David Farnor | On 03, Nov 2024

A franchise that defines itself by having the phrase “Has Fallen” in the title isn’t exactly the most compelling calling card in film and TV history. While the first three entries in the movie trilogy had Gerard Butler’s security agent to hold them together, there was never much of a connection between the outings – apart from a general premise of something being under threat from some bad guys. So while Paris Has Fallen is billed as a TV spin-off from the franchise, it swiftly becomes clear that what links it to the wider “Has Fallen” Cinematic Universe is the fact that it’s an action thriller with some bad guys in it who plan to do something bad. In Paris. So far, so generic.

Amazon’s series, though, immediately stands out from the crowd by making a smart choice of who to play its bad guy: none other than Sean Harris. Harris, who recently threatened to steal the Mission: Impossible franchise from Tom Cruise, is a dab hand at bringing a chilling menace to a villainous role. Here, he plays Jacob Pearce, a former officer of the French Foreign Legion. After being betrayed to the Taliban by his superiors – and then held captive in Afghanistan for years – he’s back with a vengeance, literally.

His campaign for justice begins with the Minister of Defence, as he disrupts a fancy party with no reluctance to announce who he is and what he wants. It’s a bold and memorable entrance that leads to a striking sequence involving a webcam – and Harris manages to give Pearce a convincing sense of conviction, a moving dose of trauma and a disturbing level of determination.

Infiltrating the evening do, though, puts him in the path of the minister’s protection officer, Vincent (Tewfik Jallab). Vincent is your standard-issue good guy, competent and charismatic enough to have us rooting for him in a dogfight. But the real star of the show, we soon discover, is Zara, an MI6 agent under cover as an HR employee – an HR employee who just so happens to be very good in a violent crisis. Played by the marvellous Ritu Arya (who repeatedly impressed in The Umbrella Academy), Zara is no-nonsense and not afraid of sarcasm – whether she’s being unfriendly towards a mime artist, gamely grabbing a passing champagne flute or dismissing Vincent’s personal life with blunt honesty, she’s a breath of fresh air.

She also more than holds her own in a skirmish, and Paris Has Fallen does a decent job at lining up action-packed set pieces to keep her and Vincent busy. The result is a spin-off that manages to not only survive without its original protagonist, but also give us a brand new protagonist in their own right. With a strong villain, a consistently quick pace and an entertaining hero to root for, it just might be the start of a franchise with something more distinctive than the same two words in its title.

Add to Watchlist