Onder Vuur

Loved the interventions, the actors and the shots. Nicely filmed and great atmosphere. For a Flemish series absolutely something innovative and worth the watch!

I don't know where to start... this is the most amateuristic fire brigade there has ever been. They don't know what way to drive to the building on fire, they find there is a colleague missing only after they are sitting in the fire engine, there is no coordination between police, ambulance and the fire brigade, the police are blocking the street entrance with their car, they continue to use water after they found out they are in a drughouse (like they don't know mixing chemicals with water can cause major explosions), one fireman chases a victim - leaving his colleagues behind, their commanding officer has to ask for an update every 10 seconds, they have to ask their colleague to spray water all the time, they are at a loss to do with a victim, they panic...

I really don't know why people are okay with portraying this service in a way that makes them look like clowns. Fire men and women are highly skilled professionals, working in an environment that depends on good communication, anticipation and confidence in acting. People are extremely well trained. You hardly ever hear about mistakes made by these experts.

So for me, after watching how they handled the first fire, it was exit with this program. What a joke. If I was working in this area, I would consider suing this show for defamation.

What is wrong with the team producing this serie? Empty hose running inside a house while the other shot shows them inside with water. Securing a basket from a hot air balloon with a climbing rope is sufficient? Women is getting a baby in a car sitting upright, the baby has no umbilical cord, and the same cars a stalking the seen over and over driving past (don't mention the shots are far from lining up with the cars). No overlapping duty's? The old luitenant says he was early so he wouldn't see other people?! And the go home every evening like a office job? Welding under a fire truck because repairs a needed in a active duty?(don't mention the metal he welded stays red/orange glowing for a long time in the shot)

And the "5 George K" radio chatter in Belgium! And repeating every shot?

I'm not finished with the serie.

Can't wait for the rest of the quirks. Maybe watch it twice to see what i missed.

Many reviewers around here are unnecessarily harsh and critical for "Onder Vuur", and I wonder why. Where's your sense of patriotism, people? For a Flemish made action/thriller series about firefighters - and thus requiring a lot of special effects and stunt work - this really isn't bad at all. Quite the contrary, I daresay it's one of the better Flemish series of the past 20-30 years, and it also gets increasingly better with every episode and every season. Admittedly the first few episodes were quite hectic and unengaging, but "Onder Vuur" rapidly became a professional and addictive series. The second half of season one was already solid, but season two was better than season one, and season three is the best of everything.

An often-read complaint is that "Onder Vuur" is a too obliviously attempting to imitate the successful American fire brigade series. Well, duh... unless it's about struggling farmer families in the early 1900s, EVERY Flemish movie or TV-series is a knockoff of an American success formula! There's nothing wrong with that. Sure, it feels like a localized version of "Chicago Fire" or "Rescue Me". Personally, I'd say "Rescue Me" because the private issues of the firemen and firewomen are quite bonkers and far-fetched sometimes.

"Onder Vuur" takes place at the Flemish coast, in the city of Ostend, and centers on the fire-fighting squad East Bank. Straight from the first season, there's speculation of a merging with the city's other and much larger squad, because of understaffing and a operating zone that is too small. The team fanatically resists against a merging, but it eventually happens in season 3. The series features a good mix between intrigues and personal conflicts between the fire-fighters mutually, and spectacular emergency situations/heroic interventions. The latter category is often exceptionally well-handled and includes - among many other situations - a fire inside a green-energy windmill 200m above the ground, a bloody accident with a dune buggy, a fallen construction crane, an engine fire on board of a fisherman ship, and the evacuation of a collapsed factory where an illegal rave took place.

There's solid acting from many of (West) Flanders' finest actors and actresses. Pivotal character is Orlando Foncke, played by Louis Talpe. You can compare his character with Denis Leary in "Rescue Me". He's brave, devoted, and multi-skilled, but also too impulsive and struggling with quite a lot of personal issues. The list of supportive players is impressive - if you live in Flanders, at least - with names like Sam Louwyck, Dirk van Dijck, Joke Devynck, Wim Willaert, Aimé Claeys, etc. Judging by the final episode of the third season, I'm guessing there won't be a fourth season. That actually makes "Onder Vuur" unique from a different angle... It's a series that knows when to quit when ahead.

I started watching this series as at the moment not a lot else to watch. I am only on episode 4 and I'm waiting to see if I can give it more stars along the way. I do find one thing really disturbing. This show is about firemen, I have the greatest respect for these people, but Orlando who seems to think he always knows best, drives himself and his 5 yearold(?) son around without seat belts!!!!!! I'm sure this is something someone in this job, in real life, would not do. Maybe the producers should think about what a terrible example they are showing.