Countdown Review – Engaging Crime Drama Delivers
- Details
- Category: Streaming, Cable
- Published on Wednesday, 25 June 2025 12:14
- Written by Janet Walker
Countdown, from Prime, presents a fast action, binge worthy, crime drama as a special federal task force is formed, after a daylight execution of an undercover Department of Homeland Security, to find the killer and uncover the motive.
The series begins as a Department of Homeland Security Agent Robert Dardin, played by Milo Ventimiglia, is meeting a contact. As he approaches him, they shove a webpage in his face that exposes his true identity. A chase ensues through the streets of downtown Los Angeles' Chinatown. Agent Dardin manages to escape, he believes, when he is assassinated.
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Suddenly, Supervisory Special Agent Nathan Blythe, played by Eric Dane, has assembled a secret task force to investigate the murder.
Joining the team are LAPD detective Mark Meachum played by Jensen Ackles. We first meet Meachum in the yard, at Palmdale Correctional prison where he has been undercover for nine months, and minutes before he instigates a riot. He is pulled from the yard and told he is headed back to LA, by special request.
Also joining the task force is LAPD detective Amber Oliveras, whom we meet in a drug den where she has been taken hostage, she manages to escape and proceeds to subdue the dealers. Her supervisory explains, she is federalized, by request assigned to a special task force.
The next day we meet the entire team and as Meachum explains it must be something big as the task force seemed to subvert any of the usual bureaucracy and in triple request forms. By the end of the first episode, we understand we are dealing with an entirely new kind of evil.
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When the unit comes together to understand why they were recruited the task appears to be find the details between a mystery deposit in the now dead agents account and whatever he was working on. Simple detective work, research, records, taxes, interview, reconciling all monies, and personal property.
Nathan Blythe and resident tech team member Evan Shepherd, played by Violett Beane, visit the Agent Dardin's wife, and attempt to press her for information on the mystery deposit. Unable to gather what they believe is incriminating evidence they begin to dig a little deeper and compare notes when they discover a discrepancy in the personal interviews with name's colleagues.
By the end of the first episode, we understand the hunt for Agent Dardin's killer soon uncovers a plot far more sinister than anyone could have imagined and ignites a race against time to Los Angeles from an unprecedented threat.
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Countdown, an engaging dramatic thriller, delivers from the very first moments, heightened suspense, fast action, unexpected twists and turns, a unique storyline, while presenting a believable and unique plot along with intriguing subplots, that will entice and mesmerize compelling viewers to binge, return, and binge again.
The ensemble cast, led by Eric Dane, who has recently announced his ALS diagnosis, is completed by each of the members who all have their drivers, with the banter in the early episodes, as we are getting to know the players, engaging and delivered with authenticity.
For crime drama junkies, Countdown is a riveting and gripping serial. The first three episodes are available to stream on Prime, and the next set drop July 2, 2025. See it.
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Country: U.S.
Language: English.
Runtime: 13 episodes/45 minutes.
Director: Jonathan Brown, Lisa Robinson, Avi Youabian, Chris Grismer, Rashidi Natara Harper, Nina Lopez-Corrado, Tess Malone, Eric Stoltz.
Producer: Mike Ganzman,
Executive Producer: Derek Haas, Marc Bienstock, Jonathan Brown.
Writer: Derek Haas.
Cast: Eric Dane, Jensen Ackles, Jessica Camacho, Violette Beane, Elliot Knight, Bogdan Yasinski, Uli Latukefu, Rachel Armstrong, Merrick McCartha, Jonathan von Mering, Jonathan Togo, Pasha D. Lychnikoff, Matt Kaminsky, Daniel Chernish, Nikolay Moss, Nick Bardin, Cameron Gayden, Ryan de Quintal, Kamy D. Bruder, Scot Ruggles, Christian Barber, Autumn Layne, Nicole Lyn, Grace Jenkins, Milo Ventimiglia.
Janet Walker is the publisher, founder, and sole owner of Haute-Lifestyle.com. A graduate of New York University, she has been covering international news through the Beltway Insider, a weekly review of the nation's top stories, for more than a decade. A general beat writer/reporter and entertainment/film critic, she is also an accomplished news/investigative news/crime reporter and submitted for Pulitzer Prize consideration "Cops Conspire to Deep Six Sex Assaults" in the Breaking News Category and was persuaded to withdraw the submission. Ms. Walker has completed five screenplays, "The Six Sides of Truth," "The Assassins of Fifth Avenue," "The Wednesday Killer," "The Manhattan Project," and the sci-fi thriller "Project 13: The Last Day." She has completed the non-fiction narrative, "Unholy Alliances: A True Crime Story," and is available on Amazon. She is a member of the Los Angeles Press Club, the National Writers Union, and a former member of the International Federation of Journalists.
