The real Team Lioness marines told The Telegraph that Sheridan's show is an insult to their unit

Time for a look at how two juggernauts of the military drama world stack up — and, more to the point, what they've got right and what gets on actual veterans' nerves. Lioness might be everywhere these days, but it turns out the real women who inspired it are not exactly chuffed about how the show’s played fast and loose with reality. Just for good measure, let’s contrast it with SEAL Team, a series that's practically made vet consultants the stars behind the camera. It’s all quite a ride, so settle in.

'Lioness' and Real-World Fallout

So, Lioness — you’ve probably seen the endless promo, or at the very least clocked the names Zoe Saldaña and Nicole Kidman on a slick poster. The show’s been grabbing attention since it dropped in 2023, with three well-received seasons (IMDb hovers around 8/10, and Rotten Tomatoes sits at 76%, which is nothing to sneeze at). The man at the helm? Taylor Sheridan, famous for pretty much cornering the market on glossy, grown-up telly of late — yes, the exact bloke behind Yellowstone and plenty more.

Lioness landed three series between 2023 and 2026, each quickly hitting near 8/10 on IMDb and a 76% Rotten Tomatoes score.

Here’s the bit that’s more controversial: while critics have mostly been keen, some very particular viewers aren’t buying the premise at all — and we’re talking about the people it’s allegedly about. Sheridan’s drama draws from the real Team Lioness, a group of female US Marines sent to Iraq and Afghanistan so they could search local women (something male soldiers were banned from doing for cultural reasons). That’s fascinating material — but the show doesn’t just fictionalise, it turbocharges everything into a globe-trotting spy caper.

This has not gone down well with the actual women who served. In an August 2026 interview with The Telegraph, both Ranie Ruthig and Michelle Dallocchio — former Lioness members — said that picking up their unit’s name and turning it into a high-octane espionage romp was a bit of an insult. Ruthig’s words in particular cut right to the chase:

In Ranie Ruthig’s own words to The Telegraph: "It makes me mad that it doesn’t follow what we did at all. They took the Team Lioness name and twisted it into a spy thing. I like Taylor Sheridan’s writing — I’ve watched his other shows — but he took our history and kind of corrupted it."

Michelle Dallocchio added that the whole production felt like their complicated and messy wartime experiences had been neutered to make them more palatable for entertainment. There’s no subtlety in the criticism: the series might have been higher octane, but the actual stories were left behind. That’s pricked up a lot of ears, to say the least.

The SEAL Team Approach

By contrast, SEAL Team — which started life on CBS in 2017 before hopping over to Paramount+ in 2021 and wrapping up in 2024 — gets a lot of kudos for doing things differently. The core premise doesn’t sound wildly original (elite Navy SEALs on dangerous missions, plenty of personal complications), but what’s unusual is just how much the production puts its money where its mouth is when it comes to authenticity.

• The show’s inspiration, Mark Owen (the ex-SEAL behind No Easy Day), actually served as an executive producer
• Producers and writers include veterans — like Mark Semos and Kenny Sheard
• Every element, from scripts to stunt coordination, brings in former military staff — at one point more than 100 across various departments
• It’s got not just action realism but a real flavor of the emotional toll, both on the service members and their families

It’s not just a matter of crediting a consultant somewhere down the line, either. As Tyler Grey — a cast member and former Army man — put it to Military.com, the whole thing started with actual prior service folks wanting to tell their own stories, instead of Hollywood simply parachuting into their world. He didn’t mince his words about the scale of involvement:

Appearing in an interview with Military.com, Tyler Grey said: "I've been working on SEAL Team since the pilot. At the very beginning, it started with someone from the military with prior service who wanted to make something about Special Operations. The start was with a veteran and not the other way around. That’s very rare. SEAL Team also has four full-time advisors. I worked on a 200 million dollar movie that had just three, to give you an example. They’ve really allowed more veteran involvement than I've ever seen or heard of. I don’t know 100 percent that’s it’s the most, but I know people who worked on a million things and talked to people about a million projects and I've never heard of more veteran involvement on any military project."

An extra tidbit for anyone who likes a binge: as of August 2026, all seven seasons of SEAL Team can be streamed on Netflix, making it easy to dive in and see for yourself how the vet-heavy approach compares with more Hollywood-ised fare.