SEAL Team: Heroes with Heart

You’d be forgiven if you assumed that SEAL Team starring David Boreanaz (Buffy, Angel, Bones) would be a symphony of explosions and archetypal American heroics; it isn’t.

Not completely.

If the pilot is any indication, it seems that SEAL Team will take great pains to show that the sacrifices these American warriors come not only at the front of conflict zones across the globe, but on the home-front as well. It seems likely that the show will offer more than just passing insights into their personal lives.

The pilot episode of SEAL Team focuses on Jason Hayes, Chief of a SEAL Team, and his struggles coming to terms with a mistake in his past that he just can’t leave behind.

Boreanaz is a compelling lead, offering some of the same effortless charisma he offered as FBI agent Seeley Boothe in Bones, but here, Hayes is more layered than Boothe was. He is clearly troubled by what he’s seen and done and the gravity of that shows in Boreanaz’s performance. While he is precise, and crisp, it’s as though Hayes is weighed down; anchored by duty, honor, and memory.

Jessica Pare plays a CIA liaison to Hayes’ SEAL team, offering him insight into his mission. While Pare offers a serviceable portrayal of a CIA officer, she isn’t breaking new ground in SEAL Team. She isn’t exactly parroting the performance of dynamic female leads such as Clare Danes or Jessica Chastain, she isn’t taking her character in a new direction, either.

Hopefully she’s able to grow into the role over the first year.

As mentioned up front, SEAL Team, while it contains action sequences, is not wholly an action show. There are certainly moments of excitement when the aforementioned SEALs engage their enemies to accomplish their mission, it wasn’t the central theme of the pilot. More emphasis on the action sequences may come in future episodes, but it wasn’t the focus here.

There was enough promise in the pilot to set the PVR to record SEAL Team going forward, but it will need a compelling story line, in addition to its compelling lead (David Boreanaz) to hold the attention of viewers for an entire season.

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SEAL Team premieres on Global in Canada on Wednesday, September 27th, at 9 pm.