Stream It Or Skip It?

Created and written by John Wick and Nobody writer Derek Kolstad, Splinter Cell: Deathwatch is the first animated series to spin out of Splinter Cell, the 25-year-old Ubisoft video game franchise, endorsed by Tom Clancy, that also features its own line of in-universe action-adventure novels. And while the eight-episode series is said to be canon as it relates to existing threads in the Splinter Cell story, when we meet usual game protagonist and superagent Sam Fisher (Liev Schreiber) in Deathwatch, his adventures seem to be over. Schreiber stars along with the voices of Kirby, Joel Oulette, and Janet Varney. 

Opening Shot: A map of Lithuania, and the strained voice of a goggled operative. “Files secured, but I’m burned. Need evac! Get me out, Grim!”

The Gist: Fans of the Splinter Cell games and book tie-ins will recognize Grim. That’s Anna “Grim” Grímsdòttir (Janet Varney), tech whiz and operations chief for Fourth Echeleon, the covert intelligence group at the center of this media franchise. But Grim’s got her hands full in Deathwatch, because the Echelon op she’s currently running is going very very sideways. Echelon agent Zinnia McKenna (Kirby) has been sent in. She’ll secure the data they were trying to retrieve, rescue the previous agent. Unless he has already perished. Unless someone else knows they’re after the precious data. Unless Echelon’s systems have been fully hacked. Because all of that would mean McKenna’s on her own, without comms. And that Echelon itself is burned. 

While all this is going on, we also take in a quiet retired life on a farm in Suwalki, Poland. This is Sam Fisher (Schreiber), an older man the animation in Deathwatch imagines to look sort of like The Rock-era Sean Connery, who sips whiskey and pets his dog Kaiju as he remembers what his old friend Douglas Shetland said back in 1991. “May our girls never have to see the things we have.” Shetland’s now-grown daughter Diana is the CEO of Displace International, a private military contractor among other things, so it seems she probably has. Whether Deathwatch will introduce Sarah, Sam’s daughter from the Splinter Cell games and books, we will have to see.

Whoever is after Echelon will come for Sam Fisher, too. We’ve all seen enough black ops stuff to know it’s an industry where retirement isn’t usually in play. As Deathwatch catches Sam up with Grim and Echelon operatives like McKenna, it’s also making us aware of Diana Shetland’s activities with Displace, revolutionary fuel energies at play among international governments, and even a network of ancient tunnels discovered by archaeologists. We would bet something from Sam Fisher’s past – maybe even something Splinter Cell heads know from playing the games – is connected to all of this, and has come back to cause trouble in the Deathwatch present.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Splinter Cell: Deathwatch is only the latest of Netflix’s video game adaptations – the streamer’s been pushing money and creative into animated stuff like this since Castlevania. And big-name creators are behind two recent adult-animation series at HBO Max, James Gunn with Creature Commandos and Cowboy Bebop creator Shinichiro Watanabe with Lazarus.

Our Take: We’ve engaged with exactly none of the Splinter Cell video games and books, and we were still engaged with Splinter Cell: Deathwatch from the beginning, so whether questions of canon and connectivity matter will probably vary based on the viewer. We especially like the introduction of Sam Fisher as an older, wiser version of himself. Maybe he’s a hair trigger’s breadth slower, too, not quite the silent, stealthy, go-through-as-many-guys-as-it-takes superagent anymore. That’s interesting tension for a character who fueled an entire media franchise with his abilities. And especially as Deathwatch introduces its Sam by way of his re-insertion into that superagent life. Whether he’s slower or not, he’s suddenly got people to protect.  

We can also dig the general mood of Deathwatch. Sure, people whispering to each other through earbuds, control rooms full of screens, masked operatives in night-vision goggles cutting down adversaries – yes, this series has all of that. But it also has what seems to be an ominous bad guy presence – a cocktail of crazy violent, super smart, and staying one step ahead of the good guys. And it’s got a strong sense of darkness and light with its animation, which really helps visualize the landscape. In the opening episode, an action sequence set in the dark of night, during a blizzard-y winter squall, has as much intensity as Jason Bourne tracking Clive Owen with a shotgun. We’re onboard with what Splinter Cell: Deathwatch is working with. While its relationship to the parent media franchise matters, respect-wise and in how it will explore established characters, the series feels equally watchable by anyone as an action-oriented animated standalone.

Sex and Skin: None.

Parting Shot: The Sam Fisher we meet in Splinter Cell: Deathwatch is a little older than the character was in the video game series. But that doesn’t necessarily mean he has lost a step, as a series of attackers many decades his junior soon discover.

Sleeper Star: In addition to Kirby as Echelon operative Zinnia McKenna, Deathwatch has also created another non-canon character, Joel Oulette as skilled hacker Thunder.

Most Pilot-y Line: (Echelon tech) “He’s not gonna get involved.” (Grim) “He’s not gonna get a choice.” Sam Fisher’s back in the game whether he wants to be or not.

Our Call: Stream It. Splinter Cell: Deathwatch definitely feels dialed into its video game and book franchise source material. But it also has a lot of style on its own, and a growly lead voice acting performance from Liev Schreiber, two factors that feed its freestanding quality. For all the Splinter Cell franchise heads out there, it’s cool if Deathwatch presents the cartoon Sam Fisher of your veteran gamer dreams. But we don’t feel like one’s gotta be into that lore to get into this. 

Johnny Loftus (@johnnyloftus.bsky.social) is a Chicago-based writer. A veteran of the alternative weekly trenches, his work has also appeared in Entertainment Weekly, Pitchfork, The All Music Guide, and The Village Voice.