Ghosts of Beirut

All about this mini series is great: the cast, the details of the story and how it is told, the scenography, the distribution, everything.

The 4 episodes are just the right pick in length not missing details and telling a story in an excellent fashion way. This one is a true story but stylized for a better story on screen. Now running on skymovies.

This is a must watch for everyone who loves history/espionage/thriller genres.

This should be at least a 8+ on imdb. It's comparable with the best movies/mini series on the same type of action, daring to say that is in top 5 mini series about terrorism/spy genres.

8 episodes wouldn't even be enough to present properly the number one terrorist of that era. The character of Radwan is superficial, many facts are neglected, and his relationship with Iran and Syria is weakly presented. More importantly, his deep relation with hizbullah is totally omitted. Actors tried their best, but they weren't convincing with their poor Palestinian and Moroccan lebanese accent. This story deserves much more invistigation, thoughtful script, 3 dimensional actors, and a professional production. Otherwise, it's a simple introduction for audiences that don't know about that legendary terrorist.

Ghosts of Beirut is very well written and depicts its time periods accurately. The acting is solid most of the time and I like the documentary pieces that were added.

The series should be 3 episodes longer, however. What I really missed, was the 90s and how Imad managed to be the so called ghost. In my opinion this is an essential part of his reputation.

I also would have liked the Arabic actors to be Lebanese, as most of them have a an Israeli Arabic background. This does not entirely capture the Lebanese vibe, although Dina Shahibi has lived in Beirut.

But this is well worth your time and attention.

As "Ghosts of Beirut" (2023 release; 4 Episodes of about 50-55 min each) opens, we are reminded that this mini-series is a "Fictional Account of Deeply Researched Events". We are in "Southern Iraq, January 20, 2007" and four SUV's brazenly enter a US base and kidnap several US military. We switch to the "CIA Tactical Headquarters" when a CIA agent claims that the kidnapping has all of the hallmarks of being orchestrated by Imad, the long sought after terrorist. We then switch to "Beirut 1982" where we get to know the young Imad. At this point we are less than 15 minutes into Episode 1.

Couple of comments: I can't recall ever having seen a movie or TV series with the disclaimer of being a "fictional account of deeply researched events". Do you? Of course, plenty of "based on" or "inspired by" or some such, but this particular wording? No. I have no idea how closely to the actual facts this mini-series sticks, As Episode 1 played out, it took me quite a while to figure out exactly what was going on. Many, many characters to sort out. Also what role exactly the US was playing in Lebanon in the early/mid 80s. By the end of Episode 1, though, things were much clearer, at least as far as figuring out the plot. Looking forward to seeing how it plays out from here.

"Ghosts of Beirut" started streaming on the Showtime app yesterday (Friday), and Episode 1 will actually be shown on SHO TV tomorrow (Sunday). The remaining 3 episodes will be released over the next 3 weekends. If you have any interest on geopolitical events in general, or in the Middle East in particular, I'd readily suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusion.

Sitting in 2024 while the 10/7 war is still unfolding, this is a good reminder of the original events that led to the disaster we are facing today. "Radwan" is today the name of the Hezbollah unit that most threatens Israel. USA and the world allowed this monster to grow into a powerful Iranian proxy that threatens the region with hundreds of thousands of missiles (not a typo). A few quibbles: the English subtitles of Arabic spoken language are overlaid by the "regular" subtitles when turned on, making this tough to watch. The journalist interviews while informative, aren't really necessary for the educated viewer. Last words: God how could we have been so dumb?