WARNING: SPOILERS FOR THE COUNTDOWN SEASON FINALE!
You never know what to hope for with a season finale when you don’t know if you’ll get another season. Do you want the threads left dangling so there could be a possibility of more, or would you rather they get mostly tied up neatly just in case?
There are up sides to either, but there’s a lot I’ll be left wondering about if there’s no season 2. So I guess we cross our fingers?
Will They or Won’t They?
Many fans got invested in Mark Meachum and Amber Oliveras’ relationship, which has been a tease throughout the series. I would be fine with them being partners and friends and demonstrating real care for each other, and that might make the most sense if they’re going to keep being on the same task force together. On the other hand, there are undoubtedly some romantic feelings there between the characters, so I could see it going that way too.
The two do a lot more dancing around each other in this episode, with everyone watching seeing clearly that they both care about each other and are into each other, and possibly yelling at their screens when they are both with someone else. For Oliveras that’s Julio, who seems like a really great guy – but she just doesn’t seem that into him. For Meachum, there’s a new person, a fellow officer he reconnects with.
She was surprised he called; he was surprised she answered. They clearly have some history, but she says she was “between things” and her mom didn’t like the last guy, so why not?
Mark: What does she think about me?
Hannah: She can’t stand you.
He doesn’t seem either surprised or too bothered by this and neither does she, judging by their immediate makeout session in the doorway.
Oliveras texts him to hit her up about the case, but the (understandably) eager woman reminds Meachum “clock’s ticking”.
What an appropriate thing to say for a show called ‘Countdown’! Also, who can blame her?
Oliveras doesn’t look very happy about it the next morning when she sees that Meachum didn’t respond to her at all. She confronts him about it over coffee at HQ and Meachum is studiously casual.
Oliveras: Hey, you didn’t text be back.
Meachum: Oh, I didn’t…what did you want?
He claims he didn’t want to interrupt her and the doc’s romantic dinner by “inserting himself”. When she retorts that she was the one who texted him, he defensively says that maybe HE was having a romantic dinner.
Oliveras: Oh, where’d you take her, Pink’s Hotdogs?
Meachum: Don’t ever denigrate Pink’s.
I mean, he’s right. That was one of the first places we went on our first trip to LA. And they were good!
Oliveras and Meachum continue to snark at each other as they go after Todd. She says Julio is reliable and stable. Mark snarks that’s what every girl wants. (Gotta say, since we’re in a fictional media world, Mark is 100% right. The girl never stays with Mr. Reliable and Stable. Of course, she doesn’t know she’s in a TV show…)
Oliveras: Julio is not boring.
Meachum: Nah, he’s… steady… stable…
Oliveras: You’re exhausting.
Meachum isn’t giving up easily though. He reminds her that opposites don’t really attract, so when they try to be with someone from the ‘normal world’ it’s a disaster because they don’t get it and they never will.
Mark: So we push it down and we fake that we’re normal.
Oliveras: So, what? Break up with Julio and be with you? Because you’ve just been waiting for me, pining, all by your lonesome…
He says maybe he has.
She says he’s full of shit.
Meachum: You helped me through a tough time, okay? That means something to me. Whatever this is, it doesn’t require extra work. This is magic you can’t fake, and you know it. And I know it.
In the penultimate episode of Season 1, Todd gets scarier – and his threats get more personal – and Meachum contemplates his future, now that he has one.
Blythe asks him if he’s thought about moving up the ladder to Lieutenant or Captain, and when Meachum makes a joke of it, calls him on it.
Blythe: Your main problem is you sell yourself short. You make jokes because you’re insecure. You’re a natural leader, don’t have disdain for ambition.
Meachum: I didn’t know we were doing an FBI psych profile…
(Thereby proving Blythe’s point)
It seems like something that Meachum hasn’t really let himself consider, but he does often take the lead and the team follows him almost instinctively, so I think Blythe is onto something. Meachum has a lot of baggage though, and his defense mechanism of knocking himself down before someone else can do it keeps getting in his way.
He admits that to Blythe later that day.
Meachum: I was thinking about what you said this morning… I appreciate it. Sometimes I have a tendency to get in my own way with things, I don’t know why.
