7 Shows Like ‘Special Ops: Lioness’ to Watch if You Love Intense Spy Thrillers

Special Ops: Lioness, the latest show from prolific creator Taylor Sheridan (Yellowstone, 1923, etc.), is in the midst of its first season on Paramount+. The action-packed spy drama stars Laysla De Oliveira as Cruz, a steely rookie CIA operative infiltrating a suspected terror cell by befriending the daughter of its leader, and Zoe Saldaña as her hard-assed handler Joe, who is dealing with crises both personal and professional while trying to keep Cruz safe. It's a tense thriller with the kind of characters only Taylor Sheridan can think of. If you're looking for spy thrillers, violent military series and shows with that special Sheridan touch to watch between episodes, we've compiled a list of shows like Special Ops: Lioness to stream. Consider these shows mission critical.

If you like female CIA agents: 'Homeland' 

The odds are good that if you're watching Special Ops: Lioness, you've already watched Homeland, Showtime's long-running spy thriller, but it has to go on the list anyway, because Lioness is clearly made in Homeland's image. The 2012 Outstanding Drama Series Emmy winner stars Claire Danes as Carrie Mathison, a bipolar CIA agent who runs intelligence operations all over the world while dealing with personal issues. The way Lioness balances harrowing spy action with CIA operative Joe's family drama is straight out of the Homeland playbook. 

Rotten Tomatoes: 85% critics, 86% audience

Watch on Hulu

If you like non-Western Taylor Sheridan: 'Mayor of Kingstown'

Taylor Sheridan is best known for Yellowstone and its family of Western shows, but his breakthrough script was the 2015 thriller Sicario, which stars Emily Blunt as an FBI agent tracking cartel operatives at the U.S.-Mexico border. Lioness finds him working in that vein once again. If you're enjoying Sheridan's signature swaggering style applied to a show that doesn't have cowboys, check out his other non-Western show, Mayor of Kingstown (Tulsa King is a Western). The neo-noir crime drama stars Jeremy Renner as a fixer trying to keep the peace in Kingstown, Michigan, a hardscrabble town where the local industry is a private prison. It's different from the other shows on this list because it's not a spy thriller, but it's like Lioness in that it also has Sheridan trademarks like violent action, morally gray characters and hard-edged philosophical dialogue.

Rotten Tomatoes: 42% critics, 92% audience 

Watch on Paramount+

If you like the Deep State: 'Jack Ryan'

Lioness fills the CIA thriller space left by Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan, which recently ended after four seasons. John Krasinski stars as the titular CIA agent, who uses his analytical brain and his Marine-trained brawn to perform counterterrorism operations for the United States of America. Like Lioness, it's a patriotic drama that isn't unwilling to criticize the American imperial machine, at least a little bit. And both shows feature Michael Kelly, Hollywood's go-to government man, as a CIA agent.

Rotten Tomatoes: 77% critics, 72% audience

Watch on Prime Video

If you like undercover agents on perilous missions: 'Narcos' 

Narcos tells the story of the rise of drug cartels and the start of the War on Drugs in the late '70s and early '80s by following Medellín Cartel founder Pablo Escobar (Wagner Moura) on one side of the law and DEA agents Steve Murphy (Boyd Holbrook) and Javier Peña (Pedro Pascal) on the other. Like the Lioness program agents, Murphy and Peña get to their targets through the women who are close to them, though in a different, more seductive way. And also like Lioness, Narcos is not afraid to get bloody and torturous in its action. 

Rotten Tomatoes: 89% critics, 95% audience

Watch on Netflix

If you like moody operators: 'Echo 3' 

A slight air of ambivalence hangs over Special Ops: Lioness, as Joe, Cruz and the rest of the team don't relish the things they have to do in the line of duty. If you like that piece of the tone, check out Apple TV+'s underrated thriller Echo 3. Michiel Huisman and Luke Evans star as brother-in-law Delta Force operators who don't like each other but have to team up to rescue the woman they have in common, a scientist played by Jessica Ann Collins, after she's kidnapped by militants in Colombia. The show was created by The Hurt Locker screenwriter Mark Boal, who, like Sheridan, writes politically ambiguous explorations of American masculinity. It shares with Lioness a combination of emotionally grounded character drama and bruising military action.

Rotten Tomatoes: 68% critics, 56% audience

Watch on Apple TV+

If you like undercover counterterrorism: 'Sleeper Cell'

If your favorite part of Lioness is Cruz's thrilling infiltration of a terrorist organization, check out Sleeper Cell, which ran for two seasons on Showtime between 2005 and 2006. The spy drama stars Michael Ealy as a Black Muslim FBI agent who goes undercover in a radical Islamic terror cell in Los Angeles. It was nominated for the Emmy for Outstanding Miniseries in 2006. 

Rotten Tomatoes: 77% critics, 83% audience

Watch on Hulu

If you like intense military action: 'The Terminal List' 

Lioness is a gritty, brutal operator thriller. If you like that, The Terminal List is even grittier, more brutal, and more operational. Chris Pratt stars as James Reece, a Navy SEAL who sets out on a revenge mission after his unit and family are killed in a government cover-up. Reece isn't a spy, but he knows how to fight. 

Rotten Tomatoes: 40% critics, 95% audience

Watch on Prime Video