X Company

I anticipated watching "X Company". It would be quite a change to see a TV show about Canadian spies instead of American ones, I thought. While I have a few reservations, I will continue to follow it.

The story begins in 1942. Canada had declared war to Germany, Italy and Japan before the United States. In order to gather intelligence, the Canadian government sets up a secret training camp near Lake Ontario or outside of the city of Whitby to be more exact. This is where a group of Canadian, British and American recruits get trained before being sent behind enemy lines to spy, kill and sabotage on the European front.

Like any drama about WWII made before it, "X Company" contains the "must-haves" (or clichés) of the genre: harsh German officers, conscientious German officers, an idealistic genius, a troubled genius and the brutish guy. Even though the pilot doesn't elaborate much on most of the leading characters' back story, I expect further episodes to delve a little deeper. After all, every seconds of the pilot was smartly spent making us witness the spies' first mission.

Morever, it was good to know that Americans, who didn't have any intelligence service back then, relied on Canadians to train their first modern spies. Add to that the cast's capability to make you feel their character's fear during a mission. However, I have one minor reservation. While the pilot is set in France, I was irked to see French-speaking characters, be they Canadian or French, talk among themselves in English with an affected Francophone accent. This is weird coming from a Canadian TV series with a budget high enough to cast non-Canadian actors and film action sequences!

Despite a few flaws one can expect from a network TV series, "X Company" has the intensity of an espionage thriller combined with an appreciable dose of historical veracity.

I having grown up in Canada have been so used to poor acting and poorly filmed shows. I remember how happy we were finally getting cable so we didn't have to watch CBC. BUT as of late things have been picking up; e.g.. Flashpoint, Vikings and now X-Company. Good acting,entertaining, and 8 out of ten special effects. There is one special effect that was quite blatantly off but I appreciate that more than some crappy CGI effect. I know dh-t21 didn't like it but his review was less than informative and juvenile. (Maybe upset that it is mentioned the US doesn't enter the war until later :) Anyway the characters thus far are deep and well-portrayed. Lots of emotion in this first episode and some good British actors who add realism.

I hope that the season continues and all 8(?) episodes are broadcast and not replaced by something else.

Is this historically accurate? No, not at all. Is it entertaining? Very much so.

This is all character development. Story. I really cant wait for the next series now that series 2 has been given the green light.

In this day and age we have Agents of Shield, Captain America et al. All of which are complete fantasies. This is a hi-bred. It is demonstrably a more realistic rendition of Marvels Agent Carter, same same but with a thin veneer of accuracy. More compelling than Carter, simply because it is more closely aligned with the truth.

Having said that, it is a very well characterised fantasy rendition of reality where the emphasis is on characterisation.

In any event, very compelling. Looking forward to the next rendition.

It's fantastic to see a new TV drama that puts our current geopolitical struggle into historic perspective; in X Company the audience get to witness how ordinary people rose to the challenge against such overwhelming military adversity to win victory. While we can always rely on our soldiers and intelligence officers, recently our leaders seem somehow weak and more inclined to appease, reflecting a willingness to overlook our enemies ruthlessness and utter hatred for our way of life with bizarre, conflated statements often ignoring the elephant in the room which in turn worries a great many people.

To the show, I love the cinematography, shooting locations have been chosen with great care with matching attention going into the period costume recreating a completely believable period during World War 2. The cast is completely unknown to me apart from Warren Brown, the English detective in 'Luther' (what a show that is!). Hugh Dillon seems up to the task before him though. However, X Company is let down by the script which at times can come across as pedantic, hopefully, this can be addressed by season two.

Another element that inspired me to write this mini-review is how the producers have avoided that particularly American pitfall; pumping themselves up at the expense of their allies. You'll notice in British, Australian and Canadian TV shows covering war they don't get caught in the trap of boosting their own national reputation at the expense of the allies which reflects very well on them and poorly on American producers.

All in all a quality Canadian historical drama which should appeal to both WW2 buffs and viewers looking for something outside of generic cop shows and the dreadful reality TV swamping our TV sets at the moment.

I've been waiting a while to watch this and it really didn't disappoint. Really tense, really well written, with great characters. First Orphan Black and now Xcompany. Canada is on the up- and-up TV wise.

I thought that it also looked great from an aesthetic point of view. Production values were high and it was very cool to see a show set it Europe that seems to actually be filmed there. Acting was also top notch.

I recommend this show to anyone who wants to watch a damn good thriller with damn good characters and a plot that keeps moving at a good pace.