★★ (2 out of 4)
Denzel Washington is hard act to follow. But fearless Yahya Abdul-Mateen II steps up to the plate as John Creasy in “Man on Fire,” the Netflix series based on A. J. Quinnell’s 1980 novel of the same name. Abdul-Mateen, an Emmy winner for playing Cal Abar/Doctor Manhattan in HBO’s “Watchmen” in 2019, digs into the role of Creasy, a former CIA operative and special forces mercenary still recovering from a mission that left him with PTSD, a booze addiction, and a major crisis of conscience. The Denzel version in 2004, directed by the late, great Tony Scott, did the job as a single feature film, while the Abdul-Mateen edition, created by showrunner Kyle Killen, takes seven loooong episodes it didn’t need to stretch this violent tale to the breaking point and beyond.