Blythe offers to put in a word for him with the LAPD higher ups.
He does start taking charge more, calling more of the shots when the team is out in the field and generally starting to seem like a leader.
The task force’s new mission is, in some ways, more disturbing to me than its first. There’s something less horrifying about the stereotypical ‘bad guy’ plot to blow up a city or take over the weather or something on a grand scale – maybe because that’s what we’re used to from the Marvel type villain. Or maybe because it’s less personal, so somehow less impactful. Volchek was one of those ‘bad guys’ – though I was also fascinated by Volchek as a villain. We saw enough of his backstory to understand some of how he became so bent on revenge, and he was smart and devious and the actor had lots of charisma in spite of the character he was playing. Is it wrong that I kinda miss him?
The villain of this mission is, frankly, just horrifying – in a turn my stomach kind of way. I don’t mind my media dark, so I’m intrigued. What are we going to find out about this guy??
This is the first full episode in what feels like Part 2 of the first season of the show. It’s disconcerting that it’s so different, but I admit it also ups the fascination factor. Even the pace of this episode is much slower, especially in the beginning. We follow the new bad guy in acute detail as he listens to radio propaganda, puts on camo gear, loads his rifle and goes hunting. The music is even slow, and while I was fairly sure this was going to be a bad guy, it was almost deceptively peaceful. Until the gut punch at the end of his hunt.
We see that a few years earlier, the guy is out of work, presumably for PTSD reasons, and reacts badly when a friend/colleague suggests that he should get back to work or he’ll be called a malingerer. His girlfriend is also pushing that, and you can see the pressure building up – he’s like a powder keg, waiting for a match. I find this guy scarier than Volchek because it’s “everyday” rage and violence, and we’re all surrounded by people like that in real life. As soon as we meet his girlfriend and her adorable beloved little beagle, my stomach was queasy. When she betrays him and he takes the dog with him when he leaves, I was full on nauseous.
The task force needs a name for their killer; Meachum suggests Todd. I’m not sure why that’s funny, but I laughed and so did the rest of the team. Nevertheless, Todd it is.
I don’t like Todd.
Guess Who’s Back?
They know that the Governor of California and the POTUS are the targets, thus the need for the task force – which Oliveras returns to join also.
That’s not a big surprise, though we couldn’t be absolutely certain they’d bring her back. Considering that the sparks between her and Meachum are definitely part of the show’s appeal, though, it would have been an odd decision not to have Jessica Camacho return.
Things are strained between Meachum and her after their almost-hook-up ten months before, especially because Oliveras has been dating the doctor who cured Meachum, Julio. Meachum is clearly threatened by that, posturing by insinuating he’s been doing a lot of sleeping around himself, “doing all the living I can with whoever, more than one whoevers…”
Oliveras: Gross.
Meachum: it’s not gross, it’s human nature.
(Sam and Dean Winchester may have had this same conversation after Dean’s tryst with twins, just saying…)
WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS FOR EPISODE 10 OF COUNTDOWN!
This episode, the tenth in Countdown’s first season, is unusual in that it wraps up a major story line, with three episodes to go in the season. The big confrontation with Volchek that has been the goal of the first ten episodes doesn’t disappoint in terms of suspense, as we pick up right where we left off, Meachum and Volchek staring each other down as panicked people flee the square.
We start with a bang – or actually a not-bang. Volchek hits the detonate button, but Evan can see it on the tablet and yells to Bell to “rip it out”. They both rip out the tablets and it stops the detonation just in time. Volchek realizes and takes off, civilians still running all over too. In the chaos, Finau shoots Andrej before he can shoot his family.
Meachum and Oliveras chase Volchek to the roof. The take down is complicated by Meachum’s brain tumor making him dizzy and in pain at the most inopportune of times. He stumbles, pleading “not now not now” as Oliveras gets knocked down by Volchek as he runs. Mark is barely able to see straight but he stops to help her, with a reassuring “hey hey” that’s familiar to any Supernatural fan from decades of Sam and Dean being in similar life and death situations.
Oliveras: Get Volchek!
