The good:
It's a very good drama with excellent plots and very good acting. The writing makes for very good drama and the photography is top-notch! If you ignore the national labels and treat it like it's about a fictional planet it can be quite enjoyable. In particular the characters of Harry, Roz and Jo are very well developed and quite compelling.
The bad:
There is really, quite shockingly, a VERY PRONOUNCED anti-American bias in the writing... so much so that at times is appears to be socialist propaganda! There was even an episode (7.4) where they actually presented a senior Al Qaeda representative as if he were a "moderate" between Iran and the US! THAT is absolutely laughable nonsense propaganda... and specifically offensive to the victims of 9/11, as well as to those of us who were once stationed in that country as part of the US Armed Forces! This is an attitude which I personally knew was NOT the opinion of the British subjects with whom I associated during that treasured time in my military experience! One main character even refers to the CIA with "God defend me from my friends, from my enemies I can defend myself..." of course she shortly turns out to be a Soviet spy!
Seriously, given that the BBC has recently been outed for hiding the sexual abuse of children by one of it's knighted hosts after bashing the Catholic Church for the same offense, this series, while dramatically enjoyable, leaves one with little option but to question the credibility of this once respected voice of "journalism"!
It's a very good drama with excellent plots and very good acting. The writing makes for very good drama and the photography is top-notch! If you ignore the national labels and treat it like it's about a fictional planet it can be quite enjoyable. In particular the characters of Harry, Roz and Jo are very well developed and quite compelling.
The bad:
There is really, quite shockingly, a VERY PRONOUNCED anti-American bias in the writing... so much so that at times is appears to be socialist propaganda! There was even an episode (7.4) where they actually presented a senior Al Qaeda representative as if he were a "moderate" between Iran and the US! THAT is absolutely laughable nonsense propaganda... and specifically offensive to the victims of 9/11, as well as to those of us who were once stationed in that country as part of the US Armed Forces! This is an attitude which I personally knew was NOT the opinion of the British subjects with whom I associated during that treasured time in my military experience! One main character even refers to the CIA with "God defend me from my friends, from my enemies I can defend myself..." of course she shortly turns out to be a Soviet spy!
Seriously, given that the BBC has recently been outed for hiding the sexual abuse of children by one of it's knighted hosts after bashing the Catholic Church for the same offense, this series, while dramatically enjoyable, leaves one with little option but to question the credibility of this once respected voice of "journalism"!