As a purely kinetic action-adventure series and a political thriller, “Paris Has Fallen” is a gripping race around France, with snipers, mercenaries and politicians all vying for the moral low ground. ... This “Fallen” is sufficiently exciting without him [Gerard Butler].

Creator Howard Overman understands that an action film can’t stand on the merits of its thrills alone and needs interesting characters to make it all that more involving.

The jury’s out on how many episodes Paris Has Fallen can sustain the relative juice imported from the Has Fallen movies. If there is a core HFU fanbase rising up for this small screen continuance, that contingent should be happy. But as action-thriller stuff goes, Paris Has Fallen in general feels kinda basic.

If you’re looking for realism, you won’t find it in Paris Has Fallen. .... But if you’re not too picky about verisimilitude (and if you are, try the superb French espionage show The Bureau instead) Paris Has Fallen bowls along briskly and the action scenes are well-handled.

By taking “Has Fallen” in a new direction, it somehow becomes far less interesting, never quite reaching the farthest depths of that dreadful second sequel but existing simply as a show hardly in need of joining the world Gerard Butler first began.

A show that brushes past Butler's corn-fed actioner conceit and does something alternatingly innovative and tedious with it.