In movies like Avatar and Guardians of the Universe, just to name a few, Zoe Saldana has solidified her creds as a lethal action / adventure hero superstar who happens to be Latina. And now on the heels of her powerful dramatic performance in Emilia Perez (and the girl can dance and sing, too), which has garnered her many award nominations, Saldana puts both acting / action talents in violent, harmonic, full blown display on Lioness.
Saldana plays Joe, the head of a top-secret special op unit called “Lioness.” Their top-secret CIA mission is to insert a female asset (a lioness) into terrorists’ cells and make high value targets in the cell vulnerable and exposed, at which point, Saldana’s team “terminate” the target with “extreme prejudice.”
Saldana and her team are salty, earthy, hardened, experienced warriors and they all drop more “F” bombs in one episode than all the bombs dropped on Germany, Japan and Vietnam combined. The shootouts are nail-biting bullet blazing scenes with Saldana relishing all the action, almost to a fault.
Her life is complicated by a marriage and family she is neglecting to fulfil these dangerous missions. Saldana finds herself torn between duty and family. She’s a flawed, adrenaline- driven, emotionally conflicted person. Saldana plays it beautifully in a compelling, riveting performance.
“Lioness” is the name of the special ops program and the female asset to be inserted in a terrorist cell. But it also perfectly describes the fierce persona of Zoe Saldana in this pulse-pounding, Latina character-driven, action, thriller hit Paramount+ Original TV series.
Lioness streams on Paramount+, Hulu and other streaming platforms.
Stars: Zoe Saldana, Laysla De Oliveira, Dave Annable, Jill Wagn