Meachum gets to the roof in spite of being in pain and dizzy, banging his head against a wall in desperation to try to focus well enough to aim a shot. Volchek is still trying to carry out his mass murder, shooting at the fuel tanks of the trucks. Oliveras makes it to the roof and locks eyes with Meachum.
Oliveras: Do it.
It honestly seemed like a better idea to me for her to do it considering Meachum’s impairment, but he takes the shot and Volchek falls to the ground. The two stand over his body as Meachum calls in the report. And, just like that, the tragic story of Volchek is over.
I felt a little sad, oddly. He was a great villain – smart, ruthless, with a backstory that made you cringe for him sometimes. I like my villains (and my heroes, for that matter) complicated!
The Aftermath
Blythe gives one of his motivating speeches about how proud he is of the “badass individuals” on the team. He says it was an honor to have led them, and that the hard part now is to go their separate ways.
Blythe: But if we’re called upon to serve again, we’re going to be better partners and investigators because of the people in this room.
He takes Drew’s plaque down from the wall, bringing it with him.
Meachum speaks for the team.
Meachum: Even when we were cursing your name… mostly me… I think I speak for all of us when I say you are the best damn leader any of us has ever had, ever. We’d follow you anywhere.
This episode is one of my favorites so far. I’m always more drawn in by emotional drama than suspense/adventure, and this episode had plenty of it – plenty of both in fact!
How many times have I said that the beginning and ending of a Countdown episode is always so well done – and usually so impactful. This episode is no different. In fact, the first frames are hard to watch, Blythe trying to crawl back to his car with the knife still stuck in him, blood everywhere. For those of you Supernatural fans, it’s a Red Meat scenario when you’re really not sure the hero can survive, and you’re in awe of his determination.
It makes your stomach turn with how visceral it is. He somehow gets there, pops on the siren, gasping in pain, and calls in a breathless “10-33, corner of…” as he passes out.
Tick tick tick tick
Meachum’s Getting Worse
Meachum isn’t doing much better than Blythe at this point.
We see him once again in his bathroom, staring in the mirror, holding his head. Grimacing, he struggles to open the pill bottle for some relief and they spill all over the floor. He desperately scoops them up and takes some but the pain continues.
Sobbing, he splashes water on his face to try to keep going, then bangs his head against the wall in desperation. (If you’ve ever had a terrible migraine, you can understand that impulse as just trying to make it go away or temporarily replace it with some other pain even).
Once again, Ackles really makes us feel his pain and empathize with his incredible frustration. There is nobody better at conveying the intensity of his character’s pain – there’s a reason there were entire online communities devoted to “Hurt Dean Winchester” after all.
Meachum as the phone rings in the middle of his anguish: What??
He sits down, gasping for breath, struggling to compose himself as the phone keeps ringing, finally managing a somewhat normal sounding “Meachum” as he answers.
If you weren’t clutching your own head at this point, you’re a stronger person than I am!
This is a pivotal episode, and one that really amps up the feeling of desperation – on both sides.
Which is a good thing in terms of storytelling….
A Sad Man With Alot of Money
The story so far recap reminds us just how desperate and angry Volchek is – and how tragic his life has been. He is a terrible ruthless villain in this story, but actually seeing the losses and tragedies and betrayals that have shaped him also make him an understandable one. Shout out to Bogdan Yasinski once again for his nuanced portrayal – you are chilled by his ruthlessness but can also see his pain clearly.
We see a flashback to young Volchek and his doomed brother, who was taken advantage of and set up, and paid the price.
“I’m sorry I got you into this, brother…” And then the shot, and his brother dead by his own hand, unable to live with himself.
The title of the episode is explained right away, Volchek drinking at a bar, sharing a story about how Russians and Ukrainians and Belarussians sit on a nail on a chair. Belarussians, he says, would pretend it’s okay, pretend it’s comfortable, ask may I sit here all day? It’s clear he’s talking about himself, how he’s been trying to handle his life that’s felt like sitting on a nail.
Eventually Volchek passes out and falls off the chair. Once he’s managed to make his way outside he’s approached by a man who knows who he is – “a sad man with a lot of money”. Wow, if that line isn’t relevant… He offers him protection. (That usually doesn’t go well, just saying).
