Image via The CW
Published Jun 13, 2026, 9:03 PM EDT
Dyah (pronounced Dee-yah) is a Senior Author at Collider, responsible for both writing and transcription duties. She joined the website in 2022 as a Resource Writer before stepping into her current role in April 2023. As a Senior Author, she writes Features and Lists covering TV, music, and movies, making her a true Jill of all trades. In addition to her writing, Dyah also serves as an interview transcriber, primarily for events such as San Diego Comic-Con, the Toronto International Film Festival, and the Sundance Film Festival.
Dyah graduated from Satya Wacana Christian University in October 2019 with a Bachelor's degree in English Literature, concentrating on Creative Writing. She is currently completing her Master's degree in English Literature Studies, with a thesis on intersectionality in postcolonial-feminist studies in Asian literary works, and is expected to graduate in 2026.
Born and raised between Indonesia and Singapore, Dyah is no stranger to different cultures. She now resides in the small town of Kendal with her husband and four cats, where she spends her free time cooking or cycling.
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Television has always had a fascination with watching people get beaten up — and audiences seem to love it. Social norms tell us that aggression is unacceptable, but fictional television allows those boundaries to disappear. It creates worlds where people can settle their differences with their fists, swords, guns, or anything else at their disposal and somehow live to fight another day. That thrill is one of the reasons the action genre remains so popular.
Whether it's paired with a sci-fi premise or rooted in traditional martial arts, action can take many forms. Yet not every great action series gets the recognition it deserves. Some were canceled before they could find a wider audience, while others premiered long before social media could make them relevant. Deserving of another second viewing, here are the near-perfect action shows that no one remembers today.
'Deadly Class' (2019)
Image via SYFYIf your day at high school isn't tough enough, try King's Dominion — the go-to institution for teen assassins. Based on the comics by Rick Remender and Wesley Craig, the short-lived Deadly Class is set in 1980s America, where some of the world's most promising killers train under one roof. From yakuza prodigies to the children of CIA agents, new kid Marcus Lopez (Benjamin Wadsworth) is the black sheep of the flock.
Nobody is more volatile than a hormonal teenager with a weapon — now multiply that by dozens, and you have the entire Deadly Class student body. With classes ranging from poison to assassin psychology, getting an A can be a matter of life or death. Sometimes, it even requires these students to go for the kill. Because they come from such diverse criminal backgrounds, it's especially fun to watch them clash, using their own unique fighting styles and weapons of choice against one another.
'Dark Angel' (2000–2002)
Image via FOXIf Totally Spies! and Nikita were combined, the result would probably look a lot like Dark Angel. Television loves a butt-kicking femme fatale, especially one like super-soldier Max Guevara (Jessica Alba). Set in a future where the government has collapsed, the series follows Max, a genetically enhanced soldier who escapes from a secret military program and finds herself surviving on the streets of Seattle. While hiding from the agents determined to bring her back, Max teams up with a cyber-journalist to navigate a post-apocalyptic America.
Traditionally, femme fatales are broody and mysterious, but Max brings a lot more snark and sass to the role. The fact that she's genetically enhanced means her stunt work often feels larger than life — she leaps onto moving cars, survives falls from buildings, and can take down opponents twice her size. Yet despite her superhuman abilities, her combat scenes have a sense of playfulness. It's a refreshing twist that allows Max to break free from the typical stoic-super-soldier archetype.
'Banshee' (2013–2016)
Image via CinemaxBefore Antony Starr shot lasers out of his eyes as Homelander, he played ex-con and master thief Lucas Hood. If The Boys leans into flashier, more stylized action choreography, Banshee goes back to basics. When Hood is released from prison, he takes on the identity of a murdered sheriff and rises in the Amish town of Banshee, only to realize that the town is anything but peaceful. Just as Hood thinks he can escape a life of crime, he finds that old ties still need to be tied up.
Banshee features good old-fashioned, bone-crunching fistfights. There's hefty weight behind every punch and throw, and with all the damage inflicted, the fights can be almost exhausting to watch in the best way. These are the kinds of beatdowns that would realistically put someone in a wheelchair, but for the sake of fiction, Hood — and Banshee's law enforcement — miraculously survive each encounter, though not without a few jarring bruises.
