Snarkysteff

Some stories take some telling before the pacing can take over, and this is one.

The first two episodes are a slow grind, but they lay the framework for great characterization and strong development.

The casting was nominated for an Emmy and it's easy to see why - everyone perfectly fit their roles.

This is probably one of the only times I have ever dragged out a series finale as slowly as I did this one - I had become so hooked to the story and the PEOPLE that I was dreading it being over.

So, I loved the final episode by the time it all played out.

There's such a great vibe in this series. If you're a fan of rock stories and classic love drama, then this is a fantastic show for you.

I have started to devour this series. I am mad I can't watch the 8th episode of season one because I RUDELY have to work.

But this episode is the weakest of the series - only because they cram SO MUCH into it. They gloss over the character's backstory and rush into the premise.

I think they thought people might not care? I don't know. But it's a weak beginning.

Stick it out. By episode 3, I was all-in.

The premise is pretty simple: Woman surgeon wants to escape humiliation and endless media after a scandal with her husband and accepts the lead role in the Flying Doctor service, where medical teams fly to emergent medical scenarios in rural Aussie Outback. (I don't know if it's actually the Outback but it's flat, drought-stricken, and vast.)

I'm pretty lucky to be captioning this for broadcast on Canadian television. I probably would never have tuned into it otherwise.

But the further I get into it, the more engrossed I am in this fascinating story about post-war Singapore.

For those who are as ignorant as I am, Singapore was a British colony soon occupied by Japan during the WWII. There were legendary clashes, all kinds of oppressive violence.

The Chinese, Malays, Tamil, and British all made Singapore an amazing place, but this is fraught with post-occupation anger against the Japanese, and two of our key protagonists are lawyers employed by a law firm tasked with giving a defense to a Japanese officer on trial for war crimes, with death hanging in the balance as the consequence of losing the trial.

The series begins with the assigning of the law case, and it develops around that and so much more.

The cast is not of all British actors but instead people who are actually from the places they're supposed to be from - China, India, Singapore, Malaysia, and the UK.

It's a heady swirl of cultures and clashes and colonialism and war crimes, plus the fight between the modern way of a younger generation against the traditions of old.

It's something different from your usual fare on war history re WWII, and there's a lot to like here. I highly recommend it.