In a flashback to 2021, “Mr. Vuso” meets with his banker, who suggests that he could disappear in America, have the American Dream. Volchek says he just wants to start over. But the City of LA tells him they’ll requisition some of his parking lots for their vehicles, ruining his profits, so he tries to bribe them – which gets him arrested. He really has been screwed over repeatedly, and now everyone is paying the price.
There’s an eerie foreshadowing at the police station with Meachum and Finau literally crossing paths with their eventual adversary, then Volchek asks to see his lawyer. First he’s roughed up by the cop holding him, then by the other men in the holding cell who now see him as a rich guy. He gets brutally beaten by them and nobody does anything about it for far too long. Bloodied and furious, Volchek is more dangerous than ever.
He still looks at photos of his wife on his phone as he waits to meet with his lawyer.
Probably not a job anyone should take, just saying.
Volchek: I was living my life. I absorbed the nail. Then they took my brother, they took my wife. I came to this country to see with my own eyes to see what kind of men could do these things. I thought maybe I was wrong, but it’s not the crops, it’s the very soil. Sometimes the man gets up off the nail and smashes the chair to bits.
Me: Uh oh. Better run, lawyer dude!
He locks the guy in his car and blows it up.
Meachum and Oliveras: Sparks?
Meanwhile, the task force follows the leads they have. Meachum interrupts his domestic moment of cooking eggs on his stove to answer the phone and finds out about the dead Belarussian guys in Volchek’s basement.
The fifth episode of Countdown sees the team closing in on Volchek – and Volchek very nearly closing in on them! That means there’s a high level of suspense throughout, with some Mission Impossible type capers that leave you biting your nails.
It’s also an episode that amps up a different kind of suspense – the question of how Mark Meachum is going to keep going as his pain and dizziness worsen. He’s kept himself isolated by not confiding in anyone, and that sense of isolation is becoming painful too – and dangerous. We care about him enough now to be worried as hell, and all of us can hear that countdown clock ticking away in Meachum’s head.
Shout out to Jensen Ackles for letting us see Mark Meachum and his struggles so vividly in this episode, from his anguish to his charm to his badass fighting-in-a-tux skills. If you weren’t a Mark Meachum fan before, this episode is probably gonna fix that!
The sense of danger also gets amped up in this episode because we get some more background on Volchek through flashbacks (spoiler alert, that’s not his real name) and the timeline of his descent into psychopath territory after his brother’s suicide. He’s a man ruthless enough to sacrifice people he claims to love to save himself, and one who’s motivated and consumed by revenge. In other words, he’s very very dangerous.
Which is exactly how you want the viewing audience to feel about the protagonists’ adversary! He’s not cartoonish, but he is scary.
Volchek is trying hard to figure out who the mysterious man is who broke out of prison with Durko’s nephew – it feels like only a matter of time before he figures out it’s Meachum. He already knows he wasn’t a “real” prisoner. (This episode is full of Volchek almost figuring it out, and then thwarted by the task force being one step ahead of him, especially when it comes to technology.)
That’s thanks to Evan, who had the foresight and tech skill to switch out the team’s photos on their law enforcement websites in case someone starts looking there to match up faces – which is of course exactly what Volchek is doing.
But Mark Meachum does not look like Jensen Ackles. Hah!
Finau when he sees his fake photo: But he’s white…
Evan to Meachum when he sees his new photo and gives her props: I accept all major credit cards, or Venmo if that’s easier for you…
I like Evan. I hope she’s not a mole. (There’s persistent speculation that someone is, but I like them all at this point!)
Meanwhile, Blythe calls in a favor from an influential friend to try to get the DA off their back with a persuasive speech.
“Nathan Blythe is protecting the citizens of this country, so leave him alone and stay out of the way. Have sense enough to pick good people to do what needs to be done and the self restraint to not meddle with them while they do it.”
We’ll see if the DA really does back off, but he wants his “train to keep on rolling”, so I’m guessing he will. Reluctantly.