'The Recruit' (2022–2025)
Image via NetflixThe first day on the job can always be nerve-wracking. Unfortunately, newly-minted CIA lawyer Owen Hendricks (Noah Centineo) has bitten off more than he can chew. More accustomed to office work and bureaucratic procedures, Hendricks is assigned to investigate a threatening graymail letter from a former asset. When the asset threatens to expose CIA secrets to the public, he is immediately thrust into the field.
The Recruit is a classic case of theory versus practice. Hendricks quickly realizes that his law degree is the last thing he's going to use in this line of work. What sets him apart from the other lawyers, however, is his primal appetite for adrenaline. It's the reason he's such a magnet for trouble. Despite having no formal combat training, Hendricks relies on a sloppy yet survivalist fighting style, combined with a desperate determination not to get killed. As a result, he's constantly forced to improvise, using whatever is available to disarm those trying to hurt him.
Collider Exclusive · Action Hero Quiz
Which Action Hero Would Be
Your Perfect Partner?
Rambo · James Bond · Indiana Jones · John McClane · Ethan Hunt
Five legends. Five completely different ways of getting out alive — with style, with muscle, with charm, with luck, or with a plan so intricate it probably shouldn't work. Ten questions will reveal which action hero was built to have your back.
🎖️Rambo
🍸James Bond
🏺Indiana Jones
🔧John McClane
🎭Ethan Hunt
FIND YOUR PARTNER →
01
You're dropped into a dangerous situation with no warning. What do you need most from a partner? The first few seconds tell you everything about who belongs beside you.
ASomeone who already has three contingency plans running and is calmly working through all of them. BSomeone who reads the terrain instinctively and knows exactly how to use it against the enemy. CSomeone who keeps their nerve and their sense of humour when everything is falling apart. DSomeone who knows the history of wherever we are and what we're walking into. ESomeone with the right contact, the right cover identity, and the right exit already arranged.
NEXT QUESTION →
02
You have to get somewhere dangerous, fast. How do you travel? How you get there is half the mission.
AOn foot through terrain no one else would attempt — I move where vehicles can't follow. BOn a motorcycle, a cargo plane, or anything else that gets me there before I think too hard about it. CIn something that belongs to someone else — borrowed, stolen, or improvised under fire. DFirst class, with a cover identity and a gadget that does something I won't explain until it's needed. EBy whatever means are available — I've driven, flown, and once arrived by camel. The destination matters, not the method.
NEXT QUESTION →
03
You're pinned down and outnumbered. What does your ideal partner do? This is when you find out what someone is really made of.
ADisappears into the environment, flanks them silently, and ends it before I've reloaded. BCracks a one-liner, grabs a fire extinguisher or a chair, and improvises something that somehow works. CProduces a gadget specifically designed for this exact scenario and uses it with infuriating precision. DPulls out a whip, a pistol, and an archaeological insight that somehow gets us out alive. ENeutralises the threat with maximum efficiency and minimum words — they were already three moves ahead.
NEXT QUESTION →
04
The mission is paused. You have one evening to decompress. What does your partner suggest? Who someone is when the pressure drops is who they actually are.
AA bar with terrible lighting, cold beer, and absolutely no questions about feelings. BThe finest restaurant in the city, a bottle of something expensive, and a conversation that is equal parts brilliant and exhausting. CA local dig site, a museum after hours, or a long story about why that particular artefact matters to human civilisation. DPizza. Bad TV. Falling asleep halfway through a movie neither of you were watching anyway. EA debrief that turns into three hours of contingency planning that somehow becomes the most fun you've had all week.
NEXT QUESTION →
05
How do you prefer your partner to communicate mid-mission? Good communication is the difference between partners and a liability.
APrecise and minimal — tell me what I need to know and nothing else. Every word has a cost. BDeadpan and dry — keeping it light keeps me sharp, even when everything is on fire. CEnthusiastic and slightly chaotic — but always with useful information buried somewhere in the noise. DCalm and controlled through an earpiece, with a plan that covers every variable I haven't thought of yet. EBarely at all — silence is a language and they speak it fluently.
NEXT QUESTION →
06
Your enemy is powerful, well-resourced, and has the upper hand. How should your partner approach them? The approach to the enemy defines the partnership.
AInfiltrate their inner circle, learn everything, and dismantle them from inside out before they know we're there. BStudy the historical pattern — every villain of this type has a weakness written somewhere in the past. CGet them talking. The more they monologue, the more time I have to figure out how to beat them. DGo through them. Directly. With as much force as the terrain allows. EFind the one thing they haven't accounted for — there's always one thing — and make sure we're holding it.
