‘The Terminal List’ Creator Denies the Show Is ‘Right-Wing Fantasy’: Critics Hate It Because ‘Woke Stuff Isn’t Shoved Into It’
Chris Pratt has been generating headlines this week after celebrating the success of his Amazon Prime Video series “The Terminal List,” which debuted July 1 to abysmal critical reviews. The show has proven to be a hit with viewers, with Nielsen reporting “The Terminal List” earned 1.6 billion minutes viewed in its first week. Pratt celebrated the show’s popularity by sharing to his Instagram story a Daily Mail article with the following headline: “The new ‘Yellowstone’: Chris Pratt’s new Navy thriller ‘The Terminal List’ defies woke critics’ scathing reviews to shoot up ratings chart with 1.6 billion minutes of streams.”
“The Terminal List” is based on a book written by former Navy SEAL Jack Carr, who serves as an executive producer on the series. Carr recently told Fox News (via Mediaite) that critics have panned the show simply because “there’s not this woke stuff that’s shoved into it.” The author maintained the series is not politically-driven, nor is it “woke” or “anti-woke,” but he argued that’s why it has a target on its back since it doesn’t “promote” critics’ agendas.
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Carr took particular issue with The Daily Beast critic Nick Schager, who labeled “The Terminal List” an “unhinged right-wing revenge fantasy.” Variety also panned the series, calling it a “military vanity project for a charisma-free Chris Pratt.”
“We don’t mention right, left, conservative, liberal, none of those things are even mentioned,” Carr said. “The Daily Beast, in particular, their review was quite mean. But they see an American flag and they get upset. Or they see someone who is competent with weapons and has a certain mindset and holds those in power accountable for their actions and they just kind of lose it a little bit.”
“We didn’t make it for critics,” Car added. “What’s important to me and to Chris Pratt was that we made something that would speak to those members of the military who went down range over the last 20 years so they could sit down and say, ‘These guys put in the work and made a show that speaks to me.'”
The way Carr sees it, critics hate the show because it avoids a “woke” agenda. As the author said, “There’s no ‘woke’ or ‘anti-woke,’ but just because there’s not this ‘woke’ stuff that’s shoved into it, then it’s perceived — by critics, at least — as not promoting their agenda, so they’re going to hate it.”
“The Terminal List” is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video. The series co-stars Constance Wu, Taylor Kitsch, Riley Keough, Arlo Mertz and Jeanne Tripplehorn.
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