RISKY MISSION
History’s ‘Six’ blends fierce combat with soapy drama
`Six” mixes gripping combat with flimsy characters. It's like a CBS show with great military advisers. The new History drama from Academy Award-nominee William Broyles Jr. (“Apollo 13”) and David Broyles, a military special operations veteran, focuses on Navy SEAL Team Six, fierce warriors whose personal lives are a mess.
The premiere tonight opens in September 2014 with the SEALs under heavy fire in Afghanistan. Their search for a notorious terrorist takes an unexpected turn when they find an American.
When Team Six leader Richard “Rip” Taggart (Walton Goggins, “Vice Principals,” “Justified”) takes drastic action, the team is roiled — and seemingly splintered forever.
In the present, Ricky “Buddha” Ortiz (Juan Pablo Raba, “Narcos”) is getting ready to make his own exit from the team. His wife is pressuring him to bring home more money to support their family and he can earn more in the private sector. Joe “Bear” Graves (Barry Sloane, “Revenge”) still grieves the loss of his first child, and now his wife is pressuring him to try again. Alex Caulder (Kyle Schmid, “Copper”) is confronted by a teenage daughter he doesn't know anything about.
They all come together when Rip is captured by the Boko Haram in Nigeria. His life has deteriorated
since that ill-fated mission, and he's hungover on a private security detail when Boko Haram strikes a school for girls, taking headmistress Na'omi Ajimuda (Nondumiso Tembe, “True Blood”) and her charges.
Rip's former soldiers have to put aside their own problems — and their beefs with each other — to rescue him. What they don't know is that an old enemy is watching all the way from Dubai and sees a chance to finally get some bloody revenge.
“Six's” pacing is ragged. While tonight's episode is balanced, next week tips to the personal side. Bear and his wife end up at a fertility clinic for a sequence that seems to exist only to test the limits of History's censors. (It involves Bear, an X-rated film and a cup. Gosh, no, thank you.) The Feb. 1 episode finally reveals in copious flashbacks how Rip's life fell apart and what drove him from the team.
There is some smart attention to detail. Terrorists catfish and recruit lonely teenagers on Facebook. The Big Bad communicates with a superior in a video game chat. The intense combat sequences are almost documentary-worthy.
Goggins adds another flawed man to his lengthy resume. Tembe is impressive as a teacher willing to give herself over to save her girls from sexual assaults. The rest of the cast ranges from competent to competent line readers.
If you're doing the math at home, add shocking violence to a side of soap opera and you're left with “Six.” At the end of the night, that may not be enough for you.