Onder Vuur

I found it moderately entertaining. Some actors were good. There were a lot of plot holes, loads in fact, but it wasn't intended as a documentary. The music though. The music throughout each episode was terrible. The guitar was awful. There were drums on occasion too. It sounded like the musicians were making it up on the spot as they watched the show.

I watched all ten episodes, so it can't have been that bad...except for the music.

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.

I am a Big Fan of 911/911 Lone Star,so i use them as Measurement, but i think this Show holds his Ground.

It is relateable,the Stories inside are interesting,the Emergencies are maybe not sooo dramatic but not unrealistic and way better than other 911-Clone Shows.

The Stories are not stretched over 39 episodes,hihihi.

I like the Cast,they look ordinary which fits to the more-real-feel.

Its true this Show probably doesn´t had Big-Budget,but isn´t low-budget,either. There is no big CGI-Effects,or special filters for the Camera,still it looks good,sounds goods,more real.

I did enjoy it and recommend it.

Almost Identical casting To Chicago Fire, the friendships, personalities, issues with a corrupt and dishonest Administrator, etc.

The voice overs are not great, tone/words, wrong.

Lots of obvious lazy fire/health mistakes too. For instance, a firefighter tries to take a bloody knife away from someone and gets jabbed. No mention of going to hospital to get checked out for tetanus or other possible diseases?

The rescue by a fireman that was deadly would never have happened. Never.

Get better writers and stop copying American shows. We crave the uniqueness of EU programs!

600 words is absurd!! It used to be less what gives?

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.