Combat Report

Absolutely rubbish. Acting, story lines and the special effects are terrible.

I understand this is a low budget production, and it shows. Almost everything about it make it seem like an amateur production. The script is repetitive and poorly written ("Remember what Grado's friend said he saw Dakks do in Charlie company?" YES, thank you, WE DO) and lacks subtlety and originality. The evil nazi crushes a walnut with his bare hand, that's how evil he is.

The characters are cardboard figures without chemistry and they are placed within a story seemingly made up by an AI fed with WW2 movie scripts, and going nowhere. There are some soap opera style conflicts and backstories, some drama, some attempts at humour, even a weak romantic plot line, but most of all a lot of shooting and explosions to keep the guys interested, because nothing else is.

The acting is half bad, the CGI is terrible, and it's CGI everywhere. Even simple indoor scenes is filmed in front of a green screen. Everything is draped in overly dramatic war film music to cover up the show's visual shortcomings, but it only makes everything worse.

The director is inspired by old shows like Rat Patrol and Combat which he watched as a child. So the show isn't really about WW2. It's about shows about WW2, making it a pastiche, but a terrible one due to all of the above. Watch a quality WW2 pastiche instead, like Inglorious Basterds. Or a quality WW2 drama production, like Saving Private Ryan or Band of Brothers. He**, even M.A.S.H. has more realism and heart than this show.

On the bright side: The costumes was good.

In the grand tradition of the great 1960s television series COMBAT, this program features real characters as opposed to video game stereotypes and illustrates the courage and ingenuity of a small group of regular G.I. Joes as they infiltrate German positions on the western front to disrupt and stifle the Nazi war effort during a period that was a turning point in the European theater of operations. Secretly authorized by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, these brave young men, led by a charismatic and troubled officer, had a license to kill bad guys well before 007. This series, to its credit, displays the humanity of these young warriors as well as their courageous commitment to a dirty job that needed doing.

Add enough WWII titles to your Amazon watchlist and they'll eventually surface this as a suggestion - it's exactly what you'd expect from a low-budget obscure project from someone who probably loved Band of Brothers and convinced himself he could make something similar. Is it good? Not really. Is it watchable? Sure; I made it to the end. Would I watch it again? No. Should you? Probably not, unless you're really desperate for some predictable WWII fluff

The series is dumb, and considering how it ends - I assume they anticipated a second season would come - I wouldn't bother wasting your time. It should have been a movie, and they should have written an ending. But I'd say the costumes and some sets and perhaps a few characters were good, although the uniforms and helmets everyone wears all look brand new off the shelf.

The story is forgettable, the music is like the pause-menu generic music you'd hear in 2000s Call of Duty video game. The Jeeps, tanks and C-47 they used for filming were cool.

The third episode is the best one of the six. The iron-on SS sticker they slapped onto the German boxer's tank top legit made me laugh out loud (and how does he magically go from POW to back with the Germans?) The captain's framed photo of his wife that he ominously glances at, clearly taken on an iPhone, printed out in black and white and tossed into a craft store frame lol And why don't any soldiers have division patches on their uniforms?

The characters are one-dimensional: a mean, punishing commanding officer... a French woman in a beret (!) who just happens to know all the intel and has her eyes on one of our American boys... a cartoonishly angry Nazi officer thirsty for revenge and blood and crushing walnuts in his fist... a hulking German tough guy straight out of Indiana Jones... a patriotic private who decides to fight with his buddies instead of taking a trip back home... a wounded soldier who heroically throws himself at the enemy to save his buddies... and the main guy, Dakks, a 40-something lieutenant with a mysterious past! Go on, leave me behind, save yourself!

Just more grist for the mill. Completely forgettable, nothing unique, memorable, nor notable here. All of the characters are archetypes and the actors sound like they're doing a cold read sitting at a table. The writing is equally weak, with plot hole big enough to drive a truck through.

In the age of binge watching, I offer this: don't invest enough time time into this that you feel you need to see it through. You will be terribly disappointed.