NEXT QUESTION →
07
Things go badly wrong and you're captured. What do you trust your partner to do? Who someone is when you need them most is the only thing that matters.
ACome in alone, quietly, and get me out before anyone knows they were there. BHave already been working on the extraction since the moment I disappeared — the plan is already running. CCome in loud, come in fast, and worry about the collateral damage later — I'd do the same for them. DUse every resource, every contact, and bend every rule until I'm out — they don't leave people behind. ECharm their way in somehow, bluff through the hard part, and still manage to look good doing it.
NEXT QUESTION →
08
What does your ideal partner bring to the table that you couldn't replace? A great partner fills the gap you didn't know you had.
ATechnology that shouldn't exist yet and the training to use it under any conditions. BSurvival instinct so refined it borders on supernatural — and the scars to prove it's been tested. CKnowledge of history, language, and culture that makes them invaluable in places where force is useless. DThe ability to walk into any room in the world and immediately become the most trusted person in it. EStubbornness that refuses to accept a situation is hopeless — and the improvisational skill to back it up.
NEXT QUESTION →
09
Every partnership has a cost. Which of these can you live with? No one comes without baggage. The question is whether you can carry it together.
AA partner who never fully switches off — always watching exits, always calculating threats, even at dinner. BA partner who gets the job done brilliantly but has the emotional availability of a locked filing cabinet. CA partner who makes everything ten times more complicated than it needs to be — but who always comes through. DA partner who gets personally attached to every relic, ruin, and artefact we encounter, which slows everything down. EA partner who was not built for this and knows it — but shows up anyway, every time, without being asked.
NEXT QUESTION →
10
It's the final moment. Everything is on the line. What do you need from your partner right now? The last question is the most honest one.
AOne line. Absolutely dry. Delivered like the world isn't ending. Then we move. BNothing said at all — just a look that means we both already know what has to happen. CA plan I don't fully understand that somehow accounts for everything, delivered in thirty seconds flat. DA piece of historical context that reframes the entire situation and tells us exactly what to do next. ESomeone who steps forward instead of back — because that's who they've always been.
REVEAL MY PARTNER →
Your Partner Has Been Assigned Your Perfect Partner Is…
Your answers have pointed to one action hero above all others. This is the person built to have your back — for better or considerably, spectacularly worse.
Rambo
Your partner doesn't talk much, doesn't need to, and will have assessed every threat in your immediate environment before you've finished your first sentence. John Rambo is not a man of plans or politics — he is a force of nature shaped by survival, loyalty, and a capacity for endurance that goes beyond anything training can produce. He will not leave you behind. He has never left anyone behind who deserved to come home. What you get with Rambo is the most capable, most quietly ferocious partner imaginable — one who has been through things that would have broken anyone else, and who chose to keep going anyway. You'll never need to ask if he has your back. You'll just know.
James Bond
Your partner will arrive perfectly dressed, perfectly briefed, and with a cover story so convincing it'll take you a moment to remember what's actually true. James Bond is the most professionally dangerous person in any room he enters — and the most disarmingly charming, which is the point. He operates in a world of layers, where nothing is what it appears and every advantage is used without apology. You'll never be bored. You'll occasionally be furious. But when it matters — when the mission is genuinely on the line and the margin for error has collapsed to nothing — Bond is exactly the partner you want. He has survived things that have no business being survivable. He does it with style. That is not nothing.
Indiana Jones
Your partner will know the history, the language, the cultural context, and exactly why the thing everyone else is ignoring is actually the most important thing in the room. Indiana Jones is brilliant, reckless, and occasionally impossible — but he is also one of the most resourceful, most genuinely knowledgeable partners you could find yourself beside. He approaches every situation with a scholar's eye and a brawler's instinct, which is an unusual combination and a remarkably effective one. He hates snakes and gets personally attached to objects of historical significance, both of which will slow you down at least once. It doesn't matter. What Indy brings is irreplaceable — and the adventures you'll have together will be the kind people write books about. Assuming you survive them.
