'Hanna' review: Assassin series wraps up with high body count, answers
Season 3 marks a fitting farewell to series.
As teen girl master assassins go, “Hanna” rocks.
Sure, she’s a massive mess internally. The concept of trust is appropriately foreign to her, normalcy is simply a façade to hide behind and chances are if she meets you she’ll shoot you. It’s been that kind of childhood. It doesn’t make for the most stable life.
But it does make for good TV and “Hanna” concludes its three-season run on Amazon with both the high body count you’d expect and a quick six-episode arc that’s fittingly preposterous and fully satisfying.
To recap: Hanna (Esme Creed-Miles) was genetically bred to be a killer, then stolen as an infant from the shady agency that conceived her. She grew up skilled in survival, but was eventually returned to the agency — and an entire school of similarly gifted/twisted girls. By the end of the second season Hanna and an intelligence agent, Marissa (the always fascinating Mireille Enos), are plotting to undermine the agency.
As the new season begins it becomes clear that all these girls are going to be sent out to kill young idealists around the world who might disturb the status quo. Note to Greta Thunberg: Hide.
It also becomes clear that all this misery has been concocted by a CIA honcho (Ray Liotta) with special ties to Marissa. Soon enough Hanna and Marissa are in an entertaining loop of breaking in and breaking out of high risk places, criss-crossing Europe on the run, and shooting, shooting, shooting people, most of whom are the sort of dressed-in-black, heavily armed nobodies who get shot in shows like this.
It’s typical James Bond overkill stuff, but Creed-Miles and Enos elevate things. Marissa is a closed box of secrets and pain and it’s finally revealed why, and Hanna is likely damaged beyond repair (why wouldn’t she be?).
“Hanna,” happily, doesn’t believe in happy endings. Although Greta Thunberg should be safe now.
Tom Long is a longtime contributor to The Detroit News.
'Hanna'
GRADE: B+
Starts Wednesday on Amazon Prime Video