TNT’s ‘High Value Target’ Draws Criticism for Dull Iraq War Drama

TNT’s eight-episode limited series “High Value Target: The Hunt for Saddam” dramatizes the CIA’s pursuit and capture of Saddam Hussein during the Iraq War. Variety’s Aramide Tinubu describes the series as “dull and deeply disturbing,” criticizing its violence, dialogue and reliance on extended war montages. Variety reported.

Based on former CIA analyst John Nixon’s 2016 memoir “Debriefing the President,” the series was adapted by Daniel Stiepleman and Jonathan Wakeham. Joel Kinnaman plays Nixon, with Waleed Zuaiter as Hussein, Talia Balsam as Angela Jenkins and Matthew Wolf as Richard Stillwell.

The drama opens on March 17, 2003, as the United States invades Iraq while searching for Hussein and alleged weapons of mass destruction. It uses archival war footage and Bush administration press briefings to depict the invasion, civilian and U.S. military deaths, the capture and deaths of Hussein’s sons, and the CIA’s increasingly frustrated search for the deposed president.

According to Variety’s review, Nixon argues that colleagues are pursuing unfounded leads, but his warnings are dismissed. After traveling to Iraq, he joins the operation that finds Hussein hiding in an underground tunnel on a farm.

The review identifies Nixon’s interrogations of Hussein as the series’ strongest material. In those scenes, Nixon comes to believe Hussein is telling the truth about not possessing weapons of mass destruction and argues that the West should have focused more closely on Iran.

For entertainment audiences seeking clearly sourced television coverage, the series offers a dramatized examination of a war whose public rationale later collapsed. Variety’s assessment is that its most consequential subject is frequently buried beneath tedious storytelling and graphic depictions of the conflict.