As a Dutch person, I never actually knew the story behind Fokker and the KLM, so that got me interested combined with the preview I saw. In that preview they mentioned this was one of the highest budget Dutch television series ever made, with lots of actual footage, models and CGI where needed. Without spoiling anything from the storyline itself, I can say that not once I noticed I was watching a CGI enhanced scene. Of course, once you know that CGI is being used you can easily guess the scenes in which it was used, but nonetheless it was extremely well made. The most important part is actually the acting and that's absolutely perfect.
The fact they used a younger and older Anthony Fokker and Albert Plesman (and their wives) was the stroke of a genius. Not only that, in one case the older actor adjusted to the younger and in the other case vice versa, either way they were so well cast and even better how it smoothly went from one to the other. It's a miracle that in such a small country (compared to the UK or US) the young and old Anthony Fokker look so much alike and also share the same traits both on and off camera.
The storyline isn't always true to reality, but it doesn't detract from it otherwise. Being a limited series, I can understand that they had to simplify the death of one of Plesman's sons Jan. In the series he simply just died during a flight, while in reality he died in 1944 while fighting in his Spitfire during WWII. I can see that some people will not consider this to be a good thing, but I do see the burden of explaining the whole WWII phase and as it's not about Jan, but rather his father, I get the fact they did want to show his grief upon losing two sons, but not wanting to extend a couple of episodes just for that.
Fun fact: Albert Plesman's son Jan had the nickname De Vliegende Hollander (The Flying Dutchman) which coincidentally is where the name of this tv series came from, though in this case they called it Vliegende Hollanders (plural, Flying Dutchmen), obviously meaning Anthony Fokker and Albert Plesman.
Great tv show and although I don't often watch Dutch productions because of bad experiences in the past, this one was well worth it and has shown me that we can deliver production quality comparative to UK or US productions.
[NRK] It tries to humanize the characters so much that it cannot avoid falling into sentimentality and chauvinism, but curiously it does a disservice to historical characters like Princess Märtha by inventing an unbelievable romantic relationship with President Roosevelt. An uninspired example of "inspired by real events", monarchical and patriotic in the worst sense, and surprisingly produced by a public channel.
No one discuss that historical facts can be used as the basis for constructing a fictional narrative ("The Crown" (Netflix, 2016-) does so consistently with good results). The question is if it is really necessary and if that contributes to making a more interesting narrative. Norwegian historian Trond Norén Isaksen said in the newspaper Aftenposten that "there is no indication that the princess and the president had an affair or that Roosevelt was sexually active after being paralyzed from the waist down in 1921." And that the alleged romantic relationship was a "fake new" created by the president's opponents and especially The Chicago Tribune newspaper. This historical reality is so fascinating, with its political intrigues and conspiracies, that the sentimental story of unrequited love. La ficción evita la realidad para crear una narración que es mucho menos atractiva. Fiction avoids reality to create a narrative that is much less engaging. And it is the great mistake of the screenwriters, who also detract from characters like Prince Olav, here portrayed as a simple jealous husband, and Eleanor Roosevelt, overshadowed by her husband.
