Pares y nones

I was obsessed with the books growing up, I fell in love with the plot and how the story was told and how they used all the different perspectives. When I saw online they had the green light for a series I was excited.

I binged all 6 episodes on BBC iplayer back to back the weekend they were released. Whilst the show was amazing and addressed the issues well I do think it would be better as a stand alone drama rather than an adaptation of the series.

The show mostly focuses on the events of the latter half of the second book and the third. Where the cast were automatically aged up to 18/19 where the story on the first book focuses on their friendship and developing feelings as young teens. The third book which is what the series is mostly based on is a time jump where the social events is tearing them apart.

The time line of events in the show jumps around, which if they had stuck to the original order it may have been more gripping.

I stand by its an amazing show I just wish it was more true to the books.

Compelling characters in a terrifying situation that highlights the opposite terrifying situation still alive to a significant degree today :-( Shines an ugly light on racism, police brutality/bias, and segregation.

Firstly, the way the series set itself up was excellent, with scene setting and background to make the viewer understand that typical western race roles had been reversed through African conquest. However, the script-writers tried to shoehorn in too many lazy stereotypes that don't exist in the modern world. It would have made sense had this been set in 1900 London, as it would represent the equivalent reversal of 1900 colonialism. Set in the present day it felt like the writers were trying to make too many political points rather than a drama. Once one realises this it becomes more enjoyable, but it's so blatant that it spoils too many of the situations as they couldn't contain themselves. On a more positive note the main characters were well played, and the family dynamics of the two main parts also excellent.

Great story of a dystopian alternate reality , many similarities to apartheid south africa in here . As a white south africa growing up in apartheid, I saw so many similarities that I could relate to here. I find it odd that some reviewers on here give it a bad rating and then state that they just don't like the idea of the story and how offended they are by it, but then probably go off and are pretty happy to watch a show like "Man in the High castle" (an alternative reality where the Nazis rule the world). Clearly indicating their bias...

'Noughts + Crosses' is set in an imagined future where the prevelance of insitutitonal racism is somewhat more severe than it is at present, albeit less extreme than in, say Apartheid-era South Africa. The twist is that the story is set in a Britain that has been colonised by Africans. It's interesting to think about how African colonialism might have differed from the European form we actually had, but although the drama makes some nods in this direction, it's alternate history is insufficiently detailed to fully flesh-out a wholly different culture. Instead, the main purpose the swap serves is to force a contemparary white British audience to question our own assumptions about what is normal and natural. And there's nothing wrong with that, per se, but I found the programme rather obvious in its moral messaging, it's characters too embelematic to be cared about. One of the characters is even the Prime Minister, but the lack of detail in the policking we see is typical of the drama as a whole. To really tell a good story about racism (or indeed anything) in general, you need to have the confidence to tell a story in the particular; and that's what I didn't find here.