human element of the fight against amorphous terrorists to the broadcast audience. And to the show’s credit, the emphasis of the show is less on its gung-ho action sequences than it is on the close-knit team of people conducting those complicated missions. There’s an attention to detail about military life and forays into faraway lands that lends an atmosphere of the appreciably romantic. And by the end of the pilot, the ensemble feels rock-solid.

To its credit, SEAL Team attempts to examine the home life of the military men, but most of the story is devoted to action rather than drama. The action has a gritty “Zero Dark Thirty” look to it, but when the show does focus on the domestic side, it doesn’t dive as deep as History’s “Six,” another show about SEALs. ... It’s solid, if not going into new territory.

The tactical precision and comms banter suggest Call of Duty adaptation, which could work with a cast this solid, and Neil Brown Jr is especially fun as a no-bull soldier. But the show's portrayal of modern warfare is too simplistic. [29 Sep, 2017, p.54]

The drama plays to the strengths of its network, and its star. The missions are simple and paint the soldiers as patriotic and unimpeachably good.

The new series SEAL Team typifies the CBS procedural: by-the-numbers, safe and predictable enough to satisfy even the most casual viewer. That’s not to say that the military drama, starring David Boreanaz (late of “Bones”), doesn’t have its plusses. It does, in that meat-and-potatoes, formulaic kind of way that neither surprises or disappoints.

While SEAL Team is very good with its combat scenes and the staging that goes with them, its interpersonal drama is a problem. The dialogue is particularly unfortunate when it comes to the wives and girlfriends, though the women in combat (including Trucks and Paré) have managed to escape the clunky and stilted scripting. Ultimately, the show manages to eke out some good drama during the missions themselves, broaching a variety of moral quandaries and exploring how to work the system while still remaining inside of it.

A serviceable entry in the growing canon of troops-on-the-ground TV shows, surpassing NBC’s entry “The Brave” and adding just enough visual flair and human connection to make David Boreanaz fans happy.

The best moments in this show are when Hayes is prepping for combat with his team. ... Where SEAL Team is weakest is when any scene turns away from fighting enemies to a discussion of fighting enemies.

I think many viewers will be prepared to follow Boreanaz and his team into weekly skirmishes. I won't, but I was able to appreciate how competently SEAL Team does its job.

It’s similar to History’s “Six,” which aired earlier this year, as well as CBS’s own 2006-09 show “The Unit.”

It feels to me like CBS wanted a military heroism series, and the producers provided one, and here it is.

[Seal Team] does an acceptable job with a cliché-ridden formula.

Just don’t expect much more than Boreanaz’s command presence in Seal Team. You’ll see where it’s going long before it gets there, no matter how far off the missions might be.

Virile but vulnerable team leader? Check. Young, talented but wild team member? Check. Prim civilian female supervisor concealing a smokin' hot body under her power pants suit, possibly to be deployed at any moment? Check. Team-wide ability to shoot 12,000 Muslim hordes with seven bullets? Check.