The Terminal List season 2 reviews: critics warm up as audience scores drop

If you were wondering whether The Terminal List would ever get beyond the simple man-on-a-revenge-mission formula, well, season 2 has finally dropped its answer — and it's quite a shift. The new episodes just landed on Amazon Prime Video this week, so if you enjoyed watching James Reece right wrongs with military precision, the entire eight-part season is now at your mercy to binge (or hate-binge, depending on your camp).

The Terminal List season 2 hit Amazon Prime Video with all episodes releasing on 21 October 2026.

Stepping Into Espionage

This time, showrunner David DiGilio and star Chris Pratt have left behind the straightforward vengeance plot of the debut run. Instead, season 2 adapts Jack Carr's second book, True Believer, sending Reece into a world of international intrigue. Basically, less crying-in-the-shower, more globe-hopping spy business. But that shift has split the fanbase — some reckon it's fresher and tighter, but there's a fair contingent disgruntled over the loss of the bruising, personal stakes which (love it or hate it) defined season 1.

The pacing isn't winning everyone over, either. Early reactions are peppered with grumbles about the story dragging its feet, especially in the first few episodes — and when you rebrand as a high-stakes espionage thriller, plodding isn't exactly ideal.

How Are People Reacting?

From a numbers perspective, the reception is slightly weird. Rotten Tomatoes now shows a 57% critic score (which, believe it or not, is an uptick from last time) and an 86% audience score (a comedown from the first season's sky-high 94%). So, yes, the critics have warmed a bit, but everyday viewers didn't quite stick the landing this round. On the positive side, you're still miles away from disaster territory: for a show famously polarising, an 86% audience rating is respectable. Plenty of comments single out the season's ramped-up action and Pratt's solid, if familiar, performance. The takeaway? There's certainly more buzz — and more division — than the showrunners probably expected.

• Season 2 sits at 57% with critics, up from 42% in season 1
• Audience score is 86%, down from 94% in the debut year
• All 8 episodes now streaming; international-focused plot

Inside The Reviews

The more forgiving critics seem happy with the expanded ambitions. Nick Bythrow at Screen Rant rates season 2 as not just a decent follow-up, but an improvement:

Nick Bythrow at Screen Rant calls season 2 "a strong follow-up to season 1 and Dark Wolf, elevating the series to new highs in the process."

Meanwhile, Michael John Petty over at Collider reckons that the show 'leans into everything that makes the franchise work' and doesn't bother making apologies for any of it. Take that as affectionate, or as a warning, depending on your patience for muscular military thrillers. FandomWire's M.N. Miller, meanwhile, flags up the obvious — this season is all about the espionage, and it will sacrifice pretty much anything else (pathos, depth, whatever you liked about the early episodes) to get there quickly, if sometimes clumsily.

So, the verdict: if you turned up for emotionally battered ex-Navy SEALs, you're getting full-blown international shootouts instead. Even with a few less-teary moments, there's still enough noise and momentum to keep action fans happy — everyone else might just have to grit their teeth a bit longer to see if the payoff is worth it.