Saara and Vadim join forces to uncover the hidden code and try to prevent a war.Saara and Vadim join forces to uncover the hidden code and try to prevent a war.Saara and Vadim join forces to uncover the hidden code and try to prevent a war.
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Ruth Clarson
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- (as Ruth Clarson-Horrocks)
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Featured review
Season One Review
Although I, and apparently even the actors in it, thought this was a one off miniseries, the way the series end at least suggests the possibility of more, so I'll post this as a season one and move it to the main page if we get confirmation that no more is coming.
Saara Parvin (Hannah Khalique-Brown) begins a year of work experience at GCHQ on the day that the UK's internet services are taken down as part of a hack by Russian forces. Parvin makes friends with John Yeabsley (Mark Rylance) a veteran analyst and finds her profile rising when she spots a second attack hidden amongst the malware code, before it's schedule to begin. In Russia, Vadim Trusov (German Segal) who went to university with Parvin, learns the deep strategy behind the Russian attack and seeing the ultimate endgame, tries to get a message to her.
Unlike most of Kosminsky's previous work, which tends to focus on historical matters, "The Undeclared War" takes place in the very near future, when agenda driven news channels, combine with organised social media to create fake news. I don't know how prevalent any of this really is today, but it made for a depressing and farcical viewing at times. When you see people who's job it is to respond to other fake Twitter Account from their own twitter accounts you do end up wondering whether or not to cheer for the big asteroid.
I did like bits of the show, I enjoyed the "mind palace" scenes, the way they tried to demonstrate Saara's (and others) techniques for looking through code is reasonably inventive. It all moves rather slowly though and there's maybe too much time spend on bits of the story outside of the main thrust. I don't think we needed to do see both Saara's life with her family and situation with her boyfriend. I try and write my reviews without spoilers, so I'll keep this vague as I want to talk about the ending. If this is how the series ends, it's one of the most open ended "decide amongst yourselves" endings ever - if not, and the show comes back, then this of course would no longer be valid.
Overall, I think it's a bit too slow and a bit too depressing to recommend it to other people.
Saara Parvin (Hannah Khalique-Brown) begins a year of work experience at GCHQ on the day that the UK's internet services are taken down as part of a hack by Russian forces. Parvin makes friends with John Yeabsley (Mark Rylance) a veteran analyst and finds her profile rising when she spots a second attack hidden amongst the malware code, before it's schedule to begin. In Russia, Vadim Trusov (German Segal) who went to university with Parvin, learns the deep strategy behind the Russian attack and seeing the ultimate endgame, tries to get a message to her.
Unlike most of Kosminsky's previous work, which tends to focus on historical matters, "The Undeclared War" takes place in the very near future, when agenda driven news channels, combine with organised social media to create fake news. I don't know how prevalent any of this really is today, but it made for a depressing and farcical viewing at times. When you see people who's job it is to respond to other fake Twitter Account from their own twitter accounts you do end up wondering whether or not to cheer for the big asteroid.
I did like bits of the show, I enjoyed the "mind palace" scenes, the way they tried to demonstrate Saara's (and others) techniques for looking through code is reasonably inventive. It all moves rather slowly though and there's maybe too much time spend on bits of the story outside of the main thrust. I don't think we needed to do see both Saara's life with her family and situation with her boyfriend. I try and write my reviews without spoilers, so I'll keep this vague as I want to talk about the ending. If this is how the series ends, it's one of the most open ended "decide amongst yourselves" endings ever - if not, and the show comes back, then this of course would no longer be valid.
Overall, I think it's a bit too slow and a bit too depressing to recommend it to other people.
helpful•10
- southdavid
- Jun 24, 2023
Details
- Runtime48 minutes
- Color
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