USA TODAY US Edition

‘Valor’ fails its mission; Boreanaz leads solid ‘Team’

Special ops offers backdrop for new series, with mixed results

- KELLY LAWLER

Valor doesn’t make a lot of sense.

The new CW military drama (Monday, 9 ET/PT, egEE out of four) is about two members of a special ops team who accidental­ly uncover a government conspiracy in a mission gone wrong. It’s a departure for the network, known for young-adult dramas and DC Comics superhero series, and overall it just doesn’t work.

The series is primarily told from the point of view of Warrant Officer Nora Madani (Christina Ochoa), one of the first female helicopter pilots in her unit.

She and Capt. Leland Gallo (Matt Barr) are the only returning members of a mission to Somalia, which led to deaths and the capture of other officers. Through flashbacks, we learn they lied to their superiors about what happened on the mission, and now they work on investigat­ing those who were involved.

Ochoa and Barr do their best to sell the gravitas required for an intense military drama, but Valor can’t nail down a proper tone in its first episode, and its disparate elements clash. It ricochets among Homeland- like sequences of POW interrogat­ions, pop-music-scored sex scenes and bureaucrat­ic squabbles. None of it fits together, and none of it is particular­ly compelling on its own.

CW is known for casting particular­ly attractive young actors, but with Valor the network goes an extra step, offering a female soldier who is excessivel­y made up, with eyebrows so well manicured she might just have stepped off the runway at New York Fashion Week. There’s nothing necessaril­y wrong with this, but it’s incredibly distractin­g on a show that depicts her in training or in combat.

BOREANAZ LEADS ‘TEAM’

Of the three major military dramas arriving on broadcast TV this fall, SEAL Team is the most sincere.

The series (CBS, Wednesdays, 9 ET/PT, eegE) works mostly because it’s not reaching beyond its comfort zone. Following a team of Navy SEALs carrying out covert operations with the aid of the CIA, SEAL Team is an uncom-

The lack of sensationa­lism is what makes ‘SEAL Team’ a stronger entry into the military genre this fall than NBC’s ‘The Brave’ and CW’s ‘Valor.’

plicated action series without twists or unnecessar­y spectacle, at least so far.

TV veteran David Boreanaz ( Bones) plays Jason Hayes, the leader of the Tier One SEALs, and he’s an intense and focused guy not unlike the FBI agent he played for so many years on Fox’s series. Jason’s home life has crumbled because of his dedication to his work, and he’s haunted by the death of a teammate on a recent mission. The cast is rounded out by Jessica Paré ( Mad Men) as a CIA analyst and Max Thieriot as a young and ambitious soldier trying to make it into the Tier One unit.

The drama plays to the strengths of its network and its star. The missions are simple and paint the soldiers as patriotic and unimpeacha­bly good. In last week’s second episode, SEAL Team flirted with bigger questions about war and the state of the world, but all in the service of its core characters. The action is sharp, clean and often

close up, prioritizi­ng the soldiers’ points of view.

The lack of sensationa­lism is what makes SEAL a stronger entry into the military genre this fall than NBC’s The Brave and CW’s Valor. The Brave is flashy while Valor is twisty and illconceiv­ed, and neither has a cast as engaging.

SEAL Team is straightfo­rward, but also enjoyable.

‘THE BRAVE’ IS TOO FAMILIAR

A thrilling setting does not make a thrilling series.

NBC’s The Brave (Mondays, 10 ET/PT, egEE) would do well to learn that. The new military drama follows an elite special-ops team and its support staff in Washington, D.C., which sounds an awful lot like new CBS drama SEAL Team. But unlike the CBS series, The Brave is a rather dull and detached action series (and a low-rated one, too) that sensationa­lizes its subject matter.

Characters are not engaging and lack depth. Anne Heche, the biggest star in the cast, is given a modicum of back story as Patricia Campbell, a CIA honcho grieving from the death of her son in combat. The rest of the cast consists of ciphers and stereotype­s, including the special-ops team leader (Mike Vogel), the woman on the ground team (Natacha Karam) and the one Muslim man on the ground (Hadi Tabbal).

The first few episodes are boring and formulaic. It feels a lot like other thrillers NBC has tried to launch, such as 2014’s Crisis, and it often focuses on its franticall­y typing analysts instead of boots on the ground. In its few action sequences, they’re often bloodless and emotionles­s.

Clearly, the life-and-death world of military ops was an appealing concept this fall, but more than a premise has to back it up. In The Brave, there’s just not quite enough.

 ?? QUANTRELL COLBERT, CW ?? Gallo (Matt Barr) and Madani (Christina Ochoa) investigat­e a government conspiracy in Valor.
QUANTRELL COLBERT, CW Gallo (Matt Barr) and Madani (Christina Ochoa) investigat­e a government conspiracy in Valor.

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