15 TV Shows Like Special Ops: Lioness

Taylor Sheridan is one of the most prominent figures in Hollywood these days, creating one hit television show after another. Among the prolific creative’s popular television shows is the Paramount+ espionage thriller “Lioness,” which premiered in 2023. The series stars Zoe Saldaña as a CIA case officer who leads an elite team on counterterrorism missions around the globe. The show brings higher intensity each season as the War on Terror escalates throughout the series, raising the stakes for the spec ops ensemble.

For fans of modern military dramas and political thrillers, there is no shortage of similarly globe-spanning and action-packed shows. Whether it’s cozy spy shows featuring a different mission each episode or a bombastic series that rival big studio blockbusters, there is an espionage show for every fan of the genre. Here are 15 TV shows like “Lioness” that will keep the high-octane television thrills coming.

One of the shows that solidified J.J. Abrams as a Hollywood powerhouse, 2001’s “Alias” also made an unmistakable star of Jennifer Garner. Garner plays super-spy Sydney Bristow who serves as a mole for the CIA, infiltrating the terrorist organization SD-6. Concealing her double life from her friends, Sydney takes on various undercover identities to dismantle SD-6 around the world. As the character delves deeper into the increasingly complex world of shadow organizations and illicit figures, she discovers the truth about her past and its connection to SD-6.

Looking back at the legacy of “Alias,” the show is really a coming-of-age story, albeit with lethal stakes. Garner delivers a standout performance as Sydney, off-balance with the revelation of SD-6 in the beginning before quickly growing into a thoroughly capable intelligence operative. Enormously popular throughout its five-season run, the show counted Tom Cruise among its fans, who approached Abrams to direct and co-write “Mission: Impossible III” based on its quality. More than just a launchpad for many of the cast and crew, “Alias” stands as the first great spy show of the 21st century.

After previously playing the President of the United States on “24,” Dennis Haysbert took on a more action-oriented role starring in “The Unit.” Haysbert plays Sergeant Major Jonas Blane, an experienced non-commissioned officer leading a Delta Force unit on secret missions around the world. These involve everything from rescue operations in remote areas, recovering dangerous materials in hostile countries, and carrying out assassinations abroad. In between death-defying assignments, the operators return to their families in Fort Griffith, Missouri, with the show unpacking the drama brought about by the troops’ demanding duties.

For an older network television show, “The Unit” regularly featured impressive action set pieces in virtually every episode. It helped that, compared to other network shows at the time, each season had a relatively lower episode count to make each installment feel like it mattered more. Throughout its four seasons, Haysbert and co-star Scott Foley provide a steady foundation for the show, along with Regina Taylor playing Blane’s wife Molly. A no-frills action thriller that also blended in drama on the homefront, “The Unit” deserves more attention in the years since its conclusion.

Former SAS soldier Chris Ryan’s 2007 novel “Strike Back” serves as the basis for the 2010 British military thriller of the same name. The show follows the exploits of elite troops working for Section 20, a top secret black ops branch of MI6 deployed on high risk operations around the world. The show starts with disgraced SAS veteran John Porter (Richard Armitage) who is brought back into the service to rescue a kidnapped journalist (Orla Brady) from old enemies. Throughout the show’s eight-season run, different soldiers join Section 20 to take on new assignments impacting British national interests abroad.

“Strike Back” was a staple on British television, while also being co-produced and broadcast on Cinemax starting with its second season. Right from the very first season, the explosive stakes are coupled with messy personal relationships, dark secrets, and betrayal. Given the rotating cast, there was also the sense that not even the series’ main characters were safe from the story’s lethal consequences. A taut actioner with a solid ensemble cast and action set pieces, “Strike Back” was a consistently entertaining military thriller.

“Alias” inspired a whole line of female-led spy shows that often involved their protagonists taking down a recurring sinister organization. This influence can be seen in the 2010 USA Network series “Covert Affairs,” starring Piper Perabo as CIA recruit Annie Walker. Annie’s handler is Auggie Anderson (Christopher Gorham), a special ops officer who was blinded while fighting in Iraq. Together, the pair take on various threats to the United States, with Annie evolving from a wide-eyed rookie to a hardened professional over the course of the series.

Like any good spy show, “Covert Affairs” has plenty of big choices that Annie has to make as she grows into her clandestine destiny. Perabo captures her character’s evolution well, while forming an electric on-screen chemistry with Gorham that similarly grows throughout the show. Though the series might not have matched the visible production budget of “Alias,” it still brought its own spy saga to life in its own right. A character-driven take on the genre, “Covert Affairs” depicted a more undercover and glamor-filled tale than something overly grim and gritty.

The second television adaptation of the 1990 French action movie “La Femme Nikita,” 2010’s “Nikita” delves into more explicitly espionage-oriented territory. Maggie Q stars as Nikita Mears, an assassin trained by a top secret government organization known simply as the Division. Escaping from her overseers, she resurfaces after going into hiding for several years determined to dismantle the Division for good. Nikita leads a small team towards this goal, including her equally lethal protege Alex Udinov (Lyndsy Fonseca) who has her own vendetta against the Division for destroying her life.

