New Taylor Sheridan show trashed

She’s not a fan.

“Yellowstone” creator Taylor Sheridan appears to have upset Variety critic Alison Herman with his latest creation — “Special Ops: Lioness,” now streaming on Paramount+.

Herman shredded the Sheridan-led show in a nearly lethal takedown, where she calls out the series as “an unabashed work of military propaganda that positions the United States Armed Forces as the ‘strong’ who ‘protect the weak.’”

Described by Paramount+ as being “inspired by an actual US Military program,” the show follows Joe (Zoë Saldaña) through her work and private life as “the tip of the CIA’s spear in the war on terror.”

The series boasts boldfacers like Nicole Kidman (who executive produced as well) and Morgan Freeman. It offers a fictionalized account of a group of female fighters who worked to root out women terrorists at the height of the War on Terror, after 9/11.

Saldana, along with her buddy Cruz (Laysla De Oliveira), go undercover to work to gain the trust of the women within that world.

Variety’s critic accused Sheridan of the wrong kind of female empowerment, citing a “nuanced” approach in depicting the women protagonists — essentially saying that they’re women acting in roles that could have been written for men.

“Sheridan doesn’t just give the leads of ‘Lioness’ masculine names like ‘Joe’ and ‘Cruz’; he also gives them stereotypically masculine conflicts like feeling estranged from their children due to a stressful job,” Herman fumed, honing in on one storyline where Cruz’s “physical strength is equated with her worth.”

Sheridan, the reviewer wrote, is weaponizing “women’s liberation in service of the military industrial complex.” She goes on to criticize “stunningly ham-fisted” scenes, “right-wing leanings” and “lone wolf” Sheridan’s “shameless embrace of genre tropes.”

Other reviewers weren’t quite so flustered after viewing a screener of the show, but enthusiasm for the project has been limited.

“‘Lioness’ is a confusing, dull and unappealing take on the war on terror, which has a lot more in common with soaps like ABC’s ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ or NBC’s ‘This Is Us’ than espionage fare like Amazon’s ‘Jack Ryan’ or ‘The Terminal List,” wrote Kelly Lawler of USA Today.

“It fundamentally misunderstands what people like about war stories; we’re not here for torture porn and misanthropy. We’re here for inspiration, for determination and grit, for triumph of the American dream over enemies,” Lawler wrote.

The reviewer called on Sheridan, who “knows how to write engaging, addictive drama,” to pick one theme and to stick with it. As is, he has, in their opinion, delivered “a sandy-colored mess.”

“There might have been an interesting show about the cost of black ops work on raising a family, or a different one about the toll of espionage on soldiers or still the one ‘Lioness’ is pretending to be about infiltrating social circles of terrorists,” Lawler concluded.

The Hollywood Reporter also noted how “Special Ops: Lioness” tries to satisfy so many tastes that “that it largely forgets to do anything interesting.”

Reviewer Angie Han describes the less-than-human Cruz as being made up of “a jumble of focus-group-approved traits.”

She’s “tough but also vulnerable, pretty in a casual way, talented enough to attract notice but never so crass as to actually pursue career advancement,” Han mused.

Sheridan has become well-known in Hollywood for his television successes, “Yellowstone” in particular — and for being subsequently snubbed at the Emmys. Sheridan’s soapy Western drama, starring Kevin Costner, has been the most successful in Paramount Network history.

Saldaña, 45, recently spoke with THR about taking on “a controlled character” like Joe, which Sheridan reportedly always had her in mind to play.

“I do know that he has a great deal of admiration for the real work that gets done when we’re all sleeping, so he takes it upon himself to highlight this world,” Saldaña said. “He finds it important that we don’t just stay in the black and white of things. This all lives in the gray, and it’s very complex. These politics are very complex, and that’s what I was really hooked on.”

“I just wanted to know what it was like to be in this world and be in these rooms where these life-threatening decisions are made on a daily basis. And I wanted to understand whether or not these people had a pulse,” she continued.