“The Terminal List,” an adaptation of Jack Carr’s novel of the same name, starred Chris Pratt as James Reece, a Navy SEAL who sees his entire team wiped out — and then for good measure, his wife and daughter are shot and killed too. Over eight grueling episodes and several confusing moments, Reece goes after anyone who was even tangentially involved in the murder plot. “The Terminal List” was a right-wing fever dream that, in at least one case, spit in the face of science. And it was made even more absurd by the fact that outside of all the killing and loyalty to his men, Reece didn’t have much going on. One of the few bright spots in the show was Taylor Kitsch as Reece’s military buddy Ben Edwards, a man who supported him no matter what. He at least showed flashes of personality in his time onscreen. So I was curious if “The Terminal List: Dark Wolf,” a prequel series centered on Edwards and created once again by David DiGilio and Carr, would be more of the same or something better.

I’m happy to say that “Dark Wolf” is eons better than “The Terminal List.” Instead of a more or less lone warrior exacting vengeance on a host of targets, most of whom don’t know he’s coming, Edwards’ story is different. He starts as a Navy SEAL in Iraq, where he leads a team that is training native Iraqi soldiers to take control of their country’s military, a job he’s soon handing off to James Reece and his platoon. But before that can happen, he gets kicked out of the SEALs for something he does, along with his number two, Raife Hastings (Tom Hopper).

As they’re making their way back to the States, they have a layover in Germany, where they are approached by Jed Haverford (Robert Wisdom), a CIA officer who requires their skills. With no other prospects and Haverford offering the chance to finish what they started, they take the job and find themselves on a team that includes more men from the military, including Mohammed Farooq (Dar Salim) and Jules Landry (Luke Hemsworth), and two Mossad agents, Eliza Perash (Rona-Lee Shimon) and Tal Varon (Shiraz Tzarfati). Through their work, which includes double crosses and betrayals, Edwards finds things aren’t so straightforward, but that’s nothing a gun can’t fix.

Yes, there’s a lot of gunplay in “Dark Wolf.” How could there not be? But it’s in service of a far more interesting story and characters than the original “Terminal List.” And that makes for a far better show. This takes place in 2015, before Reece’s mission of vengeance and before Edwards became a CIA operative. In fact, the posters for the series claim this is an origin story. But while it shows Edwards going from the military to the CIA, it’s what’s in between that drives the story, and what truly makes this show tick.