Estonia

"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.

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.

If you know what goes into a production of this scale, the sheer logistics, then you can appreciate the brilliant work this film making is on several levels. Acting was superb - not "pushed" or forced with some standout scenes. While in parts the story slows to an unbearable pace you could argue this lends itself to the notion of time it took in reality for the final report to be completed. It really did make this viewer 'feel' the frustrations of the investigation, the length of time & politics being played out etc. Editing & sound of the rescue scenes & actual disaster unfolding onboard, particularly in raft scenes was gobsmackingly good.

Wow, just wow! I can feel the tension in the air while watching Estonia. There are so many things to love!

• They totally capture the horrible happening of Estonia sinking. I do believe the story here, how the people acted, or reacted to the situation of a boat sinking.

• How the story keeps going back and forth between countries, characters and happenings. We get to witness flashbacks and at the same time see how each character handles their situation.

• I just love the use of multiple languages. We need more series like this! There are some out there, but hey, we need more. A lot of us, living in the northern countries of Europe, do understand and speak multiple languages and I think it's quite rare to see this feature being used on TV. I love it!

• Investigations that go on and on. How they handle the media. How they handle grief. Just how they do anything, really.

I don't want to spoil anything, just do yourself a favour and watch the show!

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.