TV review: 'Paris Has Fallen' earns place in movie franchise

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 5 (UPI) -- Paris Has Fallen, premiering Friday on Hulu, is a thrilling action show in the mold of the Gerard Butler films. Fortunately, it holds up against the movies and other TV dramas about terrorism.

Terrorist Jacob Pearce (Sean Harris) attacks a meeting of French politicians, targeting Defense Minister Philippe Bardin (Nathan Willcocks).

Vincent (Tewfik Jallab) is the defense minister's security officer, who saves Bardin from the first attack but does not immediately defeat Pearce. So, Vincent and MI6 agent Zara (Ritu Arya) join forces to stop Pearce's plot against France's authorities.

Without Butler in the cast, Paris Has Fallen could be any terrorist action show. However, it does earn its Has Fallen credentials by showing new characters protecting political leaders and the brutality of the violence committed.

The Has Fallen films are R-rated action movies in an era during which much action has gone PG-13, watering down the genre somewhat for general audiences. Streaming also allows Paris to show the creative ways in which Vincent and Zara dispatch terrorists.

Zara's use of a high heel is clever -- and not the way one might expect a woman to wield a shoe as a weapon. Vincent uses a kitchen steamer and Jallab can kick on his own.

The action is automatically better than Angel Has Fallen because you can see it. Though not as explosive as Olympus and London Has Fallen, well-choreographed sequences engage in every episode.

But, a TV show can spend more time with the characters between action scenes, and it has to, as the series cannot deliver three movies' worth of action in eight episodes.

The characters attending debriefings and gathering intelligence harkens back to shows like Homeland and 24, but there, too, it holds up with the genre.

Pearce reveals he was in a Taliban jail for six years and bears the scars from it. He blames the defense minister for bad intel that got him captured and his team killed.

It may not be as complex as the terrorism plots on Homeland, but it does explain why Pearce is mad enough to turn against his own government and its allies. He also targets corrupt officials, so there is also satisfaction when he gets his way until Vincent and Zara can stop him.

Outside of the government business, Paris Has Fallen also goes home with Vincent and Zara. There's time to meet Vincent's ex and potentially rekindle that relationship.

Filming in Paris also adds production value. The show begins with a mime to add a flavor of Parisian street performers, and the Eiffel Tower is in the background of many location shots.

Paris Has Fallen proves the formula has life outside of Butler. It could introduce new heroes in other locations, though a team-up between Butler, Jallab and Arya would probably make a great fourth movie, too.

Fred Topel, who attended film school at Ithaca College, is a UPI entertainment writer based in Los Angeles. He has been a professional film critic since 1999, a Rotten Tomatoes critic since 2001, and a member of the Television Critics Association since 2012 and the Critics Choice Association since 2023. Read more of his work in Entertainment.