‘BRAVE’ UNREAL,
Plausibility suffers collateral damage on `Brave'
Hit them harder than they hit us.
That's just one of the takeaways from “The Brave,” the first but not the last new militarythemed series debuting, this one on NBC tomorrow night.
Anne Heche (“Aftermath”) plays Defense Intelligence Agency Deputy Director Patricia Campbell. Her son died in combat 10 days ago, but she's back at work, handling the latest crisis to roil her department. A compassionate surgeon working with Doctors Without Borders has been kidnapped outside of Damascus, Syria.
From her high-tech command center in Washington, D.C., Patricia calls in her special ops undercover team — think “Mission: Impossible” if Phelps and company fought terrorists overseas.
Capt. Adam Dalton (Mike Vogel, “Under the Dome”) leads a squad that includes sniper Sgt. Jasmine “Jaz” Khan (Natacha Karam, “Homeland”), CPO Ezekiel “Preach” Carter (Demetrius Grosse, “Westworld”), combat medic Sgt. Joseph “McG” McGuire (Noah Mills, “2 Broke Girls”) and intelligence officer Agent Amir Al-Raisani (Hadi Tabbal). Amir is a devout follower of Islam, taking time to worship on a prayer rug.
The inclusion of a Muslim military man and hero sets “The Brave” apart from its ilk, and pretty much all of prime time. For that if nothing else, “The Brave” breaks ground.
In D.C., Patricia is pretty much able to follow the squad to the bathroom and back, thanks to their hightech tools, managed by Missions Coordinator Hannah Archer (Sofia Pernas, “Jane the Virgin”) and cultural specialist Noah Morgenthau (Tate Ellington, “Quantico”).
Fearing the doctor has been kidnapped for ransom, the D.C. specialists go about fabricating a wealthy online background for the doctor. On the streets in Syria, Adam warns his team, “Keep your head on a swivel. Anyone could be a hostile.”
Their plan seems to go off the rails when a key figure in the kidnapping takes off with a team member.
Then Jaz rewards Adam's faith in her by demonstrating her almost supernatural ability with a gun, making a shot that would seem impossible.
“You're the only CO I've ever had who looks at me and doesn't see a woman first,” Jaz says to her commander.
The motive for the surgeon's kidnapping turns out be something far different than the team expected, and it creates a thorny dilemma for all involved: Kill a madman and chalk the surgeon up to collateral damage or rescue the surgeon and allow a psychopath to go free who will most assuredly kill again.
If you're like anyone on this gung-ho team — or anyone who has ever watched an hour of TV — you'll recognize a third choice.
The pilot ends on an odd note, a disquieting, macabre cliffhanger plucked from recent headlines.
“The Brave's” patriotism and its approach to dealing with threats to Americans is cathartic. Plausible? You'll have to find another series for that.