TL;DR: S.W.A.T. Exiles turns Hondo into the grizzled mentor of a wonderfully messy rookie squad. It’s still wrestling with its S.W.A.T. baggage, but Forty Four might be chaotic enough to give this spinoff its own personality.

After eight seasons of S.W.A.T., three cancellations and enough network drama to qualify as its own procedural subplot, you would forgive Hondo for switching off his phone and opening a beach bar somewhere. Apparently, Daniel “Hondo” Harrelson does not believe in peaceful retirement. S.W.A.T. Exiles brings Shemar Moore back for another round, except this time the familiar tactical formula has been given a darker Starz makeover, Hondo is carrying considerably more emotional baggage, and his new squad looks like somebody selected “randomize party” on the character creation screen. The result is messy, familiar and occasionally frustrating, but also much more entertaining than a simple S.W.A.T.resurrection has any right to be.

Hondo has unlocked the grizzled mentor expansion pack

The smartest thing S.W.A.T. Exiles does is resist pretending nothing happened. Hondo isn’t simply waiting around for someone to hand him another tactical vest. After an operation goes horribly wrong, an Internal Affairs investigation and his eventual departure from S.W.A.T., he is carrying guilt and grief that have clearly changed his relationship with the job. Commander Hicks (Patrick St. Esprit) eventually pulls him back toward the LAPD, but the Hondo returning isn’t quite the same guy who spent years confidently leading Twenty Squad.

Shemar Moore sells that evolution without turning Hondo into Captain Sad Face. The authority is still there, as is the sense that this man could probably command a room while ordering coffee, but Moore allows flashes of vulnerability to break through the armour. Unfortunately, the opening episode makes Hondo’s path back unnecessarily confusing, throwing information at us when the character himself is already interesting enough to carry the setup. Once the narrative stops doing tactical somersaults and focuses on Hondo’s emotional state, Exiles becomes much easier to invest in.

Forty Four squad is basically S.W.A.T.’s dysfunctional RPG party

Hondo’s new assignment is where S.W.A.T. Exiles starts having some actual fun. Rather than giving him another collection of ultra-competent operators who can breach a building before I’ve successfully connected my printer to Wi-Fi, the series puts him in charge of trainees who barely made it through candidacy. Ronen Rubinstein plays Jude Callan, Freddy Miyares is Ethan Cole, Zyra Gorecki plays Cassidy Han, Lucy Barrett is Samantha Bishop and Adain Bradley rounds out the group as Malik Henderson. Collectively, they form Forty Four squad, a team that immediately feels less like Twenty Squad 2.0 and more like Hondo has been handed five side quests and told to somehow turn them into heroes.

That is a much better foundation for a spinoff than simply replacing familiar faces with suspiciously similar ones. Samantha’s energetic personality and social-media instincts give her a particularly modern flavour, while Ethan’s intensely analytical approach creates a completely different energy. More importantly, everyone has room to level up. Hondo isn’t merely their squad leader; he’s effectively their increasingly stressed tutorial NPC, except the tutorial involves tactical operations rather than teaching you which button makes your character crouch. That mentor-rookie dynamic gives Exilesa reason to exist beyond “Shemar Moore still looks cool in tactical gear,” although, to be fair, Starz knows that’s also a selling point.

The grit slider is up, but this is still very much S.W.A.T.

The move away from CBS allows Exiles to push toward a heavier character-driven tone. Hondo’s personal struggles receive more attention, the new squad arrives with plenty of rough edges, and the cases sit alongside a broader attempt to make the characters themselves the ongoing story. It feels like the franchise has moved from network television into streaming and immediately discovered the “dark mode” setting. Thankfully, it doesn’t abandon the accessible procedural rhythm that made S.W.A.T. so easy to watch in the first place.

The bigger problem is that Exiles still seems nervous about travelling without its parent show’s GPS. Familiar faces can return, including Jay Harrington’s David “Deacon” Kay, and those connections are naturally going to make longtime viewers happy. But nostalgia is seasoning, not dinner. If Exiles constantly reaches into the S.W.A.T. toy box whenever it needs an emotional boost, Forty Four squad will never become important enough to stand beside the characters audiences already love. The show needs to reach the point where seeing an old favourite feels like a bonus rather than reassurance that we’re still watching the same franchise.

The rookies might actually be the secret weapon

What surprised me most about these opening episodes is that I’m more interested in watching the new squad develop than I am in seeing S.W.A.T. recreated. The concept gives the writers a perfect excuse for mistakes, rivalries, personality clashes and gradual improvement. These characters aren’t supposed to arrive fully formed, and that means Exiles can earn their eventual competence rather than simply telling us everyone is elite because they look convincing while walking dramatically away from an armoured vehicle.

It also gives Hondo a genuinely different job. Leading experienced officers and teaching inexperienced ones require completely different muscles, particularly when the teacher is questioning parts of himself. That parallel is where S.W.A.T. Exiles has its most interesting material: Hondo is rebuilding these recruits while quietly rebuilding himself. The early cases don’t always generate the intensity the series clearly wants, and some of the drama feels bigger in presentation than impact, but the character engine underneath it is solid. If the chemistry grows, Forty Four could eventually stop feeling like “Hondo and the new kids” and start feeling like a squad worth following on its own.

Verdict

S.W.A.T. Exiles hasn’t completely escaped the shadow of S.W.A.T., but at least it isn’t photocopying the old show and hoping nobody notices. Shemar Moore gives Hondo enough emotional damage and maturity to make his return worthwhile, while the collection of barely-qualified rookies injects some much-needed chaos into a franchise built around people who usually know exactly what they’re doing. The confusing opening and occasionally lightweight stakes keep these first episodes from hitting full tactical velocity, and the spinoff still needs to prove it can survive without constantly looking over its shoulder at Twenty Squad.

Still, I’m onboard. The mentor-and-misfits setup is fun, Moore remains an effortlessly convincing centre of gravity, and Forty Four squad has enough personality to become something more than the replacement team nobody asked for. S.W.A.T. Exiles is currently like a rookie who barely passed selection: rough around the edges, occasionally making questionable decisions, but showing just enough potential that kicking it off the squad now would feel premature.