"Splinter Cell: Deathwatch" on Netflix: Nostalgic bloodbath

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Game fans of the early 2000s look upwards scrutinizingly in every narrow corridor. Perhaps a three-eyed frogman in splits is lurking there. “Splinter Cell” changed the perspective on video games. It is a secret, half-forgotten milestone in gaming history. No game looked so good on the first Xbox in 2002, no title told such dark espionage thrillers, and no narrator could growl as nastily as Michael Ironside as Sam Fisher.

There is sneaking in many games, but no series captured the idea of a deadly shadow game so well. Sneaking through embassies, banks, and offices as an athletic super spy with night vision and high-tech gadgets felt dangerous. For three games, the series was really good, impressing with tricky missions and impressively realistic graphics. But that was the end of Fisher's best days. The high point of “Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory” was followed by technical problems, unfocused action, and finally a different narrator, who suddenly made the veteran Fisher sound younger again.

Michael Ironside is too old for this rubbish

And now, over a decade after the last game, “Splinter Cell: Deathwatch,” a long-announced continuation of the story is being released as an animated series on Netflix. The now 75-year-old Ironside himself assessed in a podcast that he was “definitely not” suitable for the role anymore. And so the 58-year-old Liev Schreiber plays an aged, bearded Fisher who chops wood and herds cows at the start of the series.

At first it looks as if he is just passing on the baton, but that quickly changes. The new protagonist, Zinnia McKenna (Kirby Howell-Baptiste), is young and also good at sneaking around, but experiences a catastrophe right at the beginning of the series that provides motivation for at least one season of murderous revenge. It's not subtle, but it's typical of “Splinter Cell”.

And then the Shetland family appears, and with them the private military company Displace International. It's almost a chumming-up of the good old days. Because what Sam and his old mate Douglas Shetland experienced in “Chaos Theory” in 2005 becomes a sticking point in "Deathwatch." But you don't have to unpack the old game to understand the plot of this eight-parter.

Those who were always as invisible as possible in the old “Splinter Cell” games will experience a different genre. Sam and Zinnia start each mission quietly, but in each of the eight 25-minute episodes, things have to get really loud. If the wrong door suddenly opens, Sam doesn't load the last checkpoint but switches modes. For long stretches, the style is more James Bond than stealth action; the young woman and the old man eliminate countless henchmen.

Baltic Sea exoticism

The globetrotting plot is set in Europe for long stretches, even if the visual variety is somewhat drowned in the dark grey of espionage; there is snow in Gdansk and the motorway in Hamburg has no speed limit. There are also one or two recognizable building silhouettes.

That can be disappointing. But if you expect too much from the story, you're as wrong here as in a B-movie. The ambiguous conspiracy plot never makes an awful lot of sense, and when a mysterious project is called "Xanadu," the authors' wink may be recognizable. The cryptic subtitles and codenames of “Splinter Cell” have always attracted ridicule, at least since the second game, “Pandora Tomorrow.” In this world of espionage, there is always one more flourish, one more possible surprise that makes things appear in a new light. That was already the case in the games and is no different here.

Gunfights in classic action film logic also fit in with this. Sam and Zinnia suffer rather symbolic flesh wounds, unless a dangerous end boss takes up arms. The plot also doesn't spend much time with Sam as the fatherly friend of the dogged Zinnia. A bit of character development has to suffice, then it's on to the next mission, which will most likely escalate again.

Visually, the series remains rather sober. On the one hand, the realistic style fits in well with the “Splinter Cell” games, but on the other hand, it loses some charm of the past. The games were a technical showpiece, but this cartoon is lost in the animated Netflix program. The direction is effective; the story always gets to the point quickly, but it constantly falls back on dramaturgical and visual clichés. The aim is good entertainment, not anything original or new.

Nostalgic entertainment

At least the result is truly entertaining entertainment. After more than one disappointing game and various cancelled follow-up projects, this is quite a surprise. Liev Schreiber's performance also belongs in the same category: he voices his older Fisher so convincingly that only Ironside ultras are likely to be disappointed. The German dubbing is also clean.

Schreiber works as Fisher, and “Deathwatch” works as a sequel to “Splinter Cell.” The animated series is small and modest, with a linear plot and a running time for one or two evenings of television. But at least “Splinter Cell: Deathwatch” is a sign of life.

(wpl)