If the series can stay focused on Swagger's story without straying too far into subplots and avoid a convoluted narrative, Shooter has a good chance to find and retain an audience looking for an action-packed, if somewhat conventional thriller.
The problem is that Shooter doesn't feel like the right show for our times, which are already tense enough. It has been delayed twice after real-life mass shootings. The loud crack of guns being fired isn't what some of want to hear right now.
Phillippe tries his best with the underdeveloped material, which includes a few groan-worthy attempts at Eastwood-esque tough-guy one-liners... but with a character like Bob Lee Swagger, who's not so much stoic as dull, there's only so much he can do.
Watching Shooter as a series is like falling back into a well-known and familiar story, just one with lots of guns. It's downright comfortable. And that's odd.
The biggest problem with Shooter isn't its uncomfortable topicality, it's that the show has virtually no point of view regarding the complicated issues it brings to the fore.