Paris Has Fallen

The British Embassy in Paris is holding a party. Jacob Pearce (Sean Harris) leads a well armed group to infiltrate the gather. Zara Taylor (Ritu Arya) is a MI6 operative. Vincent Taleb (Tewfik Jallab) is protecting the French Minister of Defense. Pearce led a Foreign Legion group in Afghanistan which was captured by the Taliban. He wants revenge for an unspecified conspiracy.

The "Has Fallen" franchise is not to be taken seriously. It is a franchise based on mindless action fun. Somebody is attacked. Something has fallen. It's not a hard concept or a home to smart writing. At least, this show is staying in that general area. It's not smartly written and there is action. It does abandon the concept of a short time period in the movies. The problem starts with the pile of cash. It is straight up Joker. It is non-realistic. That's the moment when I realized what this show is and what's its limitation. It's not to be taken seriously and it works to gin up tension whether it's deserved or not.

If you want a serious and realistic series, then don't watch this.

This series is over the top, but so much fun to watch. I like the humour in it. I think it's better than the movies from which this is inspired from. There is no dull moments, there's always something going on.

It's well filmed and they know how to build great tension.

The personal relationships are clichés, but they are integral part of the storyline and don't feel forced.

As usual, Sean Harris is amazing as the bad guy.

I like the dynamics between Jalab and Arya and I hope they can be reunited in a 2nd season, or somethin else.

A seeming terrorist group takes over an embassy event. You are thinking "Die Hard." A woman, who later claims to "work in HR," fights back and kills two of the attackers. She is really good. She should have her own show. You are still thinking "Die Hard." The woman, and an Embassy bodyguard, successfully foil the initial attack. The attackers retreat through a hole in the swears just as the police crash through the front door. The police immediately notice our heroine, mainly because she is holding a weapon which was recently fired. So far, so good. Moments later, however, the camera picks up our heroine being treated by a medic, blanket around her. Somehow, in the mere blink of an eye, even though she was holding a weapon when the cavalry arrived, even though she holds no official position in law enforcement, she has already been cleared and released. Now you are thinking "WTF?" I am making this point to show the importance of subliminal cues in a fictional series. You are barely halfway into E01 of the series, and your brain is already screaming, "this makes no sense." And it doesn't. France has produced some incredible TV content (Spirale, Le Bureau) but this is not one of those. This is light, fluffy, fantasy stuff. You may like it. Or you may not. ((Designated "IMDb Top Reviewer." Please check out my list "167+ Nearly-Perfect Movies (with the occasional Anime or TV miniseries) you can/should see again and again (1932 to the present))

Ep 1 starts well and promises a lot.

Fights are well choreographed and tightly shot and edited.

Ep 2 just about keeps the pace. But we are no longer playing top our styrengths.

By Ep 3 the writers have run out of ideas and the dialogue has started to creak. Loudly.

Ep 4 and there is no denying this is never going to deliver on the promises of Ep 1. By now the dialogue is excruciating.

A general note to Casting Directors: privileged kids fom posh schools should be dicouraged from affecting a glottal stop. It doesn't add street cre. It just comes across as fake at best but more often than not as patronising. Just say the words.

Most interesting to me is how easily people are convinced that the person exacting revenge is the terrorist... he WAS the terrorist when he was 'on assignment' in someone else's country where he didn't belong...but then he's betrayed by his own country...(this is revealed right in the beginning so i'm not considering it a 'spoiler'). GROSSly betrayed...so then he seeks vengeance for that betrayal and is labeled a terrorist and everyone picks up on that, including the featured reviewer...how typical...and i've seen this time and time again... America invades country after country and some of them come seeking revenge and are labeled 'terrorists'. On top of which, of course, they send their OWN young to these foreign countries not caring what happens to them(SO proven true by what kind of care/support they get when, no IF they get back to their own country...so nobles and serfs, still...and legitimized through terms like 'patriotism'...'keeping the world safe for democracy'. When all they're REALly doing is making certain people and industries wealthier... i think the strength in characterization of the lead three characters is what carries the show and is worthy of the rating i gave it...AND...what Vincent does in the last episode, imo, further speaks to how he saw himself and what i said above...originally i gave it a 6, but just am coming back to add this and raise it to a 7...the show is typical. Generic. Predictable, with some interesting characters and the expected action sequences...one thing i will say in its favor is it, like so many other shows will do, never felt like it was spinning its wheels/stretching so that it could last over the 8 episodes.