Spycraft

I loved the History Channel docs on topics like War, Intelligence and History in general. Sadly, they got into UFO's and reality TV. So I had hope for this doc series on Netflix. However, it feels like a cheap imitation. The anecdotes are pretty fascinating but there's never any time spent on any of it. There's lots of stock footage used which makes it feel cheap and thrown together like a YouTube video. The saving grace are the interviews. However, they are cut short and you are left with anything but a hint at an interesting story. I really wanted to like this but there must be better docs on this subject out there.

If you've read any books on spies and espionage, then most of it is repetitive. It's one of those series that would have been fine with four or five episodes and not eight. The new technology in use was interesting, modern espionage is mostly technology from the agent to the agency heads. The one expert we see most of the time is Keith Melton a historian who is very good.

Like the others mentioned, the narration is poor. The narrator strains his voice, he didn't check pronunciation of words and names so it sometimes differs from the experts who are talking. And it was apparent that he didn't practice to get the correct intonation. Narration is a big part of the series and a poor narrator ruins the viewing.

Some interesting content let down by the narrator sounding like he can't be bothered and the captions that give facts on terminology flash up so fast, you only get to read the first line without pausing the program.

The content of the show is really cool, very well put together and interesting. If you're into espionage and 007 stuff, you'll like it. I just don't give it a 10 because they made a really, really poor choice on the narrator. It makes it look like a cheap production, like i'm watching an youtube channel nobody likes.

... I cannot sleep without having joined in with the chorus of complainers. I hope that Dylan Berry (as listed in the credits) is never employed again, after having worked on this series. To be unable to properly pronounce words, and/or names, is just ridiculous. He is definitely "out of his league".

However, to be totally fair, the Production team should also be cited, for their complete lack of oversight. The lack of intelligent narration should have been caught, and corrected, before this series ever hit the air. It's complete sloppiness that this didn't happen.

The content was interesting, but the narration just continuously drove me crazy. I was cringing on a regular basis, instead of absorbing the programming.