Splinter Cell: Deathwatch reduces its characters' desires, goals, ambitions, and thirst for revenge into bite-sized, easily digestible bites, ideal for fast-food consumption.
Splinter Cell: Deathwatch, based on the Ubisoft game series, follows franchise star Sam Fisher (Liev Schreiber, Caught Stealing), retired from his job at Fourth Echelon. Living quietly on a farm, the legendary spy agent is forced back into the fold when current agent Zinnia McKenna (Kirby Howell-Baptiste, The Sandman) suffers a botched operation, and Fisher is her only chance to escape. Back, she must help her former agency stop a plot that could upset the world and kill millions.
Creator: Derek Kolstad
Stars: Liev Schreiber, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Janet Varney
I've only played one Splinter Cell game (it was either Splinter Cell: Blacklist or Splinter Cell: Conviction), and I haven't played it for more than five or ten minutes due to bugs. Based on my limited experience, I can say that the game seemed promising as a stealth adventure. The man in the green suit, wearing green glasses, used the shadows as cover to infiltrate and execute. It was fun for those 5-10 minutes, and that feeling returned somewhat when watching the opening scenes of Splinter Cell: Deathwatch.
I braced myself for an exciting series of episodes in which Zinnia McKenna (Kirby Howell-Baptiste) emerged from the shadows and silently took out guards. Unfortunately, that promise, that excitement, faded as the series progressed. When the first season finally ended, I wondered if it wouldn't have been better if Ubisoft had simply created another video game in this franchise instead of trying to revive it with a mediocre Netflix production.
Equally important, however, is the speed with which Splinter Cell: Deathwatch introduces its villains. This isn't a series where elite heroes cut a swathe through an army unscathed. From the first encounters, we see the effectiveness of the threats, emphasizing the need for the heroes to be clever and stealthy.
Not a bit of the fantastic initial groundwork is wasted. As the pair of field agents, with support from the base led by Anna “Grim” Grímsdóttir (Janet Varney, Platonic), race to unravel a mystery, the tension, stakes, and emotional toll presented at the outset only grow and expand.
The layers of the story, both grand and personal, multiply, yet remain clearly separate. As we get to know the heroes and villains, we get a glimpse into their pasts, which informs their motivations. Combined with the main plot, there's quite a bit to digest in a short amount of time.
Deathwatch is a short animated series: its eight 20-minute episodes fly by. This also means the series feels light. The story? So forgettable and inconsequential that the dramatic moments don't matter. The characters? They possess a dense aura, meaning they're afflicted with sadness and trauma, but their feelings, unfortunately, are given little room to develop or grow, as everything is reduced to mere plot points that move the gears of the series.
Deathwatch is about a watch, a song, and a tooth: three elements that, when combined, become the key to a puzzle that reveals a grand evil plan involving a female CEO. This CEO's personal life is likened at one point to a Shakespearean tragedy (her father is murdered by her godfather), and she ends up with a kind of Shakespearean betrayal. However, what's missing is the Shakespearean emotion. Deathwatch reduces its characters' desires, goals, ambitions, and quest for revenge to small, easily digestible bites, fit for fast-food-like consumption. While it may be labeled as "adult animation," its simplistic treatment of themes and characters makes it seem more like "children's animation."
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