John McClane
Your partner was not supposed to be here. He does not have the right equipment, the right information, or anything approaching the right odds. He has a sarcastic remark and an absolute refusal to accept that the situation is as bad as it looks. John McClane is the greatest accidental hero in the history of action cinema — a man whose superpower is stubbornness, whose contingency plan is improvisation, and whose capacity to absorb punishment and keep moving would be alarming if it weren't so useful. He will complain the entire time. He will make it significantly more chaotic than it needed to be. And he will absolutely, unconditionally, without question come through when it counts. Yippee-ki-yay.
Ethan Hunt
Your partner has already run seventeen scenarios by the time you've finished reading the briefing, and the plan he's settled on involves at least two things that should be physically impossible. Ethan Hunt operates at the absolute edge of human capability — technically, physically, and intellectually — and he brings the same relentless precision to protecting his partners that he brings to dismantling organisations that shouldn't exist. He is not easy to know and he will never fully tell you everything. But he will carry the weight of the mission so completely, so absolutely, that your job is simply to trust him — and the remarkable thing is that trusting him always turns out to be the right call. The mission will be impossible. He will complete it anyway.
↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ
'Spartacus' (2010–2013)
Image via StarzIn 71 BC, Thracian warrior Spartacus (Andy Whitfield and Liam McIntyre) is betrayed by a Roman commander and condemned to slavery. Forced into the world of gladiatorial combat, he rises through the ranks at the House of Batiatus while secretly harboring a strong desire for vengeance. As his fame grows, so does his rebellious streak. Spartacus leads a massive slave uprising, threatening the Republic and those who obey the orders of Marcus Licinius Crassus (Simon Merrells).
Although it shares a similar premise with Ridley Scott's Gladiator, the multi-season format of Spartacus gives it the opportunity to fully flesh out its gladiatorial battles. Unlike the gritty realism of Gladiator, Spartacus embraces a more animated approach, carrying greater momentum and a distinct comic book-like pizzazz. The series is packed with slow-motion violence, warriors leaping through the air as they drive their blades into their enemies, and, of course, plenty of blood spraying across the arena.
'Warrior' (2019–2023)
Image via HBO MaxIf there's a show that feels like a love letter to martial arts, it's Warrior. And it makes sense — the original concept for the series was first developed by Bruce Lee in 1971, initially titled Ah Sahm. Although it took nearly half a century to finally materialize, Warrior does not disappoint. Following Chinese immigrant Ah Sahm (Andrew Koji), he arrives in San Francisco seemingly looking for work in the late 1800s, only to find himself drawn into one of the most notorious gangs in Chinatown.
Warrior is a crash course in different styles of martial arts. On one hand, there's Ah Sahm with his Wing Chun-inspired fights, defined by close-range combat and relentless punches. On the other hand, there's Li Yong (Joe Taslim), whose Pencak Silat-inspired moves rely on low stances and brutally precise finishing strikes. Warrior is a true homage to fighting as an art form instead of some gimmick for shock value, showing how combat becomes a brutal universal language across cultures.
'Arrow' (2012–2020)
When it comes to the bow and arrow, nobody does it better than Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell). Arrow might have drawn a massive following during its early seasons, but somewhere along the way — like many comic book superhero adaptations — it lost the plot and its relevance, shifting into a more soap-opera-like tone after Season 2. Creative choices aside, Arrow taught the world that in a world where villains love using guns, the bow and arrow can be just as fast and deadly as a bullet.
The action in Arrow is swift and light (no pun intended), featuring tons of acrobatic stunts. A lot of the movement requires quick reflexes. It only takes a few seconds for an arrow to pierce through an enemy's heart, which explains why much of the choreography is exhilaratingly fast-paced. But even without his weapon of choice, Arrow knows how to pummel his rivals to the ground with his strong physique. Robin Hood, eat your heart out.
Arrow
Release Date 2013 - 2020-00-00
Network The CW
Directors James Bamford, John Behring, Glen Winter, Michael Schultz, Wendey Stanzler, Laura Belsey, Gregory Smith, Guy Norman Bee, Nick Copus, Jesse Warn, Gordon Verheul, Antonio Negret, Kristin Windell, Thor Freudenthal, Rob Hardy, Eagle Egilsson, Dermott Downs, Joel Novoa, Kevin Tancharoen, Tara Miele, Ben Hernandez Bray, Mairzee Almas, Alexandra La Roche, Andi Armaganian
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Oliver Queen / Green Arrow
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English (US) ·