In order to enjoy M.I.A., a new series from the executive producer(s)/writers of Raised by Wolves, Dexter, and Covert Affairs, you have to surrender to its revenge-fantasy premise without thinking too hard or too long about the plot. Bloody, soapy, and pure pulpy fluorescent fun, the series is addictive—if you’re in the right mindset.
A throwback to big, dumb, neon-soaked ’80s television, M.I.A. is a revenge fantasy with two very good things going for it. First is the star, Shannon Gisela, a frizzy-haired hero with a heart of gold that can turn cold like a light switch. Second is a complex villain played by Alberto Guerra, who deserves his own spinoff.
That’s if he survives the blood-soaked Miami nights where the show takes place. Trust me, after the first episode, it’s impossible to know who will make it through the season. With so many twists and turns, albeit many implausible, Peacock’s M.I.A. is a guilty pleasure you may regret, but you’ll keep coming back for more.
What is Peacock’s M.I.A. About?
Shannon Gisela in M.I.A. (2026) | Image via NBC Universal
Danay Garcia in M.I.A. (2026) | Image via NBC Universal
Shannon Gisela and Brittany Adebumola in M.I.A. (2026) | Image via NBC Universal
Alberto Guerra and Gerardo Celasco in M.I.A. (2026) | Image via NBC Universal
The show follows Etta (Shannon Gisela), a woman in her early twenties who works as a wildlife tour guide for a parent company in the Wetlands. She takes your typical “Karens” and “Kens” out in search of the American crocodile. Etta is like a sponge, echoing USA Network characters like Suits’ Mike Ross and Psych’s Shawn Spencer.
When Etta reads something, she remembers it. When she remembers it, she understands it—so much so that her mother, Leah (Fear the Walking Dead’s Danay Garcia) and father, Daniel (The Office’s David Denman) are pushing her to go to college in the fall. Except that the tour guide business is just a front for drug smuggling for a cartel.
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Her parents let her take part for one last summer, but the business is about to change when their boss, Isaac (the legendary Edward James Olmos), falls ill. He is grooming his eldest son, Mateo (Breaking Bad’s Maurice Compte), an evil, petty, and insecure leader who will stop at nothing to cover his family’s tracks.
M.I.A. is like two genres of shows being forced together. From the tone of dark, intense, morally heavy to light, breezy, and entertaining. When Etta’s life becomes intertwined with Matteo’s, his family consists of an ambitious sister (Marta Milans) trying to legitimize the family, the middle child (Gerardo Celasco), and the level-headed one caught in the middle.
Peacock’s M.I.A. Review
Shannon Gisela in M.I.A. (2026) | Image via NBC Universal
Shannon Gisela and Brittany Adebumola in M.I.A. (2026) | Image via NBC Universal
Shannon Gisela and Brittany Adebumola in M.I.A. (2026) | Image via NBC Universal
Shannon Gisela, Brittany Adebumola, and Dylan T Jackson in M.I.A. (2026) | Image via NBC Universal
However, by far the most entertaining character in the series, aside from Etta, is the group’s Tom Hagen, Elias (Griselda’s Alberto Guerra), who is taken in by Olmos’s character but is always treated as an outsider. The cartel’s fixer, Guerra, is magnetic, cold, and the most complex character on a show that rarely offers such multidimensional figures.
Separately, these two genres work. However, when they come together, the series borders on so over-the-top it’s “so bad it’s good,” to downright bloody unhinged. In one scene that had me howling, a bad guy throws a nurse, still breathing, by the way, into a coffin with a dead body because she failed to find a sore on the foot of her diabetic patient.
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Even watching that box, with LPM’s muffled screams, sink to the ocean floor isn’t as hilarious as Cary Elwes doing his best Al Pacino impression, Florida Keys style, complete with a ridiculous hat, a cabana shirt, and a hilariously bad accent, playing a private dick for the cartel. Almost everything about the series is hyperbolically bonkers.
Yet, you can’t say I wasn’t entertained, as the series plays like a Miami Vice-lite mobster soap with a young heroine set on revenge. The audience can easily hang its hat on Shannon Gisela’s Etta, a real find here, with her piercing, steely gray eyes and an ability to shift effortlessly from charming to endearing to humorous.
Is Peacock’s M.I.A. Worth Watching?
Shannon Gisela in M.I.A. (2026) | Image via NBC Universal
Edward James Olmos, David Denman, and Danay Garcia in M.I.A. (2026) | Image via NBC Universal
Shannon Gisela and Dylan T Jackson in M.I.A. (2026) | Image via NBC Universal
Danay Garcia in M.I.A. (2026) | Image via NBC Universal
Gisela’s role as Etta demands both youthful naivety and intelligence, which is harder to pull off than audiences may think. Sure, the writing leans on the device of Etta’s eidetic memory, allowing her to find her way out of nearly any plot hole. And there are some soapy twists that may make you roll your eyes.
Of course, that includes a finale closing scene that borders on campy but remains pulpy fun. Frankly, there is such a marked and sharp shift in tone throughout the series that you can’t help but cling to those moments. The series thrives on them, giving the audience excuses to keep binging, from grounded drama to almost graphic novel levels of absurdity.
In the end, M.I.A. is worth watching, for what it is: the show is a pulpy, neon-soaked throwback that takes wild tonal swings and implausible twists that are easy to dismiss, but at the same time, admire. The lead performance from Ms. Gisela is engaging enough to swallow the guilty pleasure red flags, but you’ll find yourself binging until the end.
You can stream the series M.I.A on May 8th! All nine episodes were screened for this review.
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