There have been two types of reactions to the Chris Pratt thriller, “The Terminal List.” Viewers who don’t want or don’t care about wokeness in their entertainment generally loved it. Those who either disregard shows that aren’t woke enough or who fear being canceled themselves if they like an unwoke show hated it. This is why on Rotten Tomatoes, honest viewers loved it and gave it a 95% rating while critics hated it, serving up a 39%.
The audience adoration was well-deserved because it’s an extremely entertaining series. Critics were compelled to give it bad reviews even if they liked it because from the start, the show was getting targeted by cancel culture. Paid critics hate getting hit by cancel culture so they manufactured flaws that didn’t really exist. That’s not to say the show was perfect, but it was quite enjoyable and completely devoid of wokeness.
It follows a Navy SEAL played by Pratt who goes for a bizarre ride from the opening scenes on a doomed mission all the way through to its climax eight episodes later. It’s a thriller with a creative plot and an appropriate mix of drama and action throughout. Well-directed and well-acted, this should have been a slam dunk. But there are no LGBTQIA+ characters. The closest they get to having strong characters played by persons of color are three or four side characters and a Chinese-American female journalist.
The show was not overtly “conservative.” It simply wasn’t woke. For that, cancel culture has come after it hard.
Based on its tremendous success, it should have already been renewed for a second season. It outperformed “Reacher” and “Jack Ryan,” both of which were renewed by Amazon immediately after release. Is fear of cancel culture holding Amazon back from pulling the trigger on “The Terminal List”?
Last month, the show’s creator warned it wasn’t going to be woke. According to IndieWire:
“There’s no ‘woke’ or ‘anti-woke,’ but just because there’s not this ‘woke’ stuff that’s shoved into it, then it’s perceived — by critics, at least — as not promoting their agenda, so they’re going to hate it,” Carr said. “We don’t mention right, left, conservative, liberal, none of those things are even mentioned.”
Carr called out a Daily Beast review that likened the series to an “unhinged right-wing revenge fantasy.”
“The Daily Beast, in particular, their review was quite mean,” Carr commented. “But they see an American flag and they get upset. Or they see someone who is competent with weapons and has a certain mindset and holds those in power accountable for their actions and they just kind of lose it a little bit.”
Carr summed up, “We didn’t make it for critics. What’s important to me and to Chris Pratt was that we made something that would speak to those members of the military who went down range over the last 20 years so they could sit down and say, ‘These guys put in the work and made a show that speaks to me.’”
When a show of this caliber and success is held up, we have to look to the key players to see if they’re to blame. They’re not. Everyone from producers to directors to Pratt himself have talked excitedly about a new season. The show is based on a book series and it’s being reported that they already have the rest of the series plotted out and ready to go. What’s the holdup?
The show doesn’t hate America. It doesn’t pay Hollywood tribute to the LGBTQIA+ mafia. It follows a strong straight White male with guns. For these things, Americans generally loved it. The woke did not. If this show somehow doesn’t get picked up for another season, we’ll be able to blame cancel culture and their tiny but vocal group of wokesters.
