Sicario Meets Narcos In Apple TV's 10-Part Thriller Series That's Designed To Be Binged

14 hours ago 6

Published May 8, 2026, 11:30 AM EDT

Zach Moser is a Philadelphia native who writes about film and television news. Zach has been published in Points In Case, Business Insider, Slackjaw, ROCA Travel, and McSweeney's Internet Tendency.

Apple TV has a 10-part action thriller that's part Sicario, part Narcos, and perfect for bingeing. Apple TV has been upping its game in the sci-fi, comedy, and horror departments, but it has lagged behind other streamers when it comes to action TV shows, particularly modern action thrillers without a genre bent.

Echo 3 is a 2022 action thriller series that stars Michael Huisman as Eric "Prince" Haas and Luke Evans as Alex "Bambi" Chesborough as Delta Force operators sent to rescue Amber Chesborough (Jessica Ann Collins), an American scientist in Colombia who is kidnapped while she is researching how psychedelics could treat addiction.

Bambi is her brother, while Prince is her husband, and the pair have always had a complicated relationship, exacerbated by the recent death of their team leader. Like Sicario, Echo 3 drags its characters into the volatile and unknowable world of the drug trade, and it's all the protagonists can do to keep their heads above water.

Like Narcos, Echo 3 offers a long-form, thrilling tale about soldiers on a quest in South America, and offers the same heart-pounding action of that series. At only 10 episodes, it's a quick binge and will interest anyone looking for a fun, quick ride in a familiar setting.

Why Echo 3 Stands Out As An Action Thriller

Jessica Ann Collins as Amber Chesborough looking exhausted in a compound in Echo 3.

Echo 3 is an English adaptation of the award-winning Israeli series, When Heroes Fly, itself an adaptation of the novel of the same name from author Amir Gutfreund. With a 67% on Rotten Tomatoes, Echo 3 may seem like another run-of-the-mill action series, but it has some things that separate it from the crowd.

The first couple of episodes of Echo 3 might feel familiar to those who have watched a lot of TV shows about military operators going on some mission in some land, but it's around episode 4 where things start to change, and why Echo 3 is a series that is best watched on a binge.

Echo 3 Episodes

Episode	Title
1	Flyaway
2	Tora Bora in the City
3	The Gambler
4	Upriver
5	We Reject Your Influence
6	Habeas Thumpus
7	Red Is Positive, Black Is Negative
8	Family Matters
9	Scorched Earth
10	Heat

Bambi and Prince seem like classic heroes, and when they travel to Bogotá and storm the city in an excellently paced, tightly filmed action sequence, you might guess they will be successful. Not only are they not successful, but their operation actually makes things worse. The bond of love doesn't overcome impossible odds in the real world, it seems.

Echo 3 never pretends that the military might of the U.S. or the tactical skills of "specially trained" soldiers will win out in the end. Prince, Bambi, and Amber are in way over their heads, and each episode of the show makes things seem more and more desperate as we wonder how they could possibly escape their situation.

This is a messy show, with an honest look at how quickly an operation can fall apart, and how the interconnected web of power, money, and politics can make allies more unhelpful than enemies. Showrunner Mark Boal wrote and produced The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty, and his eye is no less critical of gung-ho heroes saving the day here in Echo 3 as it was in those two biting films.