Plot: When a terrorist group led by the villainous Jacob Pearce attacks a high-profile embassy reception, with the French Minister of Defence as their target, protection officer Vincent finds himself working with street-smart MI6 operative Zara to save the day. But when events take an increasingly dark turn, Vincent and Zara soon realize that the plan extends far beyond just one politician. With suspicions that one of their colleagues in the security services is feeding information to Pearce, Vincent and Zara soon come to rely on each other more than either would have ever imagined. Increasingly isolated and with Pearce always one step ahead, can this unlikely pair stop Paris from falling to a man hell-bent on vengeance?
Review: I’m not sure who asked for it, but the Gerard Butler Has Fallen film series has become the Has Fallen cinematic universe. After three movies (Olympus, London, and Angel), the same fictional world where terrorists target global leaders is expanding to the small screen with a planned array of series focused on other protagonists doing their patriotic duty to protect democracy from the evils that men do. The first entry is the France-set Paris Has Fallen. Rather than focus on a single hero like Butler’s Mike Banning, Paris Has Fallen partners two different characters to take down the bad guy. While it does not tread any new ground that the movies covered, Paris Has Fallen has fun with its concept and showcases solid action with brutal kills. It also serves as a spotlight on Tewfik Jallab and Ritu Arya as solid contenders for future action-hero roles on the big screen.
While each film clocks in at about two hours, Paris Has Fallen is set over eight forty-five-minute episodes. The long-form storytelling gives the series more time to dig into the villains’ motivations while also deepening the protagonists’ character development. While Gerard Butler’s character certainly had time to develop over three movies, none of the other big-screen characters did. Here, we learn a lot about the two leads. Vincent Taleb (Tewfik Jallab) is the lead security for a high-ranking French minister (Nathan Willcocks). Vincent has a deep military background and has a close relationship with the current President of France (Emmanuelle Bercot). Vincent is protecting the minister at a party when it is besieged by terrorists led by Jacob Pearce (Sean Harris). Vincent runs into an undercover MI-6 agent, Zara (Ritu Arya), and the pair manage to foil Pearce’s plan, but only temporarily. The first episode opens with a massive action sequence and closes with a shocking twist that sets the table for the coming season.
Having only seen the first four episodes of Paris Has Fallen, it is easy to see how good Jallab and Arya are in their roles. Tewfik Jallab fluently switches between French and English through each episode as he interacts with different characters and showcases serious aptitude during the action sequences, which are heavy on hand-to-hand combat. Equally, Ritu Arya is stellar as she pulls out martial arts and impressive gunplay in each episode. Arya’s experience in the action movie Polite Society and a standout role on Netflix’s The Umbrella Academy should have prepared me for how good she is here as a veteran agent. Arya also imbues Zara with a sense of humor and a personal side, which we get to see when she spends time with her girlfriend, Freja (Ana Ularu).
What really elevates Paris Has Fallen from being a clone of the movies or even similar action-oriented series like 24 is Sean Harris. The English actor has become a formidable presence on screen going back to the Red Riding trilogy in 2009 followed by turns in Ridley Scott’s Prometheus, Justin Kurzel’s Macbeth, David Michod’s The King, and David Lowery’s The Green Knight along with his most recognizable role as the villain Solomon Lane in the Mission: Impossible sequels Rogue Nation and Fallout. Harris’ quiet intensity instantly turns Jacob Pearce into a frightening bad guy. I was hesitant when I saw the trailer for Paris Has Fallen, as I thought Harris would riff on his other villain roles. Still, he instead fully inhabits Jacob Pearce as a layered character with a tragic back story enhanced by mental instability. Right from the first episode, Harris is a terrifying antagonist who may be the best villain in the Has Fallen franchise.
Created and written by Howard Overman, who scripted all eight episodes, Paris Has Fallen does not try to reinvent the action genre. Overman has an extensive history writing television series, creating the shows Dirk Gently, Atlantis, Misfits, Future Man, and War of the Worlds. Most of his projects have been more humorous, an element that he tries to bring to this series whenever possible. The four episodes I have seen were directed by Oded Ruskin, who has much action experience in his career. The back half of the season was directed by Hans Herbots, who I expect keeps the momentum firmly in place in his four episodes. The whole series relies heavily on misdirects and plot twists as the characters try to track down Jacob Pearce while also uncovering the root of his motivation and how high up the chain of command the conspiracy goes. Series like this have a lot of red herrings, and Paris Has Fallen is not exempt from falling down rabbit holes of circular logic and contrivances to keep pushing it forward. Nevertheless, Overman, Herbots, and Ruskin are focused on letting the bullets and blood fly, which masks any holes in the narrative just enough to forgive the errors.
Paris Has Fallen mines so much familiar territory covered in the feature films as well as countless other action shows on the small screen, but it does it with three charismatic leads who seem to be having a blast kicking ass through the City of Lights. I enjoyed this series a lot more than I expected, which could be due to being underwhelmed by the Gerard Butler movies that inspired it. Paris Has Fallen does not raise the bar in any way and is sure to be full of cliches of the genre, but it does it with more action than other television shows and some creative fight sequences and kills. I appreciate that the writers and filmmakers expanded such a high concept to keep it engaging and entertaining for four times the length of the movies in the cinematic universe. A fun series worth binging on, Paris Has Fallen is much better than I gave it credit for based on the trailers. It gives us two good new action leads in Twefik Jallab and Ritu Arya.
Paris Has Fallen premieres on December 6th on Hulu.
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