Spycraft

I loved the History Channel docs on topics like War, Intelligence and History in general. Sadly, they got into UFO's and reality TV. So I had hope for this doc series on Netflix. However, it feels like a cheap imitation. The anecdotes are pretty fascinating but there's never any time spent on any of it. There's lots of stock footage used which makes it feel cheap and thrown together like a YouTube video. The saving grace are the interviews. However, they are cut short and you are left with anything but a hint at an interesting story. I really wanted to like this but there must be better docs on this subject out there.

Some interesting content let down by the narrator sounding like he can't be bothered and the captions that give facts on terminology flash up so fast, you only get to read the first line without pausing the program.

... I cannot sleep without having joined in with the chorus of complainers. I hope that Dylan Berry (as listed in the credits) is never employed again, after having worked on this series. To be unable to properly pronounce words, and/or names, is just ridiculous. He is definitely "out of his league".

However, to be totally fair, the Production team should also be cited, for their complete lack of oversight. The lack of intelligent narration should have been caught, and corrected, before this series ever hit the air. It's complete sloppiness that this didn't happen.

The content was interesting, but the narration just continuously drove me crazy. I was cringing on a regular basis, instead of absorbing the programming.

Overall it's a nice watch. It's informative, but somehow leaves you feeling as if it barely scratches the surface. Most of the presented stories feel rushed through. But the worst part of the entire experience is the bad narrator - if a foreign name/word had to be said, it would 10 times out of 10 be mispronounced. The most shocking one of all being the Spanish "atención" butchered as "atentschion", but not too far behind all Slavic names.

In short - interesting topic, exciting details, mediocre execution.

The narrator mispronounces so many names and terms that it makes enjoying the actual content very difficult. The content is interesting and put together very well, but the narrator ruins most of it.