Trial by Fire (2026)

Keira Frost (Andrea Pavlovic) walks through the woods amidst armed men.  Her wrists are bound.  She is forced to her knees and a gun is placed against her head.

Keira remembers her abusive stepfather.  She remembers running away from home, becoming a petty thief with Stevie (Michala Brasseur), and sitting at a briefing run by Ryan Drake (Derek Moran).  Drake did not have a high opinion of her, or so he intimated.  The mission was to recover some nuclear material at an abandoned Cold War site, but it went badly.  Keira was captured and suffered waterboarding.  And now she was to be shot.

The action is mediocre.  As most of the action is from Frost's point of view, it should have been shown only view the headset cams that she was watching from the van, but that would have really limited the screentime of the other actors.  As with the last outing, Drake and his team don't come off as professionals.

This half-hour short is an origin story for Frost.  She appeared in Rogue Elements (2024), so this is a prequel.  It is strange that we have an origin story for a support character before there is one for Drake himself.  As for her background, it was too run-of-the-mill.  Oh, she had a hard family life, dabbled in criminality, joined the Army where she was a problem soldier, and now she was on an elite black ops team.  Okay.  Typical girl.  Not the background I expected for her.  The conversations between her and Drake are bland and cliche.

There is a twist that makes the episode worthwhile.  Just okay.

Rogue Elements (2024)

In Estonia, a CIA team attempts to extract an informant.  The operation is compromised, and the team is either killed or captured.  Volkov, who is in charge of the Russian forces, suddenly finds himself targeted by an unseen sniper.  He escapes though not all of his men survive.  A video showing the interrogation and execution of the captured CIA agents was sent to Langley.  Volkov was most interested in discovering who rescued Maras from a Siberian prison; Ryan Drake's name was offered.  The CIA director is not happy.  Ryan Drake is sent to recover the informant, which will probably end up being a trap.  His teammates are less than eager.  Drake and Frost - who is the computer whiz of the group - infiltrate the warehouse while Deitrich - who is fluent in Russian - provides a distraction at the front gate.  Things go mostly smoothly until Frost realized there are Rogue Elements involved.  The mysterious sniper from the opening returns to finish the job.

The story takes place sometime after the events in Redemption.  Anya, AKA Maras, was tortured by Volkov and she intends to settle that score.  She owes Drake a debt for her extraction but she's not going to let him get in the way of her vengeance.

Drake and his team come across as only moderately competent.  The same is true of the Russians.  The original CIA team was clearly incompetent to have been so easily surprised and taken down.  Even Anya, who has the most experience, makes some boneheaded blunders.  Most surprising was how the female characters repeatedly stood toe to toe with larger men while brawling.  Sorry, not going to happen.  The idea of Frost holding the knife away from her neck while a man twice her size is shoving down with his weight is just unbelievable.  Clearly, the makers knew that which is why the villain says, "I'm not even trying."  Yeah, okay.

In his Critical Drinker persona, I doubt Will Jordon would speak favorably of this.  It's a run-of-the-mill espionage story with a predictable plot and uninspiring characters.  Given the time constraints - it is only 40 minutes, there isn't much room to develop the characters or have an intricate plot.  Of course, this is basically a pilot, an effort to get something more going for his Drake series (9 books so far).  I would watch episode 2, which makes this a success.

Redemption (Book 1 of Ryan Drake Series)

Iraqi Desert, 2007

Ryan Drake is sprawled on the sand, a bullet wound in his abdomen.  He's bleeding out.  His final thoughts are how she said he was a good man.

2 weeks earlier

Mosul, Iraq

A predator drone has gone offline.  When command regains control, they discover that it has fired its complement of Hellfire missiles and flattened part of Mosul.  Someone has hacked the system.

Washington, D.C.

Ryan Drake receives a call from his friend and superior, Dan Franklin.  Franklin needs a team to extract a valuable target from a Russian prison in Siberia.  He has less than a week to get the job done.  Drake accepts the job and learns he is recovering a rogue operative who goes by the codename of Maras.  When he sees the picture, he is seduced by her beauty and the mettle in her eyes.  Franklin refuses to provide any further intel on her.  Drake quickly assembles a team, which is not entirely to his liking, but time is short.  The team will parachute in, secure the operative, and egress via a helicopter.  Sounds easy but it proves a challenging operation.  Maras has been in solitary for several years and isn't the most grateful rescuee.  They have hardly returned her to Washington when she's snatched from her handlers and the team has to chase her across the United States and even overseas.

Overall, a great spy thriller with twists and turns, plenty of action, and some engaging characters.  I liked Drake though some of his emotional issues didn't fit his line of work.  Maras was the strong female and just too overpowered.  I didn't mind that she was a great shot, an excellent tactician, or could read people like a book.  However, when she easily defeats trained fighters who are much bigger and stronger than her, it went a little too far.  The villain, Munro, had that magical ability to vanish while the heroes were occupied with something else.

Of particular note, the author is Will Jordan AKA The Critical Drinker.  He can write a story, which shows that he can create as well as criticize.

Recommended.

The Critical Drinker

When I was a kid, the choice for film critics was Siskel or Ebert.  Their success led to a few other such critics, such as Leonard Maltin on Entertainment Tonight, or Michael Medved & Jeffery Lyons who followed Siskel and Ebert in Sneak Previews.  As the years went on, there were more critics, or perhaps I just became aware of more critics.  In Iowa, I remember coming across a radio psychiatrist who also reviewed movies; that was an odd combo.  In the bay area of California, there was a local radio critic who really didn't seem to like films.  All too often, I would see/hear the review after I had already seen the movie.  After years of seeing movies and hearing the reviews, I was able to determine which critics were right and which were wrong.  Generally, I more often agreed with Ebert than Siskel.

The Romans said that there's no disputing tastes.  With that in mind, the goal should be to find a critic who more often than not agrees with you.  At the moment, I have happily chosen The Critical Drinker.  The Drinker has a review channel on YouTube where he blasts or praises movies and TV shows.  I have yet to watch something that the Drinker recommended and I did not like.  The same goes for the reverse.  His tastes are in harmony with my own, which makes him the ideal critic.  Where it was maybe 80/20 with Ebert as to whether I'd actually like something he gave thumbs up, it is 100% for the Drinker.  Though he has only been in the critic business for a few years, he does offer 'Extra Shots' where he reviews older movies.  This is a real service as I don't watch nearly as many movies as I once did and often missed some of the older ones he reviews.

The Drinker is a particularly vocal critic of 'The Message' that infects many modern movies.  The message consists of critical race theory, black lives matter, LGBTQ+ themes, 3rd wave feminism, environmentalism, anti-capitalism, etc.  All too often, these are shoehorned into the story in a ham-fisted way that strips the entertainment value from the movie or TV show.  Recent movies have taken to rebooting old franchises to capture preexisting fanbases while at the same time including 'the message' in such a way as to undermine the very characters and franchises that have been rebooted.  Star Trek, Star Wars, The Matrix, James Bond, Masters of the Universe, Doctor Who, and others have all been defaced by the current batch of producers and directors.  He provides his reviews in the character of a hard drinking misanthrope.  The schtick involves some stock comments and movie clips.  Very entertaining.

Highly Recommended.