Soon Cruz is being briefed by Joe and establishing an antagonistic personal dynamic with her that may yet – and I’m going to go out on a limb here, as only the first episode was made available for review – evolve into a relationship of mutual respect. Raargh! Marines are the best! American exceptionalism lives! This is Top Gun, but without planes! Mission Impossible, but with girls! Jacqueline Ryan, if Jack Ryan is an immediately identifiable enough spy thriller brand for that joke to work. “I have no life, sir,” she replies, and he – and I suspect a large proportion of the audience at home – responds immediately: “You do now.” Is that an endeavour you wish to pursue?” She could be one of the rare few who makes a difference individually rather than as part of the mighty marine machine, but she will have to give up the life she knew and walk away. After that she is called into her superior’s office and manages to answer with a straight face the question: “We are strong. We know she is good because we have seen her scoring off even the male charts for physical prowess in training, and acing all the mental tests. Cruz Manuelos (Laysla De Oliveira), who literally crashed through a recruitment office door when running from her abusive boyfriend, and discovered her calling. As luck would have it, there is a perfect candidate coming up through the ranks. Joe must now recruit a new woman for the team. Nicole Kidman as Kaitlyn Meade in Special Ops: Lioness. Kidman is kept largely in shadow, but whether this is to increase the sense of mystery about her, or because, when we do see her, it is clear that her face is now the product of an extraordinary set of choices for anyone whose livelihood might be said to depend upon the convincing expression of human emotion, I do not know. She is duly hauled in for a debriefing, where her boss (Kidman) stands up for her because girl power. We are introduced to Joe as she orders a strike on a compound in which one of her team has just been discovered by Islamic State, and is about to face a brutal death at their hands long before an extraction mission can be mounted. Her Lionesses are an undercover all-female unit dedicated to befriending the wives, girlfriends or daughters of high-value terrorist targets and then either getting them to betray the CIA’s wanted men, or simply gathering enough intel from the laydeez that the undercover marine can do it herself. She is also a wife – to a supportive husband, Neil (Dave Annable) – and a mother of two, only the eldest of whom hates her, so she is doing very well. Saldana is Joe, an experienced marine in charge of the Lionesses.
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