Photo: Ryan Green/Paramount+
However demented its boomery mix of red- and blue-coded signifiers of institutional distrust — never without a little dose of militant-cowboy dark-Brandon patriotism — Lioness is the perverse and fractured imperial drama our perverse and fractured empire deserves. Its second season ends with another bang that hits like a diabolical whimper. “All we did was change oil prices,” Cruz had told Joe at the end of the season-one special op. By the end of this year’s finale, the Lioness team has wrought an even nastier trail of carnage on two different continents. And all they end up really doing is changing cartel bosses and improving a sitting president’s re-election prospects. No sense of…