Meachum and Oliveras Get to Know Each Other A Little Better
The relationship between Oliveras and Meachum stays strained even as they work together. He confronts her about keeping some of that brick of heroin.
Oliveras: I do what I have to do to save innocent lives.
Meachum: That’s bullshit.
Oliveras: The cartel doesn’t play by the rules, why should we?
Meachum then spits it right out, asking her if she’s using, saying he’ll ride or die but needs to know exactly where that edge is. She doesn’t answer, deflecting by accusing him of being an LA kid who probably dabbled. That’s how we finally find out some Mark Meachum backstory – the fandom has been eagerly awaiting that!
Meachum: For one, I’m not an LA kid. Victorville, a desert rat. Drove cars too fast, spray painted graffiti, swore I’d leave the desert and never come back or you end up working at a Citgo or a rubber factory and never leave town.
He also apparently dropped out of high school and was given a choice of what armed forces branch to serve in – he flipped a coin.
For her part, Oliveras knows something is up with Meachum too. As they’re heading out, he gets stabbing pains in his head and hides it from the team by saying he’ll take the stairs.
He then gets dizzy and falls down a flight and passes out!
By the time Oliveras comes looking for him, he’s up and insisting he forgot his keys, but she clearly doesn’t buy it.
Mark Meachum In A Hoodie!
Later we see Mark spin out in his bathroom. It’s one of those scenes that Ackles excels at, the strong unemotional guy with his walls down, vulnerable looking in a gray hoodie and bare feet, hair disheveled (not a complaint at ALL). The Supernatural fandom already has a weakness for injured-sick-suffering Ackles in a hoodie, so this scene really hit hard.
The cinematography for this show really works sometimes, and this scene is one of those. We see him from above, adding to the sense of vulnerability, in the middle of the small room, penned in, alone, time running out.
He’s on the phone begging his doctor for stronger meds.
Meachum: I fucking blacked out on the stairs today, I can’t come to see you, lives are at stake – I need you to write me a goddamn prescription for my fucking headaches!
Episode 4 is the most emotional episode yet, which in my book is a good thing. We needed a few episodes to start caring about the task force team. With an ensemble cast, it takes time to know anyone well enough to care if they live or die, so the show needed the first three episodes to establish who they are – and why we should be rooting for them. This episode is the payoff for spending some time doing that. It might have been even more effective later, but Countdown is nothing if not fast paced. The team is working against the clock, and the narrative needs something more to galvanize them. Something personal, not just ‘save the world’ – because humans actually respond more to threats to someone they know and love than to ‘do it for humanity’. Forgive the Supernatural reference, but that show was brilliant in anchoring Sam and Dean’s ‘saving people hunting things’ mantra to their own family from the jump.
This episode kicks off with the aftermath of Drew’s shocking shooting. Nothing raises the tension more than knowing that nobody is safe in a fictional show. It’s a reflection of reality – what they’re doing is dangerous, and that means in real life people get hurt and people get shot and people die. We need to know this early on so we can feel that the danger is real, instead of reassuring ourselves that “oh he’s part of the team, he’ll be okay”.
Who knows?
That realism makes the difference between a heart pounding sense of danger and a pass-the-popcorn complacency.
We already know enough about Damon (Jonathan Togo) to be rooting for him to be okay, which amps up the tension. After all, he’s lost a son and we’ve seen some of his struggle to cope with that unimaginable loss. So another tragic loss? Too much.
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We see Drew’s emotional importance to the team through Mark Meachum, riding in the ambulance leaning over Damon with his hand pressed over his chest to frantically try to stop the bleeding. I’m a seasoned Supernatural fan, so I get a bad feeling when there’s that much blood – and also when a character played by Jensen Ackles keeps reassuring, “I’m right here, we’re gonna fix you up, okay? I’m right here…” Oh yes, we’ve been there before, and it usually ends up breaking my heart.
The episode doesn’t rush it too much, slowing the clock down as it were, the team waiting for news of the emergency surgery. Meachum again is our entry point for their emotions, looking devastated and lost in the hospital corridor, helpless to do something to save his friend.
