Man on Fire (2026) Netflix Series Review

hello everyone and welcome to the concession stand here on a kb radio network i am your host kevin reed and welcome to the review of

the netflix action thriller man on fire the new television series that consists of seven ever

And yes,

it is an adaptation of the

1980 novel by A.J.

Quinnell.

And it stars Yaya Adu Mateen II as a special forces mercenary suffering from PTSD from his dark past and seeking revenge.

This,

as I said,

is another adaptation.

I think they're like

five different adaptations of man on fire the most popular one that everybody knows is the uh tony scott directed uh denzel washington starring action film from

2004 i believe that's when that film came out and that's one of my favorite denzel washington movies to come out in that little era where he was doing these uh kind of

B-level action films,

and I say B-level in all due respect to Denzel Washington,

they're B-level action films,

but they were elevated to A because of him.

And Man on Fire was like that.

Man on Fire was just a simple little revenge action thriller,

but it was elevated to classic levels because of the great...

denzel washington's performance in that film and so when we're getting another adaptation this time brought to us by netflix in a television format i was i was interested to see you

know maybe more flushing out of the john creasy character and get more of him uh exacting revenge on these people who wronged him?

So it was very interesting when they announced this.

The 2004 film centered around a kidnapping,

whereas the

TV show that we got on Netflix,

it didn't involve a kidnapping.

It was more of a political thriller,

if you will.

And that kind of threw me off,

you know,

as far as the story.

being told because we've seen this particular story now granted we've seen the kidnapped and one man wrecking crew going to rescue their loved ones or whoever yeah we've seen that as well but as

of late that's all we get is political thrillers it feels like when it comes to our action movie plot but with all that being said my driving force to watching these seven episodes was

yeah yeah i do my team the second i i'm a big fan of his you know he's fresh off of the success of wonder man which a lot of people loved i didn't but a lot of people loved that show and

even though i wasn't a big fan of wonder man i i can acknowledge that yeah yeah i do my team the second was good in it you know he wasn't the reason why i wasn't a big fan of that show but

I wanted to see him dive into this role of John Creasy because

John Creasy is a very interesting character.

And then you're following in the footsteps of Denzel Washington.

Now,

you can't compare the two.

Even though

Yaya Abdul-Mateen II is a great actor,

I think he's one of the most underrated actors working today,

to be honest with you.

He's,

he...

He's not Denzel,

and nobody is.

There's only one Denzel.

And so

I went into this not expecting to see a

Denzel Washington clone or impersonation of Denzel Washington as this character.

I wanted to see if he can make it his own,

and he did.

And

Yaya Dumatine did a good job.

Good job.

Not great,

but a good job.

is only a good job because he wasn't given much to do and this series as decent as it was

you know i'm not hating on it i don't think it was bad by no stretch is is very entertaining and a very quick watch you know seven episodes i don't i think only one of them is like an hour i think that's the last episode that's really an hour and five

minutes or something like that everything every other episode is like 45 46 minutes or something like that and so it's a Quick watch.

His character was flushed out more than it was in the film,

of course.

You had more time to do it,

but it still felt like it wasn't enough,

you know,

because you had to split time with these separate little story elements that were added for the show.

And some of that stuff they could have left alone.

You know,

I wanted to follow Creasy on this adventure,

if you will.

You know,

I wanted to see more of him,

more of him.

interrogating this this uh syndicate or whatever they may be you know to get get information and exact revenge it didn't feel like a revenge thriller it was strictly more of a political thriller and

he was out for revenge his character was out for revenge but everything else surrounding it it was more political and it his character suffered because of that

You know,

I just wanted to see more of

John Creasy do John Creasy things that we grew accustomed to from previous adaptations.

The show has a weird balance to it.

It starts off pretty hot and it ends pretty hot.

But somewhere in the middle,

it cooled off.

It was a slow burn.

And it...

It felt like they were just trying to scratch this enough to make a show out of it.

It felt like a movie that they just added extra scenes to make it a TV show.

You know,

that's what it felt like.

It didn't need to be a seven episode series.

