''Treadstone'' is an American

action Action may refer to: * Action (narrative), a literary mode * Action fiction, a type of genre fiction * Action game, a genre of video game Film * Action film, a genre of film * ''Action'' (1921 film), a film by John Ford * ''Action'' (1980 fil ...

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been ...

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 Madison ...

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 D ...

, 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 continge ...

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 Allied occupation zones in Germany, Soviet sector of Berlin, established in 1945. The American, British, and French sectors were known as ...

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 List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

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 Tracy Ifeachor is a British television and theatre actress best known for playing the role of Aya Al-Rashid in The CW vampire series '' The Originals'' and Abigail Naismith in both parts of the ''Doctor Who'' Christmas special, " The End of T ...

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 Omar Metwally is an American actor. He is best known for his portrayal of Dr. Vik Ullah in the Showtime television series '' The Affair'', as well as for '' Rendition'' (2007), ''Munich'' (2005), and ''Miral'' (2010). He has also appeared in the ...

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'', and h ...

as Doug McKenna * Gabrielle Scharnitzky as Petra Andropov **

Emilia Schüle Emilia Schüle (born 28 November 1992 in Blagoveshchensk) is a Russian-born Germany, German actress. Career Emilia Schüle was born in 1992 History of Germans in Russia, Ukraine and the Soviet Union, in Russia to an ethnic German family. Whe ...

as young Petra *

Michelle Forbes Michelle Renee Forbes Guajardo (born January 8, 1965) is an American actress who has appeared on television and in independent films. Forbes gained attention for her dual role in daytime soap opera ''Guiding Light'', for which she received a D ...

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 Tess Haubrich is an Australian actress and model who most recently played Heather in the 2022 Netflix sci-fi film ''Spiderhead''. Early life and education Haubrich was born on 1 April 1990 in Sydney, New South Wales. She was educated at Pittwat ...

as Samantha McKenna *

Patrick Fugit Patrick Raymond Fugit (; born October 27, 1982) is an American actor. He has appeared in the films ''Almost Famous'' (2000), ''White Oleander'' (2002), ''Spun'' (2003), ''Saved!'' (2004) and '' Wristcutters: A Love Story'' (2006), and portrayed ...

as Stephen Haynes (credited as "Special guest star") *

Lee Jong-hyuk Lee Jong-hyuk (born July 31, 1974) is a South Korean actor. After more than a decade of leading and supporting roles on stage, film and television, he gained newfound mainstream popularity through the 2012 romantic comedy series Series may refe ...

as Colonel Shin *

Oliver Walker Oliver Walker (born 23 September 1985) is a British actor, known for his role on the TV series ''Atlantis''. He has also made guest appearances on '' Doctors'', ''Holby City'' and ''Coronation Street'', among others. Career In 2013, Walker was ...

as Matheson *

Shruti Haasan Shruti Haasan (born 28 January 1986) is an Indian actress and playback singer who works predominantly in Telugu, Tamil and Hindi films. Born in the Haasan family, she is the daughter of actor-filmmaker Kamal Haasan and actress Sarika Thakur. ...

as Nira Patel *

Merab Ninidze Merab Ninidze ( ka, მერაბ ნინიძე; born 3 November 1965) is a Georgian actor. In the English-speaking world, he is best known for the roles of Walter Redlich in ''Nowhere in Africa'' and Oleg Penkovsky in '' The Courier''. ...

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 Captivate Entertainment LLC. is an American film production company, founded by Jeffrey Weiner and Ben Smith in 2009. It has a first-look deal with Universal Studios and it is based on the Universal Studios Backlot in Universal City, Californi ...

, 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

, Gabrielle Scharnitzky, and

had joined the main cast.

and

were added to the cast, with

and

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 review aggregator, 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 arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

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 Wang ...

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 Video on demand#Subscription models, subscription video on-demand Over-the-top media service, over-the-top Streaming media, streaming and Renting, rental service of Amazon (c ...

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