If you didn’t think eight seasons of the CBS procedural S.W.A.T. wasn’t enough, a new sequel series called S.W.A.T. Exiles is premiering on Starz.
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series → think → Starz
Don’t worry, though; Shemar Moore is still there, just commanding a new group of cops.
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Moore → worry → cops
“People don’t fall all at once.
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People → fall → ?
It’s slower than that,” says the voice of Daniel “Hondo” Harrelson (Shemar Moore).
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voice → ’ → Harrelson
Two years since he took the fall for the botched raid that resulted in the death of a young S.W.A.T. officer, Hondo has been doing private security for tech bros.
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Hondo → take → bros
He’s approached by his old boss, Commander Robert Hicks (Patrick St. Esprit), and told that the LAPD wants him back leading a S.W.A.T. team, building a new one from the ground up.
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him → approach → ground
This team, however, is one that he finds out needs a lot of seasoning.
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he → find → seasoning
There’s the terminally online GenZer Sammy Bishop (Lucy Barrett); the socially awkward drone specialist Ethan Cole (Freddy Miyares); Cassidy Han (Zyra Gorecki), who has one leg but outmaneuvers most of her colleagues; Jude Reddick (Ronen Rubinstein), who has a past; and Malik Henderson (Adain Bradley), who immediately challenges Hondo’s leadership motivations after the first training exercise goes disastrously wrong.
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exercise → ’ → motivations
Despite the team’s lack of cohesion, they spring into action when a former cartel assassin comes out of hiding to be with his daughter, and his family gets threatened.
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family → spring → daughter
But what Hondo also finds out is that the LAPD has set him up to fail as a way to get rid of S.W.A.T. for good.
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LAPD → find → S.W.A.T.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of?
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It → remind → You
S.W.A.T. Exiles, executive produced by Jason Ning, is a sequel to the 2017-25 CBS series S.W.A.T.
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executive → produce → series
Besides Moore and St. Esprit, the first episode also features a scene with the original series star Jay Harrington as Deacon.
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episode → feature → Deacon
Shemar Moore has always been the reason to watch the 21st-century iteration of S.W.A.T., and he’s the reason to watch S.W.A.T. Exiles.
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he → watch → Exiles
His presence, even when he’s giving head-scratching advice like how a clean entry into a scene will help everything flow from there, dominates nearly every scene he’s in.
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he → give → scene
The rest of the sequel series feels pretty much like the original, with perhaps a slightly younger and less polished squad for Hondo to lead.
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Hondo → feel → squad
If you expected that the move from network to streaming would make Exiles a grittier, more violent take on the show, you’d be mistaken.
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you → expect → show
Except for a couple of “shits” and a random f-bomb, the structure of the episodes are basically the same as they were on CBS: Hondo and his squad charge into a situation, shoot people, and hope they get in and out without anyone getting hurt.
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anyone → charge → people
In fact, there are moments during the first episode where we don’t even know how or why they’re pursuing the former cartel capo, and why there seems to be moments where Cole is using his tech knowledge to investigate the case, something we didn’t think S.W.A.T. did.
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S.W.A.T. → be → case
We’re not sure why, but while we think that the writers are doing Lucy Barrett’s character of Sammy Bishop dirty by showing her walking around the squad while recording a live stream, but her character also has the most potential for growth.
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character → ’re → growth
We find out that there’s a mole in Hondo’s squad, who is determined to bring him down.
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who → find → him
S.W.A.T. Exiles feels like more of the same stuff that we saw on the original CBS series for eight seasons, just with more generic characters under Hondo’s command.
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we → feel → command
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie.
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he → write → himself
His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
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writing → appear → Times
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