Hanna Season 3: The Roller Coaster Arrives at the Station

Finally had a chance to see the short final season -- six episodes in season 3, rather than the eight episodes in each of seasons 1 and 2 -- of Hanna on Amazon Prime Video since 24 November 2021.  Yeah, the competition, i.e., The Beatles: Get Back on Disney+, was just too appealing.

But Hanna was as strong as ever, non-stop rollercoaster action with unpredictable swerves with characters we've come to care about, starting with Hanna.   She's more accomplished than ever, but also more introspective, as befits someone with her pedigree and current situation.

As was the case since the second season, she's enormously helped by Marissa, whose backstory is finally spelled out in Season 3.  Indeed, this season is so much about Marissa that it could have been called Marissa, or maybe Hanna and Marissa.  Esme Creed-Miles does a fine job as Hanna, and Mireille Enos is better than ever as Marissa, which is to say, she deserves at least an Emmy nomination for her performance in this final season.

Ray Liotta is introduced as the new archvillain Gordon Evans, replacing Dermot Mulroney's John Carmichael in that role.   Here I'd say the combination of the characters and the acting and plot wasn't the best.  Evans was too one-dimensional, betraying not a shred of decency, and Carmichael's evolution needed a bit more explanation.

But the young women in UTRAX were all well acted and motivated as characters. and all in all I'd rate this finale season as well worth seeing, and providing a satisfying closure that leaves room for a sequel somewhere down the road, which I'd definitely find time to watch.

See also Hanna 2: High Intellect and Octane Espionage ... Hanna: Top Notch

Hanna 2: High Intellect and Octane Espionage

Hanna 2 starts a little slow, with a few too many episodes devoted to Hanna getting back to The Meadows and re-uniting with/saving Clara.  But once it gets over that, this second season delivers a story with far more punch and complexity than the first season, especially the complexity part.

The essence of the narrative is the power of the brainwashing that takes place in this facility.  It's so strong that it works completely on all the young women, with the exception of Hanna and Clara (well played, again, by Esme Creed-Miles and Yasmin Monet Prince) .  The question, until the last few episodes, which are pure twists and turns on adrenalin, is how far gone the two of them are.  

Mireille Enos is back as Marissa, and her loyalty to Hanna is clear throughout.  Dermot Mulroney is new in the story as Carmichael, and he makes a suitably single-minded and recalcitrant villain.   So, too, is the soft-spoken Anthony Welsh as Carmichael's prime and gently lethal assistant Leo.  But my favorite new character (well, almost new, she was in two episodes in the first season) is Áine Rose Daly as Sandy.  There are few combinations bound to be as effective as a pretty face and an evil mind in these espionage kind of tales.  The pretty face is easy, either you have it or you don't.  The evil mind is not, and Sandy provides an excellent rendition of that pivotal role, with subtlety and focus.

The sector of the spy drama genre devoted to creating a cadre of super young agents is well worn, but Hanna 2 does a good job of keeping it new and surprising.  Part of its secret is in the details, as in the "face and trigger" method of conducting a smooth assassination.   Part of it is the way it masterfully uses digital text to convey affection that the cadre knows in their hearts is a lie, but they find so difficult to resist.  But the part of the narrative that will be most responsible for keeping you glued to the screen until you've watched every episode is the implacable intelligence of the villains, keeping you and the heroes on the edge until the very end.

Hanna: Top Notch

Hanna on Amazon Prime - a series based on a movie - has been described as a combination of high-tech thriller and coming of age story.  It is all that, and excellently executed.  But it's also science fiction, and, in one way of looking at it, related to Westworld.

Hanna is the result of some kind of CIA program of investing human female babies with something akin to at least low-level superpowers, by which I mean, slightly but significantly better than the best that we normal people can do.  Hanna is a brilliant fighter - able to take out out more than a handful of military with her acrobatic skills and hand-to-hand combat dexterity.  She also has almost a sixth sense of being attuned to trouble and crucial people in her life.  Clara has super keen hearing and is also a master fighter.

The most significant person in Hanna's life is Erik, who raised her in a forest and whom she considers her father.   Eric was working for the CIA some 16 years ago, recruited a pregnant woman for this CIA program, and fell in love her.  He rescued her baby Hanna from the CIA facility and ... I don't want to tell you any more of the story.

So let's turn to the acting.   Esme Creed-Miles is great as Hanna. And seeing Joel Kinnaman (as Erik) and Mireille Enos (as his boss Marissa) back on the screen after their dual starring in The Killing a few years ago was outstanding.  Here they play very different roles, mostly antagonists but maybe veering towards being on the same side.   They two put in two superb performances, down to facial expressions and tones of voice.

A sign of a well-made movie or television series is how well the more minor characters are portrayed.  Hanna is grade-A on this account, with memorable portrayals of Erik's associates and a family from England whose daughter Sophie becomes friends with Hanna.  That's where the coming of age part comes into play, and it's done just right.

High-tech thrillers are almost a dime a dozen these days on streaming services.  If you're in the mood for one, put Hanna at the top of your list.