Our villain or villains that were saved to the end for the big reveal or the last couple of episodes before.

the big reveal you knew it the very first episode i knew it the first scene who the villain who the villain was they did not do a good job of hiding it for a twist ended it they they dropped the ball big

time and and it has multiple villains and multiple kind of shocks uh who the reveals are it i saw it coming a mile away it Yeah.

i was so disappointed i knew it by episode four exactly what the whole story was i knew the whole layout of everything and it wasn't supposed to be that way you know you're not you you're supposed to discover as john creasy is discovering and unfortunately with the uh uh script

and the the the way the show was uh directed and structured everything was revealed

very very early and that's what i talk about when i say that uh the characters suffer because you as an audience you figured it out but you have to sit there and watch two or three more episodes where our hero

our protagonist is struggling to get the answers and you already know and it makes him feel like he's a idiot oh you hadn't figured it out by now you know it that

That's the way I was sitting there watching it.

I'm like,

man,

he can't figure this out.

He's supposed to be this special forces,

intelligent agent.

I mean,

he's supposed to be like the Ethan Hunt of this universe or whatever.

You know,

he's supposed to be like the creme de la creme of special forces officers.

And he couldn't figure this out.

And I'm just a lowly nobody who can figure this stuff out.

It was just a simple,

simple story that anybody can figure out very,

very early.

And,

you know,

sometimes that's good.

You know,

sometimes you want to sit down and just watch something.

You know,

sometimes you just want to sit down and enjoy your show.

And that's fine.

I'm the same way.

Sometimes I just want to sit down and watch.

I don't want to do homework and think and,

like,

day.

try to construct things and all this here.

I want to be entertained.

And so in that sense,

Man on Fire will probably be perfect because it's not hard to follow.

But...

When you're dealing with a story that they set up where there's a lot of political corruption and government corruption.

Well,

same thing,

political government,

whatever.

But

I'm trying not to spoil whatever,

even though you'll be spoiled pretty early when you watch it.

But it's so much going on,

you know,

it's not that type of show.

At least that's not how they set it up to be.

They set it up to be this complex,

super political.

thriller and trying to disguise it as an action film or action show and the two just didn't mesh right you can do it it is possible to do it but unfortunately man on fire didn't do it well

but with all that being said i didn't hate the show i actually was entertained by the show i think the action was fairly well you know uh

for netflix standards you know it wasn't it wasn't matrix level action but i mean you know it was decent action throughout the series um yeah yeah i do my team the second give a gave a really good performance uh the supporting cast was really good there weren't any bad performances by anybody that comes to mind i i think everybody was properly cast in this show and

did their part and did it well.

You know,

did the best.

they could with the material they were given and like i said earlier it's a quick watch you can blaze through this in one evening day afternoon whenever you want to sit down and watch man on fire on netflix you can get through it like that so

taking all that into account netflix man on fire starring yaya adubo mateen the second which is currently streaming on that platform gets a Let it greet.

of a c plus it's a decent watch you know i was i would go as far to say i will watch it again down the line i'm not going to run back and watch it immediately but you know if i'm looking for something to occupy my mind for a couple hours hey

i'll pop i'll pop uh a man on fire on again unfortunately i'll probably watch the movie before i watch the tv show again but

To be fair,

those were some big shoes to fill.

You know,

the late,

great Tony Scott and Denzel Washington performing in that film.

I mean,

don't compare the two.

That's my advice.

If you haven't watched it yet,

don't go into it trying to compare it to the 2004 film.

Just look at it as its own thing,

which it is.

You know,

don't compare Yaya Du,

my team,

the second to Denzel.

Don't

compare the direction to uh uh tony scott now don't don't do all that just look at it as it is and you'll enjoy it even better what are your thoughts if you did see it what did you like man on fire on netflix let me know email the show kbradiopodcast at gmail.com you can also let me know on all social media platforms just search for the kb radio network don't forget about youtube

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Network. Everybody,

thank you for joining me for this review of Man on Fire,

currently on Netflix.

I want you all to know that I love you.

Continue to love everyone.

Until we speak again,

you all be blessed.

Man on Fire (2026) Netflix Series Review

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