A few weeks ago, TV critics were given advance episodes of “Strike Back,” which returned for a second season this past Friday night.
I made the mistake of taking it with me to a friend’s house for a weekend visit. I could have brought 6 pounds of caviar and it wouldn’t have been as appreciated as four episodes of the best shoot-’em-up you probably aren’t watching.
The Love Interest, who thinks he’s a professional mercenary — which in a way he is, as a lawyer — was so excited when I walked in with the advance copies that we took it to our friends’ house for the weekend.
That was the end of any interaction with any of the men the entire weekend. They brought the four episodes down to the basement and came up occasionally for beer and those other necessary refreshments for armchair assassins.
But you know what? I don’t blame them. “Strike Back” is a crazy, incomprehensible and downright ridiculous show that is so much fun it’s sinful.
While on “24,” Jack Bauer always took the world on single-handedly, which wasn’t very plausible. On “Strike Back,” two guys take on the world single-handedly, which, of course, is much more realistic.
Those guys are Sgt. Michael Stonebridge (Phillip Winchester) and Damien Scott (Sullivan Stapleton). Like all great movie buddy teams, these two are as different as, well, Mel Gibson and Danny Glover in the “Lethal Weapon” movies. One’s a straight by-the-book family guy, the other’s reckless and will cut any corner to get the bad guy.
Think “Homeland” without the brains. This second season, Stonebridge is back in England at an army base, where he can return each evening to hearth and home. He’s not a desk jockey exactly — he’s training soldiers to be him. Or what used to be him last year, when he was in the killing terrorists phase of his career.
His bad boy ex-partner, the American Scott, a womanizing, hard-drinking freelancer, meanwhile, is off saving hostages in Somalia. Guess who can’t stay put once he knows Scott needs him?
Added to the roster this year is the requisite tough-ass woman, Rachel Dalton (Rhona Mitra), who is a newcomer to the diplomatic scene in Kenya but quickly becomes as tough as the boys — and as sweaty.
Luckily for everyone concerned, even when the good guys are trapped in a car with a dozen bad guys shooting thousands of rounds into the windshield, nothing hits anyone, while one well-placed shot by the good guys can take down an army.
Terrific locations, terrific action and so many explosions you’d think fire had just been invented. Like the slogan of the show says so well, “Diplomacy is overrated.”