High Value Target Review: A Refreshingly Nuanced Iraq War Drama That Lacks Suspense

Published Sep 11, 2026, 12:16 PM EDT

After 18 months at Screen Rant, Guy became Classic TV Editor in September 2026, and specializes in leading features content about shows from decades gone by. Having written for and editing several TV, film and music publications, his areas of expertise include comedy and satire, animation, crime drama, Westerns, and political thrillers.

Almost 25 years to the day that America’s war on terror began with the fall of the Twin Towers, TNT is releasing High Value Target: The Hunt for Saddam, a dramatization of how Iraq’s former president was captured by the U.S. state. While this specific story has been told onscreen multiple times before, this eight-part miniseries is different.

Based on the memoir of its real-life protagonist, CIA analyst John Nixon, High Value Target is actually much grander in scope than simply the operation to find Saddam Hussein. We get Nixon’s real-time, evolving perspectives on the American invasion of Iraq and its removal of Saddam from power, as the show quotes snippets directly from his book Debriefing the President.

Because of its considered approach to the bigger picture of American-Iraqi relations, within the broader context of the war on terror and contemporary Middle Eastern geopolitics, High Value Target gives us more food for thought than almost any other TV show or movie about the Iraq War. At the same time, the series is found wanting in dramatic terms.

Billed as a military and political thriller, it never makes the most of its extraordinarily high-stakes subject matter. There are hard-hitting action sequences and moments of heightened personal conflict, yet they all feel somewhat perfunctory. For this reason, High Value Target doesn’t quite measure up to lead actor Joel Kinnaman’s best TV shows.

High Value Target’s Shrewd Political Analysis Is A Little On-The-Nose

The main strength of this TNT miniseries is clearly its unusually sober analysis of the Iraq War’s consequences, as well as the geopolitical role of Saddam Hussein’s brutal dictatorship in the decades leading up to the war. Presented to us primarily from the partial standpoint of Saddam specialist Nixon, High Value Target cleverly develops its thesis episode by episode.

The show’s protagonist-narrator starts off as an avowed supporter of the war, who’s particularly interested in the “weapons of mass destruction” that the Iraqi president has supposedly stockpiled. Of course, the events in which he subsequently plays a major part then have a profound impact on how he views these things.

Although it paces the evolution of Nixon’s perspective well, High Value Target tends to deliver its conclusions a little too bluntly, preferring to tell us what to think – either through in-scene character monologues or overdubbed narration – than show us through the events of the drama itself. As a result, the personal stories at its heart often come across as superfluous.

John Nixon has a demanding, hawkish military veteran for a father, a devoted wife struggling with chronic illness, and seems completely ill-prepared to handle the brutal realities of a deadly warzone. Meanwhile, Dar Salim’s Samir, Nixon’s colleague in Iraq, has a traumatic family history for which he holds Saddam Hussein personally responsible.

Yet, all these intriguing subplots fall relatively flat as the series develops, as High Value Target never quite manages to integrate them into the overarching aims of its story. It frequently resorts to outright exposition when drawing links between different plot elements and characters, as in one scene which compares Saddam Hussein’s daddy issues to those of George W. Bush.

If only High Value Target’s distinctive take on the downfall of Saddam Hussein focused more on its compelling story, and less on the lessons to be gleaned from it.

In narrative terms, then, this miniseries never really hits its straps. Those behind High Value Target may see Zero Dark Thirty as its blueprint, but it offers very little of the suspense that Kathryn Bigelow’s 2012 movie delivers in spades. In fact, it’s surprising how emotionally underwhelming the TNT drama turns out to be during its most pivotal moments.

Nevertheless, it remains an engaging watch that provides fresh insight into one of the 21st century’s most important historical events, through a screen rendering which feels impressively authentic, albeit lacking in depth. If only High Value Target’s distinctive take on the downfall of Saddam Hussein focused more on its compelling story, and less on the lessons to be gleaned from it.

Joel Kinnaman’s Heartfelt Performance Needs More To Work With

The central performance of this miniseries epitomizes its limitations when it comes to suspenseful drama. Joel Kinnaman’s roles in Apple TV’s For All Mankind and Netflix’s The Killing have marked him out as one of the premier dramatic actors of his generation, but his emotional range isn’t utilized to its full potential in High Value Target.

Kinnaman is wholly convincing as nebbish history buff turned CIA analyst John Nixon, the U.S. intelligence agency’s resident expert on Saddam Hussein. Yet, when Nixon’s specialism places him at the center of the world’s most important manhunt, we don’t really get a sense of how dramatic this turn of events truly is.

This politically-charged war drama goes above and beyond its thematic brief, even if it doesn’t deliver the thrills to match its piercing analysis.

Whether he’s conducting a search operation or interrogating a prisoner, Kinnaman isn’t exactly helped by High Value Target’s workaday script. It isn’t just Nixon who gets shortchanged by the show’s action and dialogue, either. Others in the story, including his ultimate nemesis, have to contend with a noticeable lack of tension, as well as misfiring narrative climaxes.

Waleed Zuaiter gives a commanding performance as Saddam Hussein himself, but we’re left with the feeling that he and Kinnaman could have been allowed to go deeper with their exchanges. Similarly, a diverting subplot involving Lena Góra’s Polly Stevens never ventures beneath the surface, and ends up feeling out of place in the story.

Still, no one in the ensemble cast of High Value Target: The Hunt for Saddam puts a foot wrong, and Tom Berenger steals several scenes as John Nixon’s overbearing father. Despite its flaws, this politically-charged war drama goes above and beyond its thematic brief, even if it doesn’t deliver the requisite thrills to match its piercing analysis.