Sleeper Cell: American Terror (Sleeper Cell Season 2)

Paramount Home Entertainment

I watched the original Sleeper Cell when I bought my iPod Video. I thought, “it is a Showtime production; it will be more real than anything on regular TV. …AND they’ll show boobies!” I was not disappointed.

Back again from the first season are Michael Ealy as FBI agent Darwyn al-Sayeed; Oded Fehr as Farik (the cell leader from last season); Henri Lubati as Ilija, the only other terrorist to escape alive from last season’s finale; and the lovely Melissa Sagemiller as Darwyn’s girlfriend, Gail (who this season knows he is an FBI agent, and not a ex-con with mysterious dealings
strange foreigners in the middle of the night).

This season has Darwyn infaltrating another cell that is planning a nuclear attack on American soil. Farik and Ilija are followed on their respective courses in the aftermath of last season’s failed attack.

I really enjoyed last season and was pumped to see what happened next. I realized watching the second season that what I liked most about the first season was the interaction between Michael Ealy’s low-key Muslim character and Oded Fehr’s extremist character. (Of which there is none in the second season, except in the final episode.) The second season, while good, was a lot like the first, with a couple of exceptions: Darwin has a new handler (the FBI agent that he
reports info to and gets info from) that he does not get along with, and one of the terrorists is a woman (who takes an uncomfortable interest in Gail).

You’ve got to like Oded Fehr…even though he is playing a character who would kill you for looking at him wrong, he seems extraordinarally “cool.” I am talking “The Fonz” cool…you know, if Fonzie were a Muslim extremist, and Richie was an undercover FBI agent and Ralph Malph was his Handler.

Randy Otteson