El quinto día

The massive, very thick book was no masterpiece neither is the tv show one, but the special effects are ok, there is a lot of blurring and vignetting what i don't like, but the visuals are solid for tv. The story telling is slow with many pretty boring dialogues, but i like that there is no social media and no mobile phones, no cctv, like in the book. With so many different tv stations involved, you have a huge and probably very expensive overhead of people, The production if filmed in different languages and in some scenes one person is dubbed the other is not what is hard to watch. The amount of money put into this production is eye watering, but most of the actors are only known well in their home country, mostly from france sweden, canada... and germany. Casting Klaas Heufer Umlauf is a slap in the face of the peer actors as he cannot act, sorry.

Some really grumpy reviews, here. Some people should ask themselves why they expect so much. Personally, if I like the concept, I can pretty much use my own imagination to fill the void and, in this case, the concept is an interesting one. 'The Earth fighting back' is slowly developing into a thought provoking genre. One that's highly relevant to today's global discourse; the earth will live on without us if we don't kill it first. If, like some others here, you need your movies/tv/music/art to do all the work for you, then yes, give it a miss. If not and you've got some hours to kill, give it a go 🤷‍♂️

This series wants so much! And I'd like to like what I see. But I do that to a moderate extent. This series should be, and I quote: Ecological thriller about the delicate interconnectedness between mankind and Earth. Incredibly exciting idea and many possibilities.

I will briefly summarize what I think this lacks: The "explanation" of what is about to happen becomes far too elaborate. I fall off along the way. Thriller? No. This is simply boring to watch, far too little action after two episodes. Good actors, yes, but a boring script and momentum are lacking here. There will simply be too much monologue/dialogue, and too little drama and events. I won't be following this one any further...

The book "The Swarm" is an entertaining, thrilling and because of the well researched scientific facts educating novel about nature fighting back against the human invasion and destruction of marine ecosystems.

With the TV adaption, you won't get any of that so far, at least not in the first three episodes. Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad show. It's just not a good one, either. For years, there was talk about making the book into a movie, which didn't happen.

If you read the book and then watch this show, you'll understand why: Education is the enemy of thrill and in a series, there just isn't room to cover both without destroying the suspense.

The cast and setting on the other hand are all on point, and the filming locations are stunning. Sure, casting is a matter of personal opinion, if you know the novel, you'll have your own images in mind. But to be fair, that the makers didn't get wrong.

So order a copy of the novel and watch this show while waiting for your book to arrive.

None of the critics like this series. I do! The book, which I read 20 years ago, was at the level of a penny dreadful, with amateurishly crafted action scenes copied from movies and implausible characters. All this is no longer present in the first three episodes of der Schwarm, or has been completely deleted from the script. No more military saving the world, no more Wolfgang Emmerich doomsdays on the screen. Instead, slow plot developments with small, subtle catastrophes. This makes you want more and is decidedly different from the usual German series you see on TV. And fortunately, different from the book!