As the first installment of the evolvingHas Fallenfranchise made for television,Paris Has Fallendelivers a strong and promising foundation in its new medium. Series creator Howard Overman ofMisfitsacclaim takes the reins ofthe Gerard Butler-led movie franchise that collectively brought in $523 millionat the worldwide box office across three films. WhileButler plans to return forNight Has Fallen, the upcoming fourth feature film in the series, theHas Fallenfranchise has proven its capacity to work in an episodic format with its latest offering.
Paris Has Fallen
Cast
Paris Has Fallen follows a protection officer and an MI6 operative as they join forces in the aftermath of a terrorist attack. Suspecting a mole, they race against time to uncover a larger conspiracy that threatens the safety of Paris.
There are moments inParis Has Fallenthat are full-bodied and cinematic. It uses its extended runtime to lean into its genre rather than inflate it with senseless filler and needless subplots. From its opening scene, the series presentssweeping cinematography and well-executed action choreography that mesh seamlessly with a hard-hitting, no-frills screenplayfull of unexpected takedowns and creatively orchestrated gunfights. LeadingParis Has Fallen’scastand plot is Jacob Pearce (Sean Harris), a battered veteran left for dead by his own country enacting his relentless brand of vengeance and justice.
Paris Has Fallen’s Non-Stop Action & Gripping Suspense Make It Intensely Bingeable
The Series Ideally Blends Movie Theater Quality With Streaming Sensibility
Paris Has Fallenis a deeply engrossing, action-packed, and highly bingeable series with one of the year’s best TV villains in Sean Harris. Despite its consistent flow of action-oriented setpieces that typically arrive in the form of elaborateJohn Wick-esque gunfights, the series is firmly grounded in reality.Paris Has Fallendoesn’t need to exaggerate its classic hero vs. villain conflict with extreme action genre caricaturesbased on an outdated good vs. evil dynamic to maintain interest.
The two protagonists, Tewfik Jallab’s Vincent and Ritu Arya’s Zara, develop a natural chemistry that refreshingly avoids diverting too deeply into irrelevant family backgrounds or relationship statuses. WhileParis Has Fallenis intentionally derivative of its Butler-led feature film predecessors, the series offers some notable surprising elements, particularly in itsslew of creative combat scenes, some of which can be deceivingly gory and at times nearly comedic.
Paris Has Fallenexcels at capturing the blockbuster feel and big-budget scope of theHas Fallenmovies in its more limited small-screen format.
The series excels at capturing the blockbuster feel and big-budget scope of theHas Fallenmovies in its more limited small-screen format. It’s anideal blend of movie theater quality with an at-home-streaming sensibility. The plot is poignantly straightforward, which aligns well with the establishedHas Fallenbrand. The series avoids the trappings of going off-track with a high-concept ideological narrative and does not waver from its basic and effective revenge story roots.
Sean Harris Brilliantly Adds Chilling Yet Accessible Depth To His Revenge-Driven Antagonist
Harris’s Jacob Pearce Is One Of His Most Naturally Compelling & Nuanced Villains
If there can only be one reason to watchParis Has Fallen, it’s Harris' perfectly cast antagonist in a performance that deserves every second of recognition it receives. The plight of Jacob Pearce – a former soldier in the elite French Foreign Legion whowitnessed all of his fellow soldiers die and was left to be tortured by enemy forces– is inherently tragic. We can feel for Pearce, and perhaps even root for him in some ways, despite his bouts of domestic terrorism on capital soil in the country he once swore to defend.
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Pearce is undeniably a monster, but one who can be understood, pointing a target at the nationalists who essentially made him that way by turning the other cheek when he needed them most. Through flashbacks,Paris Has Fallendisplays how Harris devolved into his villainous state after being physically and psychologically scarred by the inaction of his country’s leaders. Harris masterfully captures the dichotomy between the soldier Pearce once was and the terrorist he became with unmatched brevity and conviction.
TheHas Fallenfranchise created Pearce with a humanistic quality, ultimately making him more compelling than Harris’s Mission: Impossible villain, Soloman Lane.
While Pearce himself can feel like a franchise expansion based on Harris' Soloman Lane from theMission: Impossiblefilms, there is at least one key distinction between the two chilling villains.Pearce has greater emotional depth than Lane and a more accessible villain origin storythat better earns our sympathy to a palpable degree. Lane, on the other hand, is simply an out-of-his-mind anarchist, which works well for theM:Ifranchise founded on Tom Cruise’s blind heroics.
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It comes as a relief that theHas Fallenfranchise created Pearce with more humanistic qualities that ultimately make him a more compelling villain. It’s hard to imagine how strong of a serial effortParis Has Fallenwould have been without Harris as the main draw.The series certainly has enough attributes to justify the initial franchise expansionand the further development of additional spinoffs. Like other great nuanced, revenge-fueled villains – Killmonger, Amy Dunne, even Butler’s own Clyde Shelton fromLaw Abiding Citizen– Pearce’s accessibility steals the show inParis Has Fallen.
All eight episodes ofParis Has Fallenseason 1 are now streaming on Hulu.
