• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, 4 hours ago

Absurd and derivative are two words you can use to describe the new Amazon Prime action series “Ride or Die,” but the show is far too entertaining for nitpicking. 

If the show owes a debt to any assassin movie or TV show that came before it, then it is “John Wick.”

In “Ride or Die,” a statuesque, blonde beauty named Judith (Hannah Waddingham) pretends to be an accountant, but in real life, she is a contract killer.

She has maintained this dual existence for 29 years, hiding it from everybody, including her best friend, Debbie (Octavia Spencer, above photo).

Debbie is a stay-at-home mom married to a member of Parliament. The show takes place in London.

Debbie is no ordinary mom. She is a behind-the-scenes mover and shaker who knows everybody and more importantly, all their secrets. She leverages this knowledge to discreetly advance her husband’s career.

In Episode One of “Ride or Die,” Debbie finds out the truth about her friend, and understandably, Debbie is shocked.

How she finds out is a complicated story. And the last thing the TV Blog wants to do is spoil the show. 

In May, the TV Blog wrote about “Ride or Die” and other TV shows about hired assassins in a blog that carried the headline: “The Ridiculousness Of TV’s Assassins For Hire.”

The point of the blog was that TV’s assassins are far too sexy and glamorous to be real killers. But at the same time, what do I know about contract killers?

In the case of “Ride or Die,” who cares? This show is ablaze with action. Ruminations about the “reality” of its story are pointless.

Like John Wick, Judith the assassin has an uncanny knack for taking on groups of bad guys and vanquishing them all. 

In one scene in Episode One of “Ride or Die,” she accomplishes this in a hotel kitchen with the only weapons at her disposal -- pots and pans.

In the “John Wick” movies, Wick (Keanu Reeves) practices his profession according to a code that governs all assassins from across the globe.

In “Ride or Die,” Judith is part of a similar network whose assignments are managed and meted out by a central authority.

“Ride or Die” takes off when she runs afoul of the rulebook and, from then on, the game is afoot. 

“Ride Or Die” starts streaming on Wednesday (July 14) on Amazon Prime Video.