DAVID WIEGAND Television Action at heart of ‘The Brave’
“The Brave” is yet another new fall show about a team of elite specialists who put themselves in harm’s way to save hostages, kill or capture bad guys, or keep potentially explosive situations from getting worse. In this case, “The Brave” is a team of elite, undercover ops who work for the Defense Intelligence Agency.
Mike Vogel (“Under the Dome”) co-stars with Anne Heche (“Men in Trees”) in “The Brave,” premiering on NBC in an often challenging time slot on Monday, Sept. 25. The series follows the template for action shows but makes the most of it through crisp pacing and realistic action sequences.
Capt. Adam Dalton (Vogel) is ordered by Deputy Defense Intelligence Agency Director Patricia Campbell (Heche) to rescue an American physician, Dr. Kimberly Wells (Alix Wilton Regan), captured by an extremist group in Syria. Their goal is to get to her before she can be executed, but it turns out, there’s a wrinkle involving one of the most ruthless extremist leaders in Syria.
An ensemble cast is key to any TV show about an elite team, whether it be a SWAT team or military. Show creator Dean Georgaris, who wrote the pilot episode, fills in the blanks nicely with Sgt. “Jaz” Khan (Natacha Karam), an expert sniper; the aptly named CPO “Preach” Carter (Demetrius Grosse), who dispenses sermon-like wisdom to his comrades; medic Sgt. Joseph “McG” McGuire (Noah Mills); and intelligence agent Amir Al-Raisani (Hadi Tabbal), a devout Muslim who had a past association with Islamic extremist groups.
We don’t get a lot of backstory on the characters, but we do know that Campbell lost someone very recently and is returning from bereavement leave as the pilot begins.
Although the pilot is set in the Middle East, this isn’t “Homeland”lite. The premise of the show is that Dalton’s team will be dispatched anywhere in the world where its services are needed.