One of the best shows of the past season was Countdown on Prime Video. With the tragic passing of Eric Dane, sadly the series has been cancelled, but it was an amazing performance from Dane, and is definitely worth the watch! Prime has made a number of poor decisions on canceling shows lately and Countdown is the latest victim. They also canceled Wheel of Time last year, which was one of their best series. During the filming Dane was battling his ALS symptoms, and he reports losing the usage of one of his arms while filming, but his dedication to the craft made it almost impossible to tell.
This series focused on an elite team of recruits from different branches of law enforcement such as the LAPD and DEA, all focused on investigating the murder of a Homeland security agent who was killed in broad daylight. As the series progresses we find out that the murder was just the tip of a sinister master plan far deadlier than anyone realized. As the team struggles to work together they must race against time to save millions who don’t even realize they are in trouble.
Since all of the agents are rockstars in their own departments there is a lot of tension and arrogance as the team first decides how to work together and what leads to follow.
Mark Meachum, played by Jensen Ackles, is one of the most daring wildcards on the show but he is also racing against. ticking time bomb in his head that the rest of the team is unaware of. He has a brain tumor that has been deemed inoperable and he does not disclose this to his team but rather takes one daring risk after another since he thinks he is dying anyway.
One interesting thing about the series debut is that it actually takes on more than one storyline, similar to what High Potential, another intense new series, has done before as well. The first storyline actually concludes in episode 10, and a new intense storyline begins in episod 11. The series concluded with only 13 episodes, so we are only 3 episodes into the new highly intense storyline and the series ends with a huge cliffhanger as Jessica Camacho’s character is captured and the final scene shows her running for her life.
Much like other police drama shows of the past, such as Stalker, this series was cancelled before it truly got a chance to take off AND it ended on a huge storyline cliffhanger. This is unfortunate for many reasons. Fans are left with an abundance of questions, and characters that had a lot of potential are snuffed out before they are even given a chance to evolve. While I had been curious who would replace Dane’s character, as he was the boss of the entire group, it is still sad that his final show will not be continued without him.
If I am being honest then this is a show that should not have been cancelled. It’s one of the best shows on Amazon…better than Rings of Power. There is still a lot of story to tell and I hope Amazon reconsiders or another platform picks it up. The show deserves at least one more season or two!