Anna Friel
Peter Facinelli
Jake Robinson
Jim True-Frost
Treat Williams
Sadie Sink
Omar Ghazaoui
Nate Mooney
Elena Kampouris
Daniella Pineda
Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje

Created by:
Peter Horton
Adam Armus
Kay Foster

Drama, Thriller
2015-
NBC

TV-14

NBC’s “American Odyssey” focuses on bringing the sizzle. Well, at least the pilot does. It cuts from scene to scene and from story line to story line. So, while it’s not boring, it doesn’t get the chance to delve into its subject matter with any depth. Everything glides by on the surface.

This show is essentially another twist on the genre brought to prominence by Showtime’s “Homeland”: a military-political thriller with a relentless female lead. “American Odyssey” doesn’t start nearly as well as “Homeland” did, but it does get off to a better start than NBC’s other recent entry into this genre, “State of Affairs.” Anna Friel is no Claire Danes, but she’s certainly preferable to Katherine Heigl.

The problem is that they don’t develop any of the characters from the start. There’s no reason to care about these people. The characters are here simply to serve this show’s elaborate conspiracy story line.

We’ve seen this kind of stuff before. This show takes a myriad of familiar plot lines, throws them in a blender, and hopes that the mixture sticks. It’s convoluted. They don’t give us enough time to understand everything that’s happening anyway – that might be a good thing. The end result is a pilot that is stylish enough and well-paced. But it rings hollow. It might deepen as it goes, but this is network television. So, I doubt it. …

Update (6/30/15): And after finishing the first season (I don’t know why I did), my prediction came true.

Verdict: OKish Overall

About: (Source: odyssey)

From writer-director Peter Horton (“Grey’s Anatomy”) and writers Adam Armus and Kay Foster (“The Following”) comes “American Odyssey,” a complex journey through global politics, corporate espionage and military secrets involving three strangers who only have one thing in common… the truth. In this “Traffic”-like action drama, an international cover-up explodes when the lives of a female Special Forces soldier, a disillusioned corporate lawyer and a political activist from a privileged family unexpectedly collide.

After a team of American soldiers battles jihadists in North Africa, they’re shocked to learn that they’ve stumbled upon and killed Al Qaeda’s top commander. Sergeant Odelle Ballard (Anna Friel, “Pushing Daisies”), a soldier, mother, wife and the unit’s only female member, discovers computer files that prove a major U.S. corporation is funding the jihadists. But before she can tell anyone, her team is attacked and killed. The world is told that the unit was wiped out by enemy militants, but the truth is that Odelle survived and is the only witness to her unit’s true assassins: private military contractors – Osela (think “Blackwater”).

As Odelle struggles to survive and find her way home, in New York, former U.S. attorney turned corporate litigator Peter Decker (Peter Facinelli, “Nurse Jackie”) finds himself embroiled in a merger with the same company that funded the jihadists. As Peter begins to connect the corrupt dots of this company’s terrorist involvement, Harrison Walters (Jake Robinson, “The Carrie Diaries”), a political activist and trust fund kid, meets a hacker, Bob Offer (Nate Mooney, “The Riches”), who claims to have unearthed a massive military-industrial-complex cover-up. And Bob is right: he’s stumbled onto the same cover-up that Odelle discovered, which will soon become a national headline with lethal implications. The only way they’ll ever save their country, their families and themselves is by joining forces and exposing the people behind it.
The series also stars Jim True-Frost (“The Wire”), Sadie Sink, Omar Ghazaoui, Elena Kampouris (“Men, Women & Children”), Daniella Pineda, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (“Lost”) and Treat Williams (“Everwood”).