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Ackles has had a lot of experience portraying grief thanks to fifteen years as Dean Winchester, and he can really make you feel the gravity of it. It’s those human touches that keep Countdown from being just another procedural show with lots of car chases and shootouts.
His acute awareness of his own mortality just adds to the gravity of the moment. How long, he must be wondering, before it’s me who’s lying there fighting for my life?
I haven’t watched past episode 4, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the task force team become very important to Meachum as he continues to have more symptoms – everyone needs people who care enough to gather in the hospital waiting room and hope for you to make it. Everyone needs to feel a sense of belonging, especially in those times. Mark has pushed a lot of people away, and I wonder if the task force will fill that gap for him. I hope so.
The title card brilliantly is juxtaposed over a stricken Meachum, the letters appearing first almost like bars caging him in, as we pull out to spell out ‘Countdown’. Ackles can say more with his eyes than most people can say with an entire speech.
The new streaming series ‘Countdown’ premiered in the wee hours of the morning on Prime Video, much to the delight of scores of waiting fans. If you haven’t had a chance to watch it yet, there are no big spoilers in this review, but there is some description of the characters we’re introduced to and the events of the first three episodes. Which I loved!
‘Countdown’ follows an LAPD officer who is recruited to a secret task force to solve a murder. In the process a sinister plot to take down the whole city is uncovered, upping the stakes considerably. The show is a high energy, suspenseful rollercoaster ride, with all the epic chase scenes and fight scenes and explosive surprises that you might expect from this kind of show. Its characters, however, are unexpectedly complex, badass but also surprisingly vulnerable (as much as they try to hide it). The cast are as interesting a group as the task force itself, all of them talented enough to pull the complexity off.
‘Countdown’ stars Jensen Ackles as Mark Meachum, a rebel of an LAPD officer who isn’t afraid to go undercover (like, seriously undercover) and is a veteran of another task force with a similarly challenging mission. I’ve been a fan of Jensen Ackles for twenty years, ever since Supernatural’s Dean Winchester captured my heart, so I couldn’t wait to meet his new character.
And what a meeting it is!
Meachum is a badass with probably too much courage and bravado for his own good. When we meet him, he doesn’t look on the side of the law in any way, long haired and scruffy in prison scrubs (which totally works for Ackles because of course it does. I mean, Soldier Boy, ahem…)
He’s also holding his own in a brawl in the yard. And let me tell you, there’s nothing Ackles fans love more than watching his character go absolutely feral, kicking and snarling and showing off his fighting prowess.
Fandom: Who’s that actor and how’d he get that job?
Ackles isn’t afraid to get (literally) down and dirty, manhandled and thrown to the ground and athletically kicking anything and everything in range even as he’s held back by some burly guards. (His stunt double of course did some of this, but that was Ackles getting thrown around at some points too – much to his delight!)
I’ve been a fan of Jensen Ackles for a long time, ever since Supernatural’s Dean Winchester appeared on the screen twenty years ago and captured my heart. Ackles has been in quite a few series since then, including his memorable turn as Soldier Boy in ‘The Boys’ (returning in 2026), but I am loving how much buzz there is for the new show he’s starring in, ‘Countdown’. The internet has been so full of Countdown content that it’s been difficult to keep up – which is definitely NOT something I’m complaining about!
Even the TV Guide which still gets delivered to our house old school featured Ackles and company on the cover, much to my great delight.
In fact, it seems like Jensen Ackles and Countdown are everywhere.
If you were in New York City, you were treated to a billboard!
Thanks to Prime Video kindly sending me the advance screeners, I’ve been able to watch the new series (the first four episodes so far) and I am now even MORE excited for everyone to see them too. While we wait for the series to kick off on June 25 so I can post all my thoughts on the first three episodes that I’m absolutely bursting to share, here’s why we are all so full of anticipation. (No spoilers!)
One reason for all the excitement? Derek Haas is not only the showrunner, but wrote ALL the first season episodes.
The first thing Jensen Ackles said to me about ‘Countdown’, back when the show was announced, was how excited he was to be working with Derek Haas. Haas created ‘Chicago Fire’ and wrote over 200 episodes of that show and its various spinoffs, impressing a lot of people along the way – including Ackles.
