General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20264 min read

The Oath

The Oath is an American crime drama television series created by Joe Halpin that aired on the streaming network Crackle from March 8, 2018 to February 21, 2019, running for two seasons and 18 episodes.¹ Its premise inverts the usual police procedural: the central criminal gang, called the Ravens, is made up of serving police officers who protect one another from enemies both outside and inside their own ranks.²

Key fact	Detail
Network and run	Crackle (US), March 8, 2018 to February 21, 2019; 2 seasons, 18 episodes¹
Creator	Joe Halpin, a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department deputy for 17 years, 12 of them undercover²
Executive producers	Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson and G-Unit Film & Television Inc., Todd Hoffman and Dennis Kim of Storied Media Group, Anne Clements, and Joe Halpin²
Main cast	Ryan Kwanten, Katrina Law, Cory Hardrict, J.J. Soria, Christina Milian, Arlen Escarpeta, and Sean Bean³
Central gang	The Ravens, a gang of corrupt police officers; Tom Hammond is its imprisoned former leader, succeeded by his son Steve¹
Filming location	Puerto Rico⁴
Audience rating	6.4/10 on IMDb from about 2,000 votes⁵

Spoilers

Premise

The series explores a world of gangs made up of the very men and women sworn to uphold the law. Only select officers make the cut, and once inside, members do what they must to protect each other from enemies inside and outside their ranks.²

Season 1. When Ravens leader Tom Hammond (Sean Bean) is imprisoned, his son Steve (Ryan Kwanten) takes the helm. Steve's tenure is complicated by a deal he has made with FBI Agent Aria Price (Elisabeth Röhm) to accept an undercover agent, Damon Byrd (Arlen Escarpeta), into the gang's ranks. Steve and his brother Cole (Cory Hardrict) must keep Damon's identity as a mole secret from the rest of the Ravens, including Tom, to stay out of prison themselves.¹

Season 2. The Ravens attempt to free themselves from their debt to a cartel. The season examines themes of redemption and the meaning of family as the characters seek a new path, confront their inner demons, and try to reclaim their lives while protecting the people they love.² The final episode, "Restitution," aired on February 21, 2019, and the series ended after two seasons.³

Production

Joe Halpin, whose credits include Hawaii Five-O and Secrets and Lies, created the series and served as writer and showrunner. He drew on his own experience: he worked as a deputy in the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department in South Central for 17 years, 12 of them as an undercover officer, and the series is documented in the lives of people willing to risk everything within these organizations.²

Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson and his company G-Unit Film & Television Inc. executive produced the series alongside Todd Hoffman and Dennis Kim of Storied Media Group, Anne Clements, and Halpin.² Directors included Kevin Connolly, who also guest-starred, Jeff T. Thomas, Luis Prieto, and Scott Mann.²^•⁶ The series was filmed in Puerto Rico.⁴

Sean Bean's casting as Tom Hammond was announced in June 2017, when the show was described as a 10-episode drama premiering in 2018 on Crackle.⁷

Cast

The principal cast included:³

Ryan Kwanten as Steve Hammond
Sean Bean as Tom Hammond
Cory Hardrict as Cole Hammond
Katrina Law as Karen Beach
J.J. Soria as Pete Ramos
Arlen Escarpeta as Damon Byrd
Christina Milian as Christine Parks

Recurring and later cast members included Elisabeth Röhm as Agent Aria Price, Michael Malarkey as Sam Foster, and the singer Leona Lewis, who described the role as her first on television.⁸^•⁹

Reception and availability

The series holds a 6.4/10 rating on IMDb from about 2,000 user votes.⁵ Reviewing the first season for the Los Angeles Times, Chris Barton wrote that the show delivered decent action-movie pacing in a gruff, amoral universe reminiscent of Training Day or The Shield, but fell short because of one-dimensional characters and leaden dialogue.¹⁰

After Crackle's original run, the series became available for purchase on Amazon Video, the Apple TV Store, and Fandango At Home, and has streamed on fuboTV.⁶ It was distributed internationally; AXN premiered the first season in Spain in November 2018.¹¹

Other works titled The Oath

The title has also been used for other screen works. A 2018 American comedy film of the same name, written and directed by Ike Barinholtz and starring Barinholtz and Tiffany Haddish, centers on a family Thanksgiving disrupted when citizens are asked to sign a loyalty oath to the president; it received a Metascore of 58 and grossed $387.4 thousand in the United States.¹² A Turkish drama series titled The Oath (Söz), produced by TIMS&B Productions, follows 12 soldiers in a special task force fighting terrorism at the Syrian border.¹³

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › Unscripted, reality, and web-native series › Web-native and streaming-original series › Comedy, drama, and general-genre web series › Premiered 2017 to 2021

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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