Hard-hitting 'Rocky Meets Bourne' thriller delivers Netflix a new action series hit

There are weeks when it seems like Netflix would sooner run out of bandwidth than action series. If you enjoy your bone-crunching scraps peppered with a side of existential angst, their latest MMA drama, Wrath, ought to be on your list. Granted, their menu is crammed with spy thrillers, Westerns, and the odd buddy-cop caper, but this new one is very much its own beast. It's what you get if you crossed Rocky with Jason Bourne, then let it take a few unsupervised rounds in a cage match.

Memory Loss, Murder Rings and MMA

The setup for Wrath is classic sports drama with a bit of a twist. We meet Tadeu (played by Vinicius Neri—he's popped up in KM 100 and The Male Gaze if those ring a bell), a once-formidable MMA fighter who's lost every memory he ever had. We first see him barely clinging to life in a dump, bullet lodged in his skull. Cheery stuff. Instead of cheering for the scrappy upstart, we end up watching a man with championship instincts try to piece his life together by scrubbing toilets at a fighting academy, only to discover he's still a menace in the cage—while everyone else tries to work out who, or what, he actually is. Soon enough, the memories of illegal fighting and bloody death matches start filtering back in, which, of course, help explain why he got shot in the head in the first place.

Wrath broke into Netflix's global top ten and, after ten days, hit number one in Brazil, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Uruguay, and Nigeria.

Most of the story is exactly what you'd expect if you've sat through more than one redemption arc—there's the mysterious past, the climb back up through the ranks, and a few old scores getting settled along the way. It doesn't try to disguise those borrowed bits; director José Henrique Fonseca seems more interested in making sure every punch and takedown really lands, and to be fair, the fight scenes don't pull any punches. Seriously, if you thought The Cage was visceral, this comes with even less sentiment and more cracked ribs.

The Cast, Vibes and Comparisons

This one's a proper action show before it's anything else—sports drama fans will get the usual grit-and-redemption, but you're mostly here for the pace and the violence. Tadeu finds himself with a mentor, naturally, which the show plays up as his route back to some sort of purpose, but ultimately he's angling for revenge more than self-improvement. That blend of rage and athletic precision is where the comparisons to Bourne and Bloodsport line up; he's not just overcoming odds, he's unlocking assassin-level fighting skills as his memories return, and those scenes end up being some of the most fun in the series. No one's awarded any medals for character subtlety, but it's not that sort of show.

Directing duties come courtesy of José Henrique Fonseca, who previously did Lucia McCartney, Heleno, and the rather more highbrow Mandrake—which, as it happens, bagged the honour of being the first Brazilian HBO series to score an Emmy nomination over in the States. Not all that surprising, then, that Wrath doesn't pretty things up—it simply gets on with the business of fighting and survival, with the occasional flash of humanity if you stick around between the punches.

• Genre: Action, MMA thriller, redemption drama
• Starring: Vinicius Neri (as Tadeu)
• Director: José Henrique Fonseca
• Top Ranking: Shot into Netflix’s global top 10 within ten days of release; number one in several countries
• Similar Titles: The Cage (more legacy, less violence), Rocky, Jason Bourne, Bloodsport
• Notable Fact: Fonseca also directed Emmy-nominated Mandrake