TL;DR: Countdown starts strong, peaks early, and limps into a cliffhanger that Prime might never resolve. Good performances, messy storytelling, rough ending.

I went into Countdown with my expectations somewhere between “solid mid-tier Prime thriller” and “okay, Jensen Ackles growling into a gun for ten episodes—fine, I’ll bite.” What I didn’t expect was to get strung along with one of the most frustrating season finales I’ve sat through in years. And before anyone says, “but cliffhangers are supposed to frustrate,” let me stop you right there. There’s a difference between The Empire Strikes Back leaving Han frozen in carbonite and whatever the hell Countdown pulled with its half-baked ending. One is a masterclass in suspense. The other is an incomplete jigsaw puzzle shoved back in the box.

The season starts strong enough. A dead Homeland Security agent, shadowy conspiracies, fissile material floating around like loose change, and Ackles’ Mark Meachum battling a brain tumor while flexing his square-jawed intensity. By the time Task Force Hurricane finally shuts down Anton Volcheck’s nuclear plot, I was all in. It felt like the natural climax—our protagonists beat the bad guy, Meachum proves he can still outwit death itself, and the team earns their hard-fought win. That’s a season right there. Or at least, it should’ve been.

But then Countdown gets cute. Ten months later—bam, time skip. Suddenly we’re chasing a new assassination plot. Governor Shelby and the President are in the crosshairs, and the team is back in action like nothing happened. It’s an interesting swing on paper, a bold move to keep the momentum going. In practice? It plays like the show accidentally tripped into a new season without bothering to reset the table. And by the time we hit the actual finale, the assassination arc isn’t even resolved. Instead, we’re left with Amber Oliveras kidnapped by a faceless assassin, the romance subplot between her and Meachum hanging in limbo, and zero emotional payoff.

That’s the core problem: Countdown Season 1 doesn’t end. It just stops. Not with a bang, not with a revelation, not even with a clever wink to the audience. Just unfinished business and a renewal-shaped question mark hanging overhead. Jessica Camacho’s Oliveras deserved better than being recycled into damsel-in-distress territory, especially since the pilot introduced her in nearly the same predicament. To circle back to that setup without offering her a moment of triumph—or even a breadcrumb of hope—feels like a betrayal of the character’s growth.

And here’s the maddening part: people showed up for this show. Countdown shot to the top of Prime Video’s charts on release, and fans were immediately invested. The viewership numbers were there, the buzz was there, but the renewal wasn’t. That silence from Prime Video turns the finale from a calculated cliffhanger into a cruel coin toss. Will Oliveras survive? Will the task force crack the assassination plot? Will Meachum’s story actually go somewhere meaningful? Who knows—maybe Amazon will tell us. Or maybe they’ll let it rot in the purgatory of “promising series, unresolved forever.”

I don’t mind a show trying to innovate with structure. In fact, I respect it. But ambition only works if you respect the audience’s investment. Right now, Countdown feels like a half-finished experiment that took its biggest swing and then left us stranded midair. Ackles, Camacho, and Eric Dane all bring enough grit and charisma to make the ride worth it, but when the credits rolled on “Your People Are in Danger,” I felt more cheated than thrilled.

If Prime Video pulls the trigger on Season 2, there’s a path forward. Close the Oliveras cliffhanger quickly, wrap up the Todd plot cleanly, and decide on the kind of show this wants to be. Either lean into the serialized, case-by-case thriller structure like a modern 24, or commit to season-long arcs with real closure. What they can’t afford to do is keep splitting the difference.

Until then, I’m left with the same feeling I get when my Wi-Fi drops mid-stream: annoyed, unsatisfied, and wondering if I should’ve just rewatched Reacher.

Final Verdict: 

Countdown delivers some pulse-pounding thrills, a standout cast, and flashes of potential, but sabotages itself with a finale that confuses ambition with coherence. Unless Prime Video renews it, the series will go down as yet another action-thriller with more questions than answers.