''Treadstone'' is an American action

drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...

television series, connected to and based on the ''Bourne'' film series. A "special preview" of the pilot aired on

USA Network USA Network (simply USA) is an American basic cable television channel owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming division of Comcast's NBCUniversal through NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment. It was originally launched in 1977 as Mad ...

on September 24, 2019, ahead of its October 15, 2019, premiere. The series was created by

Tim Kring Richard Timothy Kring (born July 9, 1957) is an American screenwriter and television producer, best known for his creation of the drama series '' Strange World'', ''Crossing Jordan'', ''Heroes'', and ''Touch''. Early life Kring was born in El Do ...

, who is also the executive producer alongside

Ramin Bahrani Ramin Bahrani ( fa, رامین بحرانی; born March 20, 1975) is an American director and screenwriter. Film critic Roger Ebert ranked Bahrani's ''Chop Shop'' (2007) as the sixth-best film of the 2000s, calling him "the new director of the ...

, Ben Smith, Jeffrey Weiner, Justin Levy, Bradley Thomas, and Dan Friedkin. In May 2020, the series was canceled after one season.

Premise

''Treadstone'' explores the origin story and present-day actions of a fictional CIA black-ops program known as Operation Treadstone — a covert program that uses a

behavior modification Behavior modification is an early approach that used respondent and operant conditioning to change behavior. Based on methodological behaviorism, overt behavior was modified with consequences, including positive and negative reinforcement conti ...

protocol to turn recruits into nearly-superhuman assassins. The series follows sleeper agents across the globe as they are mysteriously 'awakened' to resume their deadly missions. The program breaks down these assassins' personalities, erases their memories, and eliminates their moral code so they can effectively kill targets around the world. The series explores Treadstone's legacy and begins with an incident in

East Berlin East Berlin was the ''de facto'' capital city of East Germany from 1949 to 1990. Formally, it was the Soviet sector of Berlin, established in 1945. The American, British, and French sectors were known as West Berlin. From 13 August 1961 u ...

in 1973. This involves John Randolph Bentley (

Jeremy Irvine Jeremy William Fredric Smith (born 18 June 1990), known professionally as Jeremy Irvine, is an English actor who made his film debut in the epic war film '' War Horse'' (2011). In 2012, he portrayed Philip "Pip" Pirrip in the film adaptation of ...

), one of the program's agents, who escapes his

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

captors. The story then zooms to the present day, following a group of assets being "activated" by force or awakened after a moment of high tension.

Cast

Main

as John Randolph Bentley * Tracy Ifeachor as Tara Coleman *

Han Hyo-joo Han Hyo-joo (Korean: 한효주; born February 22, 1987) is a South Korean film and television actress, model and singer. She is best known for her leading roles in television series such as ''Heaven & Earth'' (2007), ''Iljimae'' (2008), '' Brill ...

as Soyun Park * Omar Metwally as Matt Edwards *

Brian J. Smith Brian Jacob Smith (born October 12, 1981) is an American actor, known for his role as Will Gorski in the Netflix-produced series '' Sense8,'' Lieutenant Matthew Scott in the military science fiction television series '' Stargate Universe'', an ...

as Doug McKenna * Gabrielle Scharnitzky as Petra Andropov **

Emilia Schüle Emilia Schüle (born 28 November 1992 in Blagoveshchensk) is a Russian-born German actress. Career Emilia Schüle was born in 1992 in Russia to an ethnic German family. When she was one year old, she moved to Berlin with her parents. She ...

as young Petra * Michelle Forbes as Ellen Becker

Recurring

Michael Gaston Michael Gaston is an American film and television actor. He played agent Quinn on the show ''Prison Break'', Gray Anderson on the CBS drama series '' Jericho'', and appeared in the first episode of ''The Sopranos'' as Alex Mahaffey, a compulsive g ...

as Dan Levine * Jung-woo Seo as Dae Park * Min-jun Woo as Jin-woo * Tess Haubrich as Samantha McKenna * Patrick Fugit as Stephen Haynes (credited as "Special guest star") * Lee Jong-hyuk as Colonel Shin * Oliver Walker as Matheson * Shruti Haasan as Nira Patel * Merab Ninidze as Yuri Leniov (present day)

Episodes

Production

Development

On April 12, 2018, it was announced that

had given the production a pilot order. The episode was written by

and expected to be directed by

, both of whom were also set to act as executive producers alongside Ben Smith, Jeffrey Weiner, Justin Levy, and Bradley Thomas. Production companies involved with the pilot were slated to consist of

Universal Cable Productions Universal Content Productions (UCP) is an American television production company operating within the Universal Studio Group division of NBCUniversal. History Universal Cable Productions In July 2008, Universal Cable Productions was split off ...

, Captivate Entertainment, and Imperative Entertainment. On August 16, 2018, it was reported that USA Network had decided to forego the pilot process and instead were issuing the production a straight-to-series order. Additionally, it was reported that Dan Friedkin was joining the series as an executive producer. On December 17, 2019, the series was canceled after one season.

Casting

On November 8, 2018, it was announced that

and

had been cast in lead roles. On January 14, 2019, it was reported Omar Metwally, Tracy Ifeachor,

, Gabrielle Scharnitzky, and

had joined the main cast. Michelle Forbes,

and Shruti Haasan were added to the cast, with Patrick Fugit and Tess Haubrich also appearing in a recurring capacity.

Filming

Principal photography for the series had begun by January 2019 in

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

Reception

''Treadstone'' received a

metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

score of 47 based on seven critics, indicating mixed or average reviews.

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

gave an approval rating of 44% based on 16 critics, its consensus reads: "While Treadstone is as action-packed and frenetically paced as you'd expect from the Bourne universe, it lacks the narrative momentum and cohesion necessary to set it apart."

Broadcast

Outside the United States, the series premiered on

Amazon Prime Video Amazon Prime Video, also known simply as Prime Video, is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming and rental service of Amazon offered as a standalone service or as part of Amazon's Prime subscription. The service p ...

on January 10, 2020. In South Korea, the series premiered on OCN on June 18, 2021.

Home media

The series was released on DVD for

Universal Pictures Home Entertainment Universal Pictures Home Entertainment (formerly Universal Studios Home Entertainment, Universal Studios Home Video, MCA/Universal Home Video, MCA Home Video, MCA Videodisc and MCA Videocassette, Inc.) is the home video distribution division of Am ...

on March 24, 2020.

Notes

References

External links

* * {{Jason Bourne 2010s American drama television series 2019 American television series debuts 2019 American television series endings English-language television shows Jason Bourne Live action television shows based on films North Korea in fiction Serial drama television series Television shows set in North Korea American prequel television series American sequel television series Television series set in the 1970s Television series set in the 2010s Television series created by Tim Kring Television series by Universal Content Productions USA Network original programming