Bourne ready for Treadstone: Why fans should be excited about this new TV pilot

Some Jason Bourne fans might be disappointed their favorite assassin will be absent, but most are welcoming the news that USA Networks ordered a pilot for Treadstone — a prequel exploring all the events of the operation and its collateral damage.

If done correctly, this origin story series has the potential be a top 5 show on television. Here are the reasons to be looking forward to the newest offering from showrunner Tim Kring.

Slash Film reports that Treadstone explores the origins of the CIA off-the-books program known as Treadstone — a covert operation that uses questionable practices to create spy agents and super assassins. The series will follow various agents and their handlers as they are given missions.

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Tim Kring (Heroes) has signed up to write and executive produce, with Rahmin Bahrani (Fahrenheit 451) set to direct the pilot. With 15 Jason Bourne and Treadstone novels published and the liberty to branch out the story beyond the books, the series could go in several directions.

However, Treadstone agents did not seem like family men. Perhaps there will be some real-life drama on the administrative side, but one cannot imagine Jason Bourne going through training while also dating and doing laundry. How big is the circle that is knowledgeable about Treadstone?

Are all the characters in the loop of the nature of what is going on, or is It that Treadstone is so compartmentalized that it crumbles as communication is suppressed and stifled?

In fact, what is the actual training? Are there any genetic modifications or super steroids? What sort of MMA training does an agent specialize in? Could Conor McGregor be a special agent? That is why he is not fighting and flying more. Treadstone has him on a special formula.

Maybe anyone can be an agent. The movies showed several living situations. Also, there is no need to focus on just one agent. What’s not to love about a revolving cast of superhuman assassins created by black ops CIA experiments?

The possibilities are practically endless and with current events, the show could have a few statement episodes. Look at what those have done for Homeland, or how the intrigue of spy-ops carries The Americans.

Treadstone is about more than just Jason Bourne. Matt Damon is not needed to carry the show. If the series reaches to the furthest parts of the past, a Bourne character could make a few cameos.

Also, both sides of the operation can be shown. In the same ways seeing how Treadstone begins to unravel, it must have taken some effort to build and maintain. These parallel timelines coming together in a season finale seems obvious.

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The movie made over a billion and counting. With the names associated with the pilot so far, expect this project to be given every chance to succeed. As a highly successful brand of spy and action thriller drama, plenty of guns and women will be thrown at the problems if poor writing plagues this exciting new show. Sex sells, and so does guns.

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