And Amazon.
And guess who else has been impressing Amazon (and Haas) along the way? That’s right. Ackles. That makes Countdown an absolute love fest, with all three feeling lucky to be working with the other two. And it shows!
Ackles, Haas and Dane on the carpet
During the press day last week, Haas told GiveMeMyRemote.com that after he pitched Countdown to Amazon, one of the execs called him and said “you’ve got to meet this guy, Jensen Ackles.” The two went to lunch, discovered they grew up in the same hometown, and totally hit it off. “From that moment on,” Haas said, “I was thinking about and writing Mark Meachum in Jensen’s cadence. He’s so funny and nice and up for anything, and that kind of infused the character as we went.” In another chat with The Wrap, Haas remembered the genre shows he’d loved growing up, like Raiders, Die Hard and Lethal Weapon, and said “Thankfully, I got Jensen Ackles – he could have been in any of those movies.”
Add to that an ensemble cast who are both talented and apparently just plain wonderful to work with, and you’ve got a recipe for success. I confess I didn’t know Haas or his work, but I’ve followed Ackles and his work for twenty years as a passionate Supernatural and The Boys fan. Hearing him talk about the great atmosphere they had on the Countdown set, the cast playing games or playing guitar in between takes, is what makes me most excited about the show. When there’s that genuine chemistry in real life, it translates to the screen – anyone who watched Supernatural knows that!
Ackles has talked many times about how important it was to him to set a tone on the set of Supernatural that made going to work fun, with the cast and the crew joking around until they called Action, including in his chapter in ‘There’ll Be Peace When You Are Done’. He brought that ethos to Countdown. The behind the scenes photos shared during filming and taking a break from press day make that clear.
Ackles admitted to ExtraTV that he tried hard to break everyone and make them laugh, both cast and crew.
Ackles: I think it sets a tone on set that is – you forget we’re making entertainment here sometimes – I like to have fun doing what I do. It should be fun, you should enjoy it. I like that kind of environment to create in.
There’s a reason Supernatural ran for 15 years, after all.
At the premiere party for Countdown last week in LA and in the press day interviews, the mutual love fest that Jensen Ackles and costar Eric Dane have going on was also clear. Dane was recently diagnosed with ALS; Ackles was a steadfast and supportive friend at his side for much of the press day and Dane had nothing but praise for Ackles as both a friend and an actor.
Frazer Harrison via Getty Images
Ackles shared with People that Dane’s command of scenes and his quiet leadership were something that came through onscreen but were also influential on set, calling Dane “a total stud”. Dane, like ‘The Boys’ Antony Starr, was hoping mutual acquaintances would give him some dirt on Ackles, but nope. “I love you,” Dane confided to Ackles in an interview with TooFab. “Shut up,” Ackles retorted fondly.
All the actors complimented each other in the press day interviews. That translates into lots of chemistry between them onscreen, which sets Countdown apart from your standard procedural.
‘Countdown’ follows an LAPD officer (Ackles) who is recruited to a secret task force to solve a murder. In the process a sinister plot to take down the whole city is uncovered, upping the stakes considerably. That sounds like relatively standard procedural fare, but the show stands out in more ways than one.
First, Ackles and Haas have expressed their excitement for the format of Countdown – like many streaming shows, it will release some episodes simultaneously, in this case the first three. But like more traditional network shows, the rest of the episodes will release weekly, giving fans time to dissect and discuss and hypothesize and do what fans do best. Instead of six or eight episodes, Countdown has thirteen, giving its audience more time with the characters to get to really care about them. As a psychologist who studies fandom, I think that both of those strategies make a difference. Every show dreams about building a fanbase as loyal, long-lasting and passionate as Supernatural’s, but it’s difficult to do with a limited number of episodes that all drop at once, precluding the anticipation that’s an agonizing and pleasurable part of fandom and not providing enough content and backstory to nourish fans’ discussion and creativity in expanding its canon.
Countdown aims to remedy both those problems. Of course, you still have to have a well written and conceived show with compelling characters to capture fans’ attention – but guess what? Countdown has managed to do that too!
