The creator of the highly popular Amazon Prime show “The Terminal List,” starring actor Chris Pratt, opened up last week about the true “politics” of the series while warning against outside politicization.
The fast-paced, testosterone-infused thriller has notably scored sky-high reviews with the general audience but has taken a beating from mainstream critics, some of whom clearly dislike the show for political reasons. The Daily Beast, for example, deemed it “an unhinged Right-wing revenge fantasy,” while a Variety review called the series “a dour, miserable sit, one that would be tough to take as a two-hour film, and has been inexplicably ‘roided up to eight hours.”
To showrunner David DiGilio, though, “The Terminal List” is not inherently “a political show” — though critics have tried to paint it that way.
“I will tell you the one bummer for me about the critical response is that it feels like it’s trying to politicize the show,” DiGilio told Slash Film. “People from both sides of the aisle made the show.”
“The most important thing was making sure that we authentically portrayed the warrior ethos from all sides,” he continued. “We have people who have lived it and we have people who are coming into it and observing it through Katie, through Tony Layun, played by JD Pardo. On the other side, you have Reece, you have Ben, Hartley, all of these people who have lived inside it.”
“And so, it’s not a political show,” DiGilio said. “It is a show that is about an authentic experience that does not get portrayed very much on screen these days, which is really too bad and needs to be portrayed more, and that was the only thing.”
“If you don’t come in trying to politicize it, it’s just an awesome ride and an incredible look at a character who is a massive character,” DiGilio added. “James Reece [the leading character] has an enormous following, and is an incredible portrayal of that warrior spirit. We’re really pumped about it, because it’s really connecting with people.”
“I think if we touch on any politics, it is the politics of deployment,” he continued. “Twenty years of war. Twenty years of escalating the workload of special operations. We have so many people who don’t even think about it and maybe choose not to, and that’s a cautionary tale right there.”
“It’s important if we’re living in the age of authenticity and representation on screen to honor that military authenticity, military experience as part of that. It’s important for both sides to think about.”
“The Terminal List” has scored high markings with viewers, even if critics have trashed it. Currently, the show boasts a 95% Rotten Tomatoes audience approval score, with a low 40% from mainstream critics.
Rotten Tomatoes
“Oh, it’s been epic,” the showrunner said of the past week. “Absolutely epic. The fan response has been bonkers, and I think it was just announced that the show was the number one show on Prime Video last weekend, so it beat ‘The Boys,’ which is nuts.”
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