Apple TV+ ‘Echo 3’ drama series blends action and artiness – THR

Thw new Apple Tv+ drama series “Echo 3” is based on the award-winning series “When Heroes Fly,” created by Omri Givon and inspired by the eponymous novel by Amir Gutfreund. Set in South America, the action-packed thriller follows Amber Chesborough, a brilliant young scientist who is the emotional heart of a small American family. When Amber goes missing along the Colombia-Venezuela border her brother, Bambi, and her husband, Prince — two men with deep military experience and complicated pasts — struggle to find her in a layered personal drama, set against the explosive backdrop of a secret war.
Michiel Huisman and Luke Evans in “Echo 3” premieres November 23, 2022 on Apple TV+.

Daniel Fienberg for The Hollywood Reporter:

Mark Boal’s new Apple TV+ drama Echo 3 will put to the test whether viewers are willing to stick with their militaristic revenge stories if they come packaged with some nuance and characterization. Based on the Israeli format When Heroes Fly, Echo 3 has all the fetishistic shots of weapons and arbitrarily featured American flags one could ever want, and the body count rises steadily. But those things are accompanied by artier touches, whether it’s blades of grass swaying in the wind, attempts to delve superficially into the political realities of contemporary South America or just action scenes that unfold with a deliberate — right on the edge of “slow” — pace.
With The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty, Boal showed the ability to deliver scripts that paired suspenseful urgency with context stemming from his journalistic background. Through half of the first season of Echo 3, the elements for a similar feat are there, but they’re free-floating more than meshing thus far. The details about FARC and cartel operations in Colombia (and the Venezuelan SEBIN intelligence service) are offered, without much depth. Some members of the Colombian military and the rebel crew have personalities or hints of backstory, but not real characters. And at the same time, the various missions to rescue Amber are individually suspenseful without any overall momentum or cumulative tension-building. I’ll be curious to see if it all comes together as something truly good or just settles for well-meaning aspiration.

MacDailyNews Take: An early review of “Severance” through only five episodes would read much the same way, and we all know how that turned out!
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