For a time, “Nikita” was the best action show on The CW, mixing spy stakes with thrillingly choreographed set pieces. Maggie Q gives a stellar performance as Nikita, not only effectively playing a sexy super-spy but forming a strong rapport with co-stars Fonseca and Shane West. The series is full of big twists and shocking sacrifices, keeping audiences on their toes for its four-season run. An espionage thriller with an expansively developed lore, “Nikita” uses the 1990 movie as a thematic springboard for something greater.

No other television genre was impacted by 9/11 like political thrillers; the 2011 Showtime series “Homeland” reflected the realpolitik more acutely than many of its contemporaries. The show stars Claire Danes as Carrie Mathison, a CIA officer who suspects war hero Nicholas Brody (Damian Lewis) was turned by the enemy during a lengthy imprisonment by al-Qaeda. Mathison has a tendency of getting close to the subjects of her investigation, including Brody, putting her directly in harm’s way.

Running for eight seasons, “Homeland” revolved around the concept of its main characters potentially being compromised, with all the moral implications of that association. The series kept audiences guessing which way its characters would go next, what their true loyalties were, and if redemption was even a possibility. After resolving the Brody storyline, “Homeland” got its second wind thanks to real-life spy camps that changed the show’s direction. An engrossing look at the toll espionage and conflict takes on humanity, “Homeland” was a smarter, more tautly paced thriller than most.

The 2015 series “Blindspot” feels like a crime procedural twist on the broad narrative premise of the Christopher Nolan movie “Memento.” The show starts with a heavily tattooed Jane Doe (Jaimie Alexander) awakening naked in the middle of Times Square. When FBI agent Kurt Weller (Sullivan Stapleton) learns that Jane’s tattoos provide vital clues to mysteries that the FBI is investigating, she becomes a person of extreme interest. As Jane helps Kurt solve crimes around the country, she begins to regain her memories and what happened to her in the first place.

While “Blindspot” has a core premise that never quite escapes feeling utterly contrived, the show around it is actually quite entertaining. The rapport between Alexander and Stapleton is strong and the action set pieces frequently moving the series forward are genuinely exciting in their staging and execution. Years after the show’s five-season run concluded in 2020, “Blindspot” topped streaming charts as it was discovered by new audiences. An action thriller with a colorful driving mystery, “Blindspot” consistently kept the high-octane stakes coming.

The 2015 action thriller series “Quantico” starts things off with a bang, opening with a terrorist attack on Grand Central Station in Manhattan. The prime suspect is FBI agent Alex Parrish (Priyanka Chopra), who goes on the run trying to prove her innocence. This present-day story is juxtaposed with flashbacks revealing Parrish’s origins with the FBI, including her training at the FBI Academy in Quantico. Subsequent seasons have Parrish going on daring undercover assignments to infiltrate grave threats to national security, including from domestic terrorist groups.

With its murky world of undercover operations and constant paranoia over who’s trustworthy, “Quantico” deliberately keeps its audience off-balance. Try as she might, Parrish is repeatedly drawn deeper into the violent world of terrorism and high-risk intrigue, even after trying to run away to Europe between seasons. Chopra handles the blend of action and emotional vulnerability well, bringing a world-weary quality to her role by the third and final season. Packed with shocking plot twists and a breakneck pace, “Quantico” is a great showcase for Chopra’s acting talents.

While David Boreanaz’s character on “Bones” experienced a stint in the military, the actor went all in for his starring role in the CBS series “SEAL Team.” Boreanaz plays Jason Hayes, the leader of SEAL Team Bravo, which takes on dangerous missions worldwide at a moment’s notice. At the start of the series, Bravo Team loses one of their own in action which continues to haunt Hayes. As the series progresses, the team’s deadly line of work and its impact on the troops and their families is explored in between daring international operations.

“SEAL Team” is a military procedural that comes out the gate with a solid start and improves as it goes. The action, while growing familiar across the show’s seven-season run, is well-staged and executed, elevated by the audience’s investment into the cast. Boreanaz is consistently good as Hayes, balancing his performance between the driven leader and haunted soldier right down to the surprisingly happy finale. A fine-tuned military action show that fires on all cylinders to the end, “SEAL Team” makes for a reliably entertaining watch.

So many shows that revolve around a cat-and-mouse pursuit narrative follow the “Silence of the Lambs” mold with a female investigator getting too personally close to her male target. The 2018 series “Killing Eve” flips the script on this strictly hetero dynamic by having two women forming an unlikely bond after starting on opposing sides. The show centers on British intelligence operative Eve Polastri (Sandra Oh) working with the MI6 to hunt an international assassin known as Villanelle (Jodie Comer). As the two become aware of each other, they develop a shared obsession, complicated by Villanelle working as a killer for a shadowy organization known as The Twelve.

Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer excel in whichever separate projects they appear in and putting them together on-screen in “Killing Eve” is pure dynamite. With a different showrunner plotting each season, the lead actors’ performances are the underlying constant in the series as it veers from escapist action to dark humor. At the same time, this is a show that was never afraid of getting strange with its interpersonal dynamics, highlighting the messiness of it all. The best Jodie Comer project in film or television and a showcase for Sandra Oh, “Killing Eve” is an obsessively good time.

Author Tom Clancy really popularized the global political thriller, bringing it out of the shadow of the Cold War with his best-selling novels. Clancy’s most prolific recurring character starred as the title character in the Prime Video series “Jack Ryan.” The 2018 show stars John Krasinski as the hands-on CIA analyst who is often whisked away from the safety of his desk job. Ryan defuses all sorts of national security issues, from a conspiracy involving nuclear weapons in Eastern Europe to internal corruption in the highest levels of the American government.

Krasinski seamlessly makes the leap from sitcom star to television action hero with his lead performance in “Jack Ryan.” The show is understandably more action-heavy in its depiction of Ryan than Clancy had written him, but Krasinski retains some of his everyman qualities. And for fans of “Lioness,” both shows have Michael Kelly as a series regular playing a veteran CIA figure. One of the best original series on Prime Video, “Jack Ryan” consistently brings the espionage-oriented action.

British author John le Carré’s acclaimed 1983 novel “The Little Drummer Girl” was adapted into a limited series of the same name in 2018. Florence Pugh stars as Charlie Ross, an English actor recruited by the Mossad to infiltrate a Palestinian terrorist cell operating in Europe. Unfolding in 1979, Charlie is trained by intelligence officers Martin Kurtz (Michael Shannon) and Gadi Becker (Alexander Skarsgård) after her recruitment in Greece. As Charlie is drawn deeper into the world of cloak-and-dagger spycraft, she is affected by the moral complexities of her new line of work.

A slow burn that takes advantage of its sweeping European setting, “The Little Drummer Girl” is one of the best spy limited series made in recent years. Like much of le Carré’s work, there is a moody grounded approach to this espionage tale that the show leans into heavily. The main cast are all in fine form, with the show ranking among Florence Pugh’s best performances in any medium. An atmospheric period piece that’s smartly told and deliberately paced, “The Little Drummer Girl” is definitely one of the best adaptations of le Carré’s novels.

Frederick Forsyth’s 1971 political thriller “The Day of the Jackal” received a modern reimagining in 2024 with the Peacock original series of the same name. Eddie Redmayne stars as an enigmatic assassin known simply under his notorious alias. The Jackal’s latest kill is noticed by MI6 operative Bianca Pullman (Lashana Lynch), who begins her hunt working off clues from the firearms that he used. As this cat-and-mouse chase continues across Europe, flashbacks reveal the Jackal’s past as a British soldier serving in Afghanistan and his more illicit beginnings.

Eddie Redmayne takes over the Bruce Willis role from the 1997 movie “The Jackal” and makes it very much his own. “The Day of the Jackal” makes its titular contract killer all the more intriguing, going deeper with him than any prior adaptation has done before. At the same time, the fun isn’t so much in how nuanced the Jackal is but him being hunted by Pullman. A cinematic-level thriller that effectively uses its European backdrop, “The Day of the Jackal” is one of the best original Peacock series.

The Paramount+ with Showtime original series “The Agency: Central Intelligence” brings an all-star cast to its exploration of the intelligence community. The show starts with CIA operative Brandon Colby (Michael Fassbender), working under the codename Martian, ordered to abandon his longtime undercover persona in Africa. Returning to the CIA’s station in London, he reunites with a past love, Sami Zahir (Jodie Turner-Smith), who knew him under a different alias. This reunion complicates Martian’s loyalties, especially as he’s approached to become a double agent for MI6 as a deadly mission unfolds.

Initially known simply as “The Agency,” the series presents a cinematically shot vision of the world of spycraft. Fresh off starring in David Fincher’s “The Killer,” Fassbender brings a quiet intensity to his role as Martian, whose work begins to take a noticeable toll on him. The show explores the blurry lines spies cross when it comes to romance, with Fassbender developing a strong chemistry with Turner-Smith. That romance helps distinguish “The Agency: Central Intelligence” from other spy shows along with its movie-quality presentation.

After a lengthy stretch of starring primarily in period piece dramas, British actor Keira Knightley took on her most action-oriented role in years for the Netflix original series “Black Doves.” Premiering in 2024, Knightley plays Helen Webb, a spy deeply embedded in the British government and married to the Secretary of State for Defence. Following the assassination of her lover, Helen’s secret identity and true nature is under threat of exposure. This prompts the Black Doves, the organization Helen works for, to send an old colleague, Sam Young (Ben Whishaw), to protect her.

“Black Doves” has a noticeably more grounded and character-focused touch than most spy thrillers of its ilk. These qualities are accentuated by Knightley and Whishaw, who give their respective characters a lived-in depth compared to most surface-level spy archetypes. The pair are joined by an impressive ensemble cast of established British actors that add that heightened level of prestige to the proceedings. An espionage thriller that feels so much more intimate than its contemporaries, “Black Doves” is a magnificently crafted cloak-and-dagger story.