Echo 3: an underrated action thriller worth seeking out

Echo 3, created by Mark Boal and based on the Israeli series When Heroes Fly, premiered on Apple TV in November 2022. The 10-episode drama features a cast led by Luke Evans, Michiel Huisman and Jessica Ann Collins, and leans on Boal’s experience from films such as The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty.

The series opens with elite operatives Prince and Bambi in combat and soon shifts to Amber Chesborough, a scientist whose research trip to Colombia turns into a kidnapping after guerrillas discover a military-grade tracking device in her luggage. The discovery triggers a rescue effort complicated by a CIA task Amber had been given before she left.

Echo 3 mixes brutal, fast-paced action with dialogue-heavy, human moments and a dose of melodrama. Amber is written as a thorny, often frustrating protagonist, and the show’s stylistic touches and kinetic sequences recall elements of Boal’s prior work, including his contribution to the in-game story for Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare.

Colombia

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