SummaryEx-Marine sniper Bob Lee Swagger (Ryan Phillipe) returns to service when he learns of a plot to kill the president in this series based on the 2007 film of the same name.
SummaryEx-Marine sniper Bob Lee Swagger (Ryan Phillipe) returns to service when he learns of a plot to kill the president in this series based on the 2007 film of the same name.
The character of Bob Lee Swagger is a modern-day version of Captain America mixed with Jason Bourne. It's a great combination, and with a stellar cast and plenty of action and intensity, it all leads to one heck of an enjoyable program.
Shooter doesn’t take off until the second episode. Part of the pilot is sleep-inducing, especially when Swagger’s trying to figure out how a sniper would take out his target. But once Swagger begins “hunting” those who have wronged him, it becomes an enjoyable rollercoaster ride.
Watching Shooter as a series is like falling back into a well-known and familiar story, just one with lots of guns. It’s downright comfortable. And that’s odd.
Although the pilot sets up a potentially provocative scenario in which a law-abiding gun owner becomes an object of government suspicion, Shooter ultimately feels diluted and toothless.
The problem with building an action drama around a sniper is that the work by its nature requires people to be several yards away from each other. A climactic gunfight in the season finale goes as far as to show the math--the mental calculations the shooters have to do to make their shot--to juice up the action. It doesn’t work. Shooter excels in one area--grotesque head shots.
Shooter provides a welcome contrast to the kinds of exploitative shows that use former service members as cartoonish villains or deranged murderers. Those modest attributes aside, everything else about the drama feels just a little undercooked and rudimentary.