Molly, une femme au combat

This series is clunky in many ways. It's true that sometimes it comes across like an army recruitment ad. Sometimes the script, acting and plot are too clichéd and the English countryside is an unconvincing stand-in for Afghanistan. But it's fantastic to see a drama revolving around a young cockney woman, Molly Dawes, who in London has a pretty bleak and insular life with few options in the future, and so tries a different tack and joins the army. The army opens up her life, and while she's not sophisticated at all, she does go on a journey that holds your interest. Lacey Turner is very convincing as the, at first, tough London teenager who becomes a scared, out of her depth, bullied, but brave and determined soldier. Too often, British dramas depict cockney girls as tarty losers always at the pub. This series was made with a good heart and I'm enjoying it.

I saw this series initially by chance and then made a point of watching it.

The acting is very solid and the characters are believable and quite likable. They are the sort of characters that you could genuinely meet down the pub or in Tesco. The military characters are quite realistic, ordinary people doing extraordinary work in sometimes boring and sometimes awful situations.

The lead actress is actually very good at making her character realistic and the series shows some of the 'fish out of water' perspective that a lot of service personnel suffer when they return to normal life. It doesn't try to glorify the situation of the characters or war at all.

I am pleasantly surprised at how good this series is a hope that there are more episodes to come.

So disappointed that the cast was change, especially the lead, Lacy Turner. I realize she had other commitments but when I was looking for a show to stream it was her personality that caught my attention. She was cute and witty and the actors that played her family were great too. Ugh not even going to watch it anymore... how sad it started out so good!

I only saw the first two seasons as they were the only ones available through Amazon prime video at the time of this review.

I really enjoyed season one. Lacey Turner (who plays Molly Dawes) does a great job and is very believable. She is a very likable actress and brings her character to life throughout season one.

Season two, however, was not enjoyable to me for a couple reasons. First, it got away from the roots of the show and started to just get into this love triangle and used the military as a backdrop as opposed to season one where it was more military-themed.

Another reason I did not enjoy season two was the lead actress. Michelle Keegan (who plays Georgie Lane) just didn't seem to fit the role. Don't get me wrong, she's very attractive but maybe that's the problem. On screen, she comes across like a hot sorority girl and it did not seem relatable to the viewer in her role as a combat medic.

I cannot judge the series past seasons one and two. I would definitely, however, at least give season one a chance! Again, Lacey Turner does a fantastic job. So much to the point that I'm interested in seeing some of her other films.

That being said, my positive score of seven is mainly based on season one. If I were solely basing my score on season two, it would probably be a four.

Series 1, Very well produced, and acted. Somewhat realistic scripting, and more than just a gung-ho action series.

Series 2 and 3, Michelle Keegan for too wooden, and far too many cleches.

Undoes the good work of series 1