Stream It Or Skip It: ‘SEAL Team’ Season 7 on Paramount+, The Final Mission For This David Boreanaz-Led Military Drama

As SEAL Team returns to Paramount+ for its seventh and final season, it’s on the heels of David Boreanaz’ Master Chief Jason Hayes turning down the Navy Cross at the end of Season 6, in protest of his and his fellow special warfare operators’ deteriorating mental health. Relegated to shit jobs and shore duty as command punishes the team rather than address the issue, Hayes and Bravo are fighting a battle of attrition as their time in the teams, and the show itself, starts to wind down. Boreanaz, Neil Brown Jr., AJ Buckley, Raffi Barsoumian, Toni Trucks, Alona Tal, and Jessica Paré all return for this final season deployment of SEAL Team; Beau Knapp and Dylan Walsh join the cast.

SEAL TEAM – SEASON 7: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT? 

Opening Shot: “These tadpoles have no idea how easy they have it, compared with what we did back in the day.” Master Chief Jason Hayes (Boreanaz) is running a training op for a bunch of young SEAL hopefuls, who struggle to haul their Zodiac boats out of the surf. 

The Gist: “It’s like you taught me boss dog. Always improve your fighting position.” It was a real unifying moment at the end of SEAL Team season 6, when Ray Perry (Brown Jr.) and the rest of Bravo Team stood in solidarity with Jason Hayes and his defiant stance against chronic battle operations-related brain trauma. But a few months later, they all find themselves in various dog houses with the brass. Commander Blackburn (Judd Lormand), DEVGRU’s executive officer, and Captain Walch (Walsh), its new commanding officer, are at odds with Hayes after the bad optics of his Navy Cross stunt. The navy’s also got Sonny Quinn (Buckley) and Omar Hamza (Barsoumian) fighting the “war on turds” as they clean dog kennels. And Ray is riding out the weeks before retirement as an administrative flunky while he plans to expand the veterans’ treatment center he founded with wife Naima (Parisa Fakhri).  

Life on shore does have some benefits for Bravo Team. Hayes has more face time with his son, daughter, and her fiance, and he’s making it work with Mandy Ellis (Paré). Sonny spends time with his own little daughter and helps out Stella (Tal), Clay’s widow. (Max Thieriot’s Bravo Team member was killed off last season.) Sparks could also continue to fly between Sonny and DEVGRU intelligence officer Lisa Davis (Trucks), whose career continues to advance. (She’s developing an “integrated deterrent strategy,” where the SEALs work with external national partners, but is also receiving pushback on that.) Still, for the most part, the team is in gripe mode. The navy continues to dismiss the issue of warfighter health, and they watch frustrated as other operators get the call to deploy.

That all changes with a trip to Sweden. Tasked with conducting a month-long training mission for that country’s special operations groups, Bravo are cooling their heels in Umeå, not taking kindly to being paired with a brusque, unliked SEAL named Drew Franklin (Knapp), when their situation heats up unexpectedly. They’re back in the field. But they’re not getting any younger, and they’re still smarting from their recent licks. Once again, Jason Hayes and Bravo Team will have to put in the work to improve their fighting position.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? When Max Thieriot was written out of the show in season 6, some arguments on the SEAL Team fan subreddits hated the move, calling Theriot’s Clay Spenser the heart and soul of the show. Nevertheless, with Clay’s status as a fallen operator memorialized on the wall of the team’s favorite local dive, Theriot can continue to focus on Fire Country, the show he stars in and co-created, which returns to CBS for its third season in October. (Fire Country has also begun streaming on Netflix.) 

Our Take: It’s been an impressive seven-season run for SEAL Team, which along the way survived the departure of fan favorite Thieriot and a move from CBS to Paramount+. But let’s face it. While the average real-life Navy SEAL is in his 30s, David Boreanaz is 55, which presents a problem for a series that thrives when its Master Chief is leading Bravo Team in the field. SEAL Team has always prided itself on authenticity, with former military personnel working on the show in various capacities. As Boreanaz and the actors who play its other team guy principals age out of their roles – Neil Brown Jr. and AJ Buckley are both in their 40s – hanging up the tactical vests, unlacing the boots, and putting the firearms in a weapons locker feels like the right move. And it’s not even just about age. In the show, as Toni Trucks’ Lieutenant Davis spearheads efforts to evolve naval special operations away from counterinsurgency and the war on terror, SEAL Team itself must consider what kind of operations its title group will even be doing in the field.

In this vein, moves the show already made are paying off in its final season. Jason Hayes is responding to treatment for his traumatic brain injury, continuing to repair his relationships with his son and daughter, and thinking as seriously as he ever has about what comes after life as an operator. And Ray and Naima are looking to expand their treatment center for at-risk veterans. But even early on, it’s evident how badly Bravo wants to get back to action. We’re thinking SEAL Team can’t ignore that as it moves to close things out, because the series has always been at its best whenever Hayes, Perry, Sonny, Omar, and the rest of the team are right there in the fight. To do that will also put these characters at risk, for some even as they finally have a determined after action plan. But as a group, Bravo would probably wish to go out with their fingers on the trigger instead of wasting away on shore duty.

Sex and Skin: None.

Parting Shot: When command sent Bravo to Sweden, it was with the order to stay confined on base. Of course, Bravo ignored this order. But now they’re in the field, in an unexpected situation, and suddenly caught flatfooted. “We’ve got no weapons between us to take ‘em out…” 

Sleeper Star: Pepper! The dutch shepherd who replaced Cerberus in SEAL Team season 4 as Bravo’s principal combat assault dog (CAD) gets to show off her skills during the posting in Sweden.   

Most Pilot-y Line: “We stood up for what’s right, and command just keeps pushing us down.” There is a ton of friction between the team guys and the top brass as the final season of SEAL Team begins.

Our Call: STREAM IT. As its final season commences, SEAL Team remains concerned with the mental and physical effects of war-making on service members. But as the role of special operations continues to evolve, the series is also going to find ways to keep Jason Hayes and Bravo Team in the fight.  

Johnny Loftus (@glennganges) is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift.