Lioness - TV Series Review

Lioness is inspired by the story of the real CIA agent Joe, who has to balance her career and family life along with her work as the head of the Lioness program. The action of the program entails enlisting Marine Raider Cruz in various terrorist networks to reveal a raw and realistic embellished environment of terrorism, espionage, and where there is quite often crossing of the boundaries between work and personal life.

Loose threads that run through the series include honour, integrity and personal and national identity in the midst of espionage. The show has a thriller feel with intermittent action sequences, presumably to keep the tension up. Ethically blurry territory and personal complexities that are vital aspects of spying are analysed thoroughly, making for a profound and engaging plot.

Both Zoe Saldana and Nicole Kidman provide captivating acting to the series . Saldana again offers a tough character, portraying Joe as a strong-headed person to happen with Kidman’s cool Kaitlyn Meade. Laysla De Oliveira deserves special mention as Cruz, the young marine who evolves into an undercover operative, Layered performance and ambiguity of her character gives meat to the film. The big cast also had an impressive acting that brought strong and realistic story conveyances in the series.

John Hillcoat, Stephen Kay, and Anthony Byrne are directors of this series; the series is a true mix of action & drams. Their writing approach meshes well is rather to set original and substantially antagonistic paceplot. The direction keeps it fast and furious but there is always room for some calmness or slow motion making the character development all the more rich.

Music works well with the story by providing the sound effect during specific scenes of tension or repetition of emotions. Used at strategic points throughout all the series, it assumes an extra added tension that correlates with the climactic drama.

An effective aspect is cinematography filming locations that are beautiful and yet dangerous at the same time. The lens is maintaining Joe’s emotional instability and relates them to the disarray represented in her professional sphere, and visually, to the themes of the series.

Production design aptly captures the spy atmosphere ranging from the actual appearance of CIA offices to the realistic vibes of spy operations. Specifically, sets are designed to create an impression of chaos and anticipation.

This is well illustrated in Lioness where special effects are well used to augment the actions scenes without completely dominating the movie. Making use of effects is done deliberately and with care, such that realism is never compromised anywhere.

While the pacing is fast, the editing is very good so the audience never gets lost in assumptions or confused by what is actually being presented to them. Consistent cuts do not produce opacity nor disrupt the flow or focus of the story; rather, they construct complex storylines without complication.

Thus, Lioness keeps a tempo that matches its spy story motifs. The rhythm is created and constantly switches between action scenes and thinking man’s scenes so as to sustain the viewers’ attention.

Discrimination on dialogue is as usual, tight and purposeful, using dialogue to give exposition while characters ruminated. It is effective with dialogue being used to present layers of character motivation and societal themes briefly.

While Lioness has high performance and director grade, it has a tendency to use clichéd narrative structures associated with espionage genre and may be easily guessed to veterans of that genre. In essence, while all character arcs are engaging, some of them could use more sophisticated depictions.

In Lioness, the combination of action and drama with magnificent actors and a solid story will leave no one indifferent. First and foremost, it provides the outsiders with the themes of the television show as its portrayal of moralities within the realm of espionage leaves one with something to think about as far as the blurred line between following orders and one’s own conscience is concerned. If you are interested in the oversimplified ideas of undercover workings this is a favorite to watch.