I was a bit surprised to see that there aren´t any comments for this show positive or negative.
If you can overlook the total disregard for realism in key parts to serve the dramatization you can say it´s entertaining. But that disregard, for me, took the seriousness out of the show. And quite honestly I wanted to quit after the first season but went on only because it was a short running show. So, what about the realism ? Well, just some of the problems with the show:
- Right at the beginning they parachute into enemy territory in broad daylight. Right there was the first moment I chuckled. In general, going in and out of the occupied territories in Europe seems to be as easy as buying a ticket and going there. - Realtime radio communication from all over Europe to Canada with a suitcase radio and a short cable as an antenna that at best came a few meters high. That is realism sacrified for dramatization. - There is also no reality in relation to time and space. Remember this is 1942. You don´t travel from France to Canada in a day, yet this happened repeatedly that they send characters on that journey. - One specific thing that almost made me laugh was at the beginning of season two. They stopped a Tiger tank with an outside explosion (c4?) that in real life would barely scratch the paint. That armor couldn´t be cracked by allied tanks until late in the war. Yes, they said they wanted to explode under the tank but they didn´t. And that aside, the characters should have been done right there. You approach a Tiger tank on the open field with small arms and you´re done.
Some other things: - Some of the uniforms looked cheap. I don´t know why but the looked like Helloween costumes. Althought I just noticed it at the beginning. - Season 1 had no suspense because it was clear from the first episode what would happend in the last and what the cliffhanger would be. Way to predictable. - Why have there always be those kind of back and forth romances ? - There were huge story gaps at times and some of the things that did happen where downright unbelievable and the behavior of the characters at times stupid. - I guess the fact that the germans stopped speaking German was a concession to the english (speaking) audience. I actually liked that because it added realism that they speak their language when amongst themselves. - Bringing the Fabers in never really worked out. It was too much back and forth as thought the writers never seemed to know what to do with them and the end felt a bit forced. I know it is a lot of criticism and in TV you have to sacrifies something to make a show, any show, work. But there are certain levels you have to acchieve if you are making a show that is based in reality. Alltogether the show never created the urge to want to watch the next episode. There where good moments when the show dealt with harsh things that happened during those years in history. But as mentioned above there are to many negatives in the setup for me.
Review by FinFanBlockedParent2017-09-24T18:00:39Z— updated 2017-09-25T19:05:16Z
I was a bit surprised to see that there aren´t any comments for this show positive or negative.
If you can overlook the total disregard for realism in key parts to serve the dramatization you can say it´s entertaining. But that disregard, for me, took the seriousness out of the show. And quite honestly I wanted to quit after the first season but went on only because it was a short running show.
So, what about the realism ? Well, just some of the problems with the show:
- Right at the beginning they parachute into enemy territory in broad daylight. Right there was the first moment I chuckled. In general, going in and out of the occupied territories in Europe seems to be as easy as buying a ticket and going there.
- Realtime radio communication from all over Europe to Canada with a suitcase radio and a short cable as an antenna that at best came a few meters high. That is realism sacrified for dramatization.
- There is also no reality in relation to time and space. Remember this is 1942. You don´t travel from France to Canada in a day, yet this happened repeatedly that they send characters on that journey.
- One specific thing that almost made me laugh was at the beginning of season two. They stopped a Tiger tank with an outside explosion (c4?) that in real life would barely scratch the paint. That armor couldn´t be cracked by allied tanks until late in the war. Yes, they said they wanted to explode under the tank but they didn´t. And that aside, the characters should have been done right there. You approach a Tiger tank on the open field with small arms and you´re done.
Some other things:
- Some of the uniforms looked cheap. I don´t know why but the looked like Helloween costumes. Althought I just noticed it at the beginning.
- Season 1 had no suspense because it was clear from the first episode what would happend in the last and what the cliffhanger would be. Way to predictable.
- Why have there always be those kind of back and forth romances ?
- There were huge story gaps at times and some of the things that did happen where downright unbelievable and the behavior of the characters at times stupid.
- I guess the fact that the germans stopped speaking German was a concession to the english (speaking) audience. I actually liked that because it added realism that they speak their language when amongst themselves.
- Bringing the Fabers in never really worked out. It was too much back and forth as thought the writers never seemed to know what to do with them and the end felt a bit forced.
I know it is a lot of criticism and in TV you have to sacrifies something to make a show, any show, work. But there are certain levels you have to acchieve if you are making a show that is based in reality. Alltogether the show never created the urge to want to watch the next episode. There where good moments when the show dealt with harsh things that happened during those years in history. But as mentioned above there are to many negatives in the setup for me.