If Chris Pratt fans can’t get enough of The Terminal List‘s military operations gone wrong, off-the-books missions, and powerful people secretly pulling the strings, Paramount+’s Lioness is your next watch. Created by Taylor Sheridan, Lioness exposes the darker side of serving one’s country, where those on the front lines can be blindsided by greater interests that put not only their lives at risk but also the people around them.
Instead of a Navy SEAL commander, Lioness stars Zoe Saldaña as senior CIA case officer Joe McNamara, who also leads the covert Lioness program. Based on a real CIA initiative, the Lioness program sends female operatives to infiltrate the inner circles of designated targets by getting close to the women surrounding them. With the latest season of Lioness officially racking up an impressive 3.9 billion minutes viewed within just eight weeks, there’s all the more reason for The Terminal List fans to check out the series.
What Is ‘Lioness’ About?
In the aftermath of a failed Lioness mission in ISIS-controlled Syria that leaves her undercover operative dead, Joe (Saldaña) faces scrutiny from the CIA for taking drastic measures that nearly expose their involvement. Tasked with finding a replacement, she settles on Cruz Manuelos (Laysla De Oliveira), a Force Recon Marine turned Lioness operative assigned to get close to the daughter of an Iranian terrorist financier.
The show that claimed the most of your answers is the world you were built for. If two tied, both are shown — you’re complicated enough to straddle two Sheridan universes.
You are a Dutton — or you might as well be. You understand that some things are worth protecting at any cost, and that the modern world’s indifference to history, to land, to legacy, is not something you’re willing to accept quietly. You lead from the front, you carry your family’s weight without complaint, and when someone threatens what’s yours, you don’t escalate — you finish it. You’re not cruel. But you are absolute. In Yellowstone’s world, that combination of ferocity and loyalty doesn’t make you a villain. It makes you the only thing standing between everything that matters and everyone who wants to take it.
You thrive in the chaos of high-stakes negotiation, where the money is enormous, the margins are thin, and the wrong word in the wrong room can cost everyone everything. You’re a fixer — the person called when a situation is already on fire and needs someone with the nerve to walk into it. West Texas oil country rewards exactly what you are: sharp, adaptable, unsentimental, and absolutely clear-eyed about what people want and what they’ll do to get it. You’re not naive enough to think this world is fair. You’re smart enough to be the one deciding who it’s fair to.
You are a Dwight Manfredi — someone who has served their time, paid their dues, and arrived somewhere unexpected with nothing but their reputation and their wits. You adapt without losing yourself. You build loyalty through respect rather than fear, though you’re not above reminding people that the two aren’t mutually exclusive. Tulsa King is for people who are still standing when everyone assumed they’d be finished — who find, in an unfamiliar place, that they’re more capable than the world gave them credit for. You don’t need a throne. You build one, wherever you happen to land.
You carry the weight of a system that is broken by design, and you do it anyway — because someone has to, and because you’re the only one positioned to do it without the whole thing collapsing. Mike McLusky’s world is for people who are comfortable operating where there are no good options, only less catastrophic ones. You speak every language: law enforcement, criminal, political, human. That fluency makes you invaluable and it makes you a target. You’ve made your peace with both. Mayor of Kingstown belongs to people who understand that keeping the peace is not the same as being at peace — and who do the job regardless.
Over the seasons, Lioness follows the tense working relationship between Joe and Cruz, with the former putting the latter through hell and back to prepare her for the assignment. But Cruz isn’t the only operative to join the Lioness program. Season 2 introduces Captain Josephina Carrillo (Genesis Rodriguez), who’s assigned to infiltrate a cartel. However, Season 3 takes a different turn from the usual Lioness formula, with Joe herself getting caught in direct danger and having to hope that the CIA reaches her in time before the worst happens.
‘Lioness’ Shares ‘The Terminal List’s’ Taste for Rogue Missions
Image via Paramount+- Image via Paramount+
- Image via Lauren Smith/Paramount+
- Image via Paramount+
- Image via Paramount+
Image via Paramount+
Image via Paramount+
Image via Lauren Smith/Paramount+
Image via Paramount+
Image via Paramount+- Image via Paramount+
- Image via Paramount+
- Image via Lauren Smith/Paramount+
- Image via Paramount+
- Image via Paramount+
Image via Paramount+
Image via Paramount+
Image via Lauren Smith/Paramount+
Image via Paramount+
Image via Paramount+Lioness isn’t afraid to get its hands dirty. In The Terminal List Season 1, Reece’s world falls apart after his platoon is ambushed during a mission and his wife and daughter are murdered in a separate attack. Driven by grief and a thirst for revenge, he compiles a target list of everyone responsible and sets out to kill them. As for Lioness, Joe doesn’t have any personal vendettas, but the loss of her previous Lioness operative, partly due to her failure to properly vet them, and the mission’s ultimate failure motivate her to hit back twice as hard. She needs someone willing to endure the program’s downright problematic and highly triggering training methods, but Joe also has no qualms about sacrificing the operative herself if things go south.
However, despite Joe’s seemingly cold-shouldered attitude toward her agents, which reflects the objective, no-mercy nature of CIA work, she is also a family woman. With a husband and children of her own, running a covert CIA program that the government refuses to acknowledge means her family has little protection if things go wrong. Given how many enemies Joe has made throughout her career, it’s only a matter of time before her family, who already disapprove of her CIA work, becomes a target. And even Joe can’t guarantee that she’ll always be able to protect them.
‘Lioness’ Exposes the Dirty Politics Behind National Security
<<img src="https://static0.colliderimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/stephanie-nur-and-laysla-de-oliveria-lioness.jpg?q=49&fit=crop&w=825&dpr=2" />
Paramount+</figure>
While much of The Terminal List Season 1 follows Reece’s personal quest for vengeance, Season 2 sees Reece pulled back by the CIA to stop a resurgent Al-Qaeda network. The same goes for Lioness, which follows Joe and her team as they conduct counterterrorism operations both inside and outside American borders. Joe believes her work is meant to protect innocent people from potential threats. However, both shows also question how much control these operatives actually have when their missions are linked to larger agendas.
If these thriller shows have shown anything, it’s that politics and business often go hand in hand. Just as Reece discovers a conspiracy involving people who put his team in danger for their own financial gain, Joe learns in Lioness that terrorism isn’t always an isolated threat. Behind these attacks are wealthy third parties who use terrorist groups to manipulate global economics and advance their own interests. With so much at stake, Lioness expands on what The Terminal List also explores — how national security can become a game played by people with too much power, leaving the soldiers on the ground the ones who must risk their lives to deal with the consequences.
Special Ops: Lioness is a Paramount+ original series starring Zoe Saldana and Nicole Kidman. The series centers on a marine and a CIA agent who work together with the daughter of a dangerous terrorist group to destroy the organization. Taylor Sheridan (Yellowstone co-creator) and Jill Wagner created the series, which was directed by Paul Cameron and Anthony Byrne.
Discover more from NAIRAVOICE.COM.NG
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
