Ajjam1967

I watched this after a recommendation from Andor's Tony Gilroy, and it features two of the "Ghorman" actors (Thierry Godard, Richard Sammel).

From a historical perspective, I found the series fascinating, as nothing has shown the French Occupation in such a gritty way, as well as the complexities politically, for the French in particular, and the levels of collaboration at official levels, particularly with the French Police - some of which was unknown or not well known to me, despite having read factual accounts and having seen a lot of related TV and movies, including fact-based ones.

The only TV series I recall that comes close to this (and is arguably better as a drama) is the BBC's Belgium based "Secret Army" from the late 1970s, although "Wish Me Luck" in the 1980s was also pretty good, if told more from the perspective of British agents.

The titular village is fictional, but set somewhere in the vicinity of Besançon & Dijon in eastern France, close to the Swiss border. As is often typical of WWII dramas, the main characters and the specific events depicted are also fictional but based around factual, historical events that provide context and authenticity.

This would have been a hard watch for The French, especially French elders, and is no easy watch for anyone else. It is very gritty and certainly raises questions about the ethics of the French authorities and officials both during and after the German occupation.

Whilst the show did engage me for its seven season run, it does drag at times, with events taking too long to unfold and sometimes having an unnecessarily dragged-out build up or climax. Sometimes there is a little too much emphasis on character, and sometimes things seem to drag-out for scenes or events being depicted, that could have been cut out or cut down. There is usually payoff when you get there, but I have to say usually, because on the odd occasion there are underwhelming outcomes after lengthy build ups, but not too many, and were not enough to make me stop watching.

The acting on the whole is very strong, although one or two regular cast members looked like they might have been happier on a theatre stage than for the cameras and a small screen story.

I can see why Gilroy used two of the show's stars and liked the gritty nature of the show and how ordinary people and officials acted in these extraordinary times and how no one comes away unscathed, if they survive at all.

It was also noticeable that there tended to be a significant age difference between couples and lovers. Whilst some of this could be put down to many younger French men being dead or in captivity - leaving slim pickings for the women - this also applied to some women characters being older than their male partners. It did not entirely ring true in terms of authenticity and added to the occasional sense that this was being performed by a theatrical company rather than a TV series cast.

That said, any such age difference tended to either be well enough justified (e.g. The School Master and the Teacher) or the performances didn't let you dwell on it too much.

One character is left on a cliffhanger, but is later revealed to have survived, by way of a letter, in a most unsatisfactory conclusion for them, whilst everyone else who survives into season 7 (and some that did not) get a post-war 'wrap'.

If a gritty WWII drama might be up your alley in terms of entertainment, then you should find this to be worth a watch. If you need plenty of action and bangs on a regular basis, then this probably isn't quite for you. It's not that they are not there, but this is as much character driven as it is plot driven.

Ideally, I would rate this series somewhere between 7-8 (or 15/20), as neither end of the scale feels right, but have gone with a 7/10 due to the several aforementioned niggles not justifying the 8 for me, and an overall 7/10 feels closer to the mark.

Truly terrible.

First of all, horrible OTT acting which therefore also means terrible directing.

Add woeful levels of misplaced humour, which seemed to be trying - and failing - to replicate the MCU in this respect, but only managed to come off worse than the last Thor movie.

There was no tension AT ALL, a wafer thin subplot about a mole that was completely obvious, a Terran back story about how Georgiou became empress that made no sense whatsoever if you know anything about The Terran Empire, and a bunch of characters so basic & without depth, most cartoon comics would have rejected them.

This wasn't Star Trek: this was a Star Trek pastiche. A Star Trek rip off. This was Star Trek made by people who don't really know what Star Trek is. Because if they did, they wouldn't have made this garbage.

I've been watching Star Trek for over 50 years and I am truly appalled at how bad this is.

You get far better Star Trek in the online game. You got better Star Trek in Lower Decks. Discovery was poor, Strange New Worlds is under delivering and I will not be patronised by a kids specific ST series, when I watched TOS as a kid! You don't need a kids Star Trek that alienates adults, you need better quality drama in the Star Trek shows that will engage them better than the silly shenanigans of a Star Trek song and dance episode that only explained the reason for the singing. Buffy did it far better and decades earlier.

The idea of a Section 31 movie had merit, but the execution of it here left everything to be desired.

Miss, avoid, do not watch.

Morgan and Quentin, brothers separated after an attack by Cheyenne, where their parents where killed and Morgan was abducted, as was their sister.

Years later, the brothers reunite and go on a quest to find their sister, whereabouts still unknown.

Morgan (Russell) largely maintains the Cheyenne ways that he was raised with, as opposed to Quentin (Matheson), who was the more typical 19th century white American.

Morgan's Cheyenne knowledge and skills were regularly utilised in the episodes, taking this kind of TV show a significant step away from virtually all that had preceded it. So in a sense, it was groundbreaking.

The premise seemed sound and the leads, both still relatively young, seemed to work well together. They were engaging and both would have been fairly familiar faces at the time, with Russell still familiar from childhood and other mostly Disney roles, and Matheson from Magnum Force and appearances in Bonanza.

However, it was disappointing to learn that the show would not reappear after the first season ended.

Was it cancelled too soon? I know now of low US ratings, and also with hindsight, I could see how it may have been difficult to maintain this kind of show long-term, with episodes becoming 'samey'. And if you think of similarities to this and "The Searchers" movie, how long could it go on for?

But I still wonder if it could have lasted a bit longer and maybe we could have got a look at this long-lost sister in one or more episodes, and maybe a proper conclusion that the cancellation did not allow.

You could always sense that Kurt Russell had the proper X factor of a film star to make it after what must have been a disappointing cancellation at the time.

As for Matheson, I have because of this cancellation, paid attention to his subsequent roles, and kind of rooted for him because of what happened with this one. He has managed to flit between co-starring roles in movies like Animal House and Fletch, with major and minor roles on the small screen, where he seems to have found his greatest success. John Hoynes in The West Wing may well be his most famous role, although I also liked his turn in Burn Notice.

I like to think that Kurt Russell and Tim Matheson still keep in touch, but who knows. I'm mostly glad that they both went on to bigger and better things and are still around at the time of writing.