Aficionados of WW2 films take note
this series was not written for you and you will be disappointed! Indeed this series was produced for BBC Daytime broadcast and received several "daytime" TV awards.
That said I watched anyway and was surprisingly disappointed! Why surprisingly? Well I knew it would be soapy. I knew it would be overly dramatic and shallow. What I didn't expect was to find a very well-produced and "somewhat" informative production. In short this series could have been a great WW2 series as opposed to an interesting daytime soap opera and that was disappointing!
The biggest problem is that the series suffers from an extremely inconsistent story line AKA bad writing. One moment it's compelling, dramatic and informative (great to learn about the Women's Land Army or the politics of the day), the next it's totally sophomoric, over-dramatic and unbelievable. More so the non-stop clichés make it a tough row to hoe (get it?)
On the other hand it is a great period piece that seems to capture the Britain's WW2 experience well. Particularly pleasing were the solid actors decent CGI and exceptional cinematography, locations, sets and soundtrack (excepting S2 theme song)
In the end I enjoyed the series despite the fact I often found myself rolling my eyes. Most importantly I learned a few things.
7 of 10 stars cheers!
POST: Shame on the BBC for releasing this without subtitles! In this day and age there is no excuse for this especially if you plan to sell in Australia and America.
That said I watched anyway and was surprisingly disappointed! Why surprisingly? Well I knew it would be soapy. I knew it would be overly dramatic and shallow. What I didn't expect was to find a very well-produced and "somewhat" informative production. In short this series could have been a great WW2 series as opposed to an interesting daytime soap opera and that was disappointing!
The biggest problem is that the series suffers from an extremely inconsistent story line AKA bad writing. One moment it's compelling, dramatic and informative (great to learn about the Women's Land Army or the politics of the day), the next it's totally sophomoric, over-dramatic and unbelievable. More so the non-stop clichés make it a tough row to hoe (get it?)
On the other hand it is a great period piece that seems to capture the Britain's WW2 experience well. Particularly pleasing were the solid actors decent CGI and exceptional cinematography, locations, sets and soundtrack (excepting S2 theme song)
In the end I enjoyed the series despite the fact I often found myself rolling my eyes. Most importantly I learned a few things.
7 of 10 stars cheers!
POST: Shame on the BBC for releasing this without subtitles! In this day and age there is no excuse for this especially if you plan to sell in Australia and America.