• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, Yesterday

Who are today’s go-to villains in TV shows and movies?

If this new rough-and-ready SEAL drama set in war-torn Iraq is any indication, then at least one group of villains continues to be high on the list -- Middle eastern types who shout angrily in Arabic, live in hovels, and brutally kill people seemingly at random.

It’s a type that has been on TV since at least “24,” and it has continued all through the 24 years since that show premiered in 2001.

That revered series was L.A.-based. But Prime Video’s new “The Terminal List: Dark Wolf” is located squarely in Mideastern desert territory, just like so many TV dramas that have come before it.

Premiering Tuesday, “Dark Wolf” is a prequel series to one of those shows, 2022’s “The Terminal List.” 

When that SEAL drama came out in July 2022, it received a thumbs-up seal of approval from the TV Blog. Although “Dark Wolf” is cut from the same cloth, the TV Blog’s thumb is not all the way up this time.

I don’t remember feeling this way about “The Terminal List,” but if there is an Emmy Award for Most Male Swaggering in a Drama Series, then “The Terminal List: Dark Wolf” would be the one and only show in contention for it this year.

In the show, the manly, high-fiving men of a SEAL team in Mosul, Iraq address each other as “brother,” make the inevitable penis jokes and comparisons, and in one instance, one of the bros good-naturedly implies that he just had sex with his bro’s mom! Ha ha!

When they prepare for a mission, the soundtrack reverts to AC/DC singing “Hells Bells” -- with the lyrics “I’m a rollin’ thunder, pourin’ rain, I’m comin’ on like a hurricane! …” Get psyched, bro!

All the kidding around is meant to build camaraderie as this band of brothers convoys in and out of Mosul in search of ISIS baddies identified by intelligence assets as high-profile targets.

The year is 2015, and the SEALs are fish out of water in a remote desert outpost just a few miles outside of Mosul.

In the first “Terminal List,” SEAL Cmdr. James Reece (Chris Pratt) had to deal with the aftermath of a massacre of at least 12 of his SEAL bros in a mission he commanded.

In the “Dark Wolf” prequel, Reece (Pratt) is back, but in this time frame, the future commander was still a lieutenant and he is not the central character of the new show.

That distinction belongs to Chief Special Warfare Operator Ben Edwards (Taylor Kitsch, above photo) who was also seen in “The Terminal List.”

He is the Dark Wolf of the title, so signified by the darkening of his demeanor during Episode One when he learns that an ISIS commander and mass murderer responsible for killing a close friend is a CIA asset and therefore untouchable.

Not one to shy away from a challenge, CSWO Edwards decides to go hunting for the terror leader anyway.

In the process, he becomes distrustful and subordinate. He delivers a blistering, face-to-face critique of two superiors, and then really goes rogue.

Like The Terminal List,” the action sequences in “Dark Wolf” are the best part of the show. 

When “The Terminal List” premiered in 2022, the TV Blog noted that Amazon was emerging as the best source for macho action dramas -- a list that already included “Reacher” and “Jack Ryan.” 

“Terminal List: Dark Wolf” starts streaming on Tuesday on Prime Video.