Second, the show is as suspenseful as its ticking stopwatch title card suggests. It pulls you in and grabs hold of you and just doesn’t let you go. From its first frames, the series knows how to keep you on the edge of your seat with its well choreographed action scenes and epic chases. The filming angles make you feel like you’re right there in the midst of the action, the music is so good it’s an integral part of telling the story, and the fast pace gets your adrenaline pumping. Do not drink a big cup of caffeine while you’re watching this show!
It’s not just the action and suspense that draws you in, though, it’s the people. Countdown also introduces its ensemble cast of characters slowly enough that you feel like you get to know them a little before the team is assembled – and you even start to care about them. I have A LOT more to say about the characters, but I’ll save most of that for the 25th. I will say that the chemistry Ackles keeps saying was created “in disgusting amounts” is very much in evidence.
Third, the series (at least the four episodes I’ve watched so far) is remarkably consistent. Haas wrote all the episodes of this first season and is also the showrunner, so it’s a tight narrative – something that’s rare in a 13 episode series! Haas is a gifted writer, creating characters who each stand out in their own way. He shows them to us gradually, letting us form a first impression just like their fellow team members do, but then giving us glimpses of what’s underneath – which often contradicts their surface presentation just enough that we’re left going hmmmm…
Sure Mark Meachum is a badass full of bravado and snark – a cowboy who doesn’t fit the mold and doesn’t care. But we find out quickly that he does care about justice, especially when it’s the powerful hurting the less powerful. And he’s not afraid to put his own future on the line to do what he thinks is right. The other characters are similarly complex, all facing challenges they’d rather the rest of the team not see. Nathan Blythe is the team leader, the anchor keeping them in check as well as the calm presence who keeps them grounded, and Eric Dane is the perfect actor to bring him to life. Every character is unique, with a backstory that’s relatable enough that we want to know more.
From Derek Haas on Bluesky
Jensen Ackles fans are split as to whether there should be any parallels drawn to Ackles’ iconic role as Dean Winchester in Supernatural – Ackles himself, who loves Dean as much as any of us do, has been happy to make those comparisons, saying that the Mark Meachum character will be familiar
Any character who says (with great sincerity) like Mark Meachum does “If I’m going out, I’m going out saving something” would have a hard time not reminding me of Dean Winchester! In my book, that is far from a bad thing.
Both Eric Dane and Jensen Ackles know what it’s like to be known for playing a long-running character on a popular show (like Grey’s Anatomy or Supernatural).
Ackles: If you get put into a box in this industry, maybe from a working actor’s perspective it’s debilitating, but I don’t view it as that. I view it as the fact that we actually made it into a box and there is a playground in which we can play. I’m happy to play in that as long as this industry will let me. If it wants to see me in somewhere else and play in a different playground, I’m happy to do that too. I don’t have to do this, I get to do this. As long as I get to keep playing with amazing people like this and telling amazing stories like Derek has created, put me in a box all day.
Eric: I love him.
Interviewer: I love you both.
Me: I love everyone in this video!
And I do really appreciate Jensen’s genuine gratitude and enthusiasm for the profession he loves and the characters he plays. And how he looks in that green shirt.
TV Line gets my award for interview question that most amused Ackles: Would you say that Mark Meachum has BDE – Big Dean (Winchester) Energy?
Ackles: Yeah I think you could definitely say there’s a familiarity there. I don’t know about similarity, but there’s a familiarity in that they’re a little cavalier in the way they attack the dark forces.
And that is very very fun to watch! (Of course, as he pointed out, the dark forces Meachum is going after are mortal, not ghost and vampires. Hence he only needs a pistol instead of a whole trunk full of weapons).
Mark and Dean are not the same in many ways, but the things that are familiar are things that I enjoy in a character – things that make a fictional character human. That make us care about them. Ackles excels at showing us that nuance and reluctant vulnerability in a character, and I am already intrigued by Mark Meachum as a result.
Are you enjoying all the buzz as much as I am? You can catch Jensen Ackles tomorrow on Jimmy Fallon talking Countdown – and then catch the premiere of the first three episodes on June 25 streaming on Prime Video.
