Since leaving Days of Our Lives in 2000, Jensen Ackles has steadily worked in primetime and movies. After a 15-plus-year stint on Supernatural, he has turned into one of the busiest actors in Hollywood. One of his three current Prime Video shows is called Countdown. It’s an action-packed series revolving around an all-star task force. Unfortunately, there has been no word on a second season. Here’s why the show should continue and why soap fans should tune in if they haven’t already.
Gunning for a Renewal
At the heart of the thrilling series, Countdown stars Ackles alongside Eric Dane, Jessica Camacho, Uli Latukefu, Elliot Knight, and Violett Beane. All 13 episodes of the first season are available on Prime Video, and now the cast, crew, and the Countdown fans are waiting patiently (and impatiently) for renewal news. There are many reasons why this needs to happen.
Countdown is a Hit
Obviously, we’re not privy to the streaming numbers. However, Countdown was consistently in the Top Five TV Shows on Prime Video and regularly in the Top Trending Titles for the streamer globally. While reviews for the show were mixed among critics and some fans, the show did manage to break through and pop up on the Top 10 Nielsen Streaming Chart early in its run. Meanwhile, the show generates positive social media buzz, largely thanks to Ackles’s vocal and passionate fanbase.
The Cast Chemistry
TV shows live and die by the chemistry of their cast. And from the beginning, the Nathan Blythe-led Task Force Hurricane quickly gelled. They came from various walks of law enforcement life — the LAPD, the FBI, the DEA, and the CIA. Separately, they were wildcards.
Together, they became an unstoppable force that took on a Belarusian madman who wanted to blow up Los Angeles. Now, they’re tackling a second case in which a homegrown madman has it out for the POTUS and the governor of California. As the members of the task force got to know each other, they clicked better personally and professionally.
Mark Meachum and Amber Oliveras
Countdown isn’t all action. There are also potential romances that are explored. While Luke Finau (Latukefu) and Nathan Blythe (Dane) are happily married men, there are a couple of slow-burn romances that really feed into that ‘will they or won’t they’ trope that soap fans love to follow, champion, and debate.
There’s a bit of a spark between Bell (Knight) and Shepherd (Beane), but the main source of romantic angst is Mark (Ackles) and Amber (Camacho). The badass characters had a rough start with each other, but slowly and sweetly, their relationship developed into something more substantive.
They are more alike than different, and that’s part of the challenge between these two. But their connection evolves in a surprising way as, in the first part of the season, she ends up helping Mark with his health issues. Fans are shipping Meachum and Oliveras like crazy, which is part of the reason why they are demanding a second season. Their story needs to be told.
High-Stakes Countdowns
The show’s name signals the high-stakes missions that these teams must tackle. There’s a constant countdown to something disastrous happening. But in the first ten episodes of the first season, countdown also meant something else.
There are mini-countdowns within the series, and one of the major life-or-death situations concerns Meachum’s health. Something is seriously wrong with him, and while he tries to play it all off by putting up walls, putting his head down, and just doing the work, it gets worse and worse.
It’s like a ticking time bomb that he tries to take on by himself. Thankfully, Amber eventually assures him that he’s not alone. But his issue is very soapy, and while he suffers, you see him doing some death-defying things.
Soap Alums Potentially Playing in the Same Sandbox
With a rock ’em sock ’em show like this, there are plenty of opportunities for fun guest star spots. For example, in the very first episode of Countdown, Milo Ventimiglia from This is Us and Gilmore Girls made a memorable cameo.
Derek Haas, creator and showrunner for the Prime Video action-thriller series, is one of the forces behind many of the Dick Wolf-universe shows — on the Chicago side as well as the FBI side. This includes FBI International, where Chicago PD and As the World Turns alum Jesse Lee Soffer took on a lead role.
TV Insider suggested Haas bring Soffer and his Chicago PD character, Jay Halstead, over to Countdown. “Believe me, that’s crossed my mind,” the executive producer said. “I don’t know that we can get him, but that would be really fun.”
On Chicago PD, Soffer’s character played an Army Ranger. So maybe that’s a way to write him into the mix. “Maybe he and Meachum were in the same unit. It was like a Halstead/Meachum reunion. That sounds awesome. Crossover!”
Or Soffer could play a brand new role. Getting two soap alums together would be nice. After all, Ackles is about to, once again, guest star on Justin Hartley’s CBS show, Tracker. That’s where he plays the Passions and The Young and the Restless alum’s brother.
All 13 episodes of Countdown‘s first season are available on Prime Video.
