Estonia

As an estonian and being at this time of event very close to the tragedy, I say, I can't watch more than one episode at once - it brings back all those emotions, the pain which hunts me all my life since that happened.

It's really well done Estonian memorial if I can name it like that. It' s close to real with all emotions, the on-going political games around it and the sincere "why couldn't we help?" question.

The characters are believable, not overplayed as I expected - don't forget, we didn't know exactly what really happened, and had this "its gonna be alright " feeling quite long after.

For now I Ithink it is the closest to the truth the "Estonia" can get.

"Too much talking and arguing for nothing."

Positives: Actors were ok. Cinematography ok. Production quite ok.

Negatives:

Too few information/story about what happened on Estonia before sinking, even though 137 people really survived. Most of the story is just random short survivor stories with no real value to anyone.

Sounds were bad, sometimes effects and/or music was so loud that you could not hear the dialogue.

This could have been 3 hour tight package (3-4 episodes), but now it was boring 8 episode/hour speaky-talky-marathon. Too much repetition on scenes.

Conclusion:

Do not waste your time on this, just watch some documentary if you are interested on Estonia disaster.

"Estonia" is one of the best "based on true story" tv series ever made. It's not done like action-thriller about ships sinking or like court-drama with monologues that try too hard to be epic. No, it's respectfully done story about devastating tragedy and that tragedy's influence on society. What's the most important for me, creators respected tragedy by not making speculations about it's causes or how it went down, respected victims and their families by not turning "Estonia" in action schlock and respected us - viewers - by giving multiple points of view on these events for us to better understand why events after the tragedy played out like they did in real life.

"Estonia" is a show about conscience, about world where nothing is simple, even though it should be. We can see how blame can be shifted in every direction, while almost everyone is set to avoid acceptance of it. At some point we can start wonder: "Does those theories (explosion, submarine, other ship, military etc) about ships sinking are concieved based on some real evidence or on the basis of some loud parties that wanted to shift blame elswhere, to redirect grieving people away from them by making up false stories and false enemies?" It is important to point out that series creators do not hit you over the head with moral, but it is in there, audience must be opened to see it, audience must listen to understand the messages series are trying to get across.

I admire how series creators handled themes of the series. I respect series creators for the job they done.

Actors and crew also did marvelous job!

If I had to say just a few words about these series, then I would say: "Estonia" is a superb tv series.

It's not easy to make a tv-series about a catastrophy with good taste today. The audience has short attention span and is used to overstimulation. Anything not predigested and sensationalized is quickly labelled boring. It's a series with eight episodes yet people complain when everything isn't clear and explained within the first 15 minutes. If you stop scrolling as you watch and concentrate a little bit the show offers a chilling and gripping account of the events. The scenes are atmospheric, understated yet effective. The characters and their reactions are believable and at times very touching. The series does a great job showing the disaster and it's aftermath from different perspectives. But if you are looking for quick answers and straightforward action scenes Estonia is definitely not for you.

I'm interested in the Estonia for as long as I can remember and when I first heard of a show about the Estonia being in development by the people who brought us 'Chernobyl' (2019), I was beyond excited. I was pretty bummed out by the mixed reactions after the show aired in some territories. Now that I've seen it myself, I get the criticism. Kind of.

Positives first: the show is beautifully shot. I'm usually not a fan of shaky cam but here it just works. We're always very close to the characters, which makes the scenes feel even more powerful and intimate. The soundtrack is amazing! Haunting even. The performances are also good. Also, the show has a high production value and especially the sinking scenes are intense and look impressive (honestly they gave me nightmares).

The problem is that the show is simply too long. The aftermath of the sinking and the inverstigation is stretched out way too much and when it comes to a close, it feels unsatisfying. The scattered way of storytelling and ths constant time jumps also stand in the way of real tension.

Ultimately, the show would have been better if it was maybe 2 episodes shorter. It's well made and at times very tense and emotional but it lacks a dramatic thread and a consistent pace. This is still a recommendation though. Now please release this show outside of Scandinavia for the world to see it! ;)