World on Fire

This well intentioned series surprises in some ways. After seeming cliched at first the characters surprise with some unexpectedly interesting stories that cover unfamiliar WW2 movie ground. The Polish point of view at the beginning of the war is interesting. The triangle between the pretty Manchester singer, the feisty Polish resistance fighter and the soldier translator caught in between is quite amusing. The best story is the initially nasty Mother of the guy and how she comes round to the working class Sean Bean and the Polish refugee boy. Some characters seem like forced inclusion for diversity. Like Helen Hunt's reporter concerns over euthanasia programmes and the gay doctor and his lover. Some "modern" themes of shell shock and doubt are portrayed here. No comic book super heroes here.

It takes some concentration to get used to the different characters but once you get them sorted out it's quite good.

Of the cast Leslie Manville stands out. The Polish actress who plays the resistance fighter is convincing and authentic. Jonah Hauer King looks like he comes straight from a WW2 poster. The cast is fine but the directing could be more clear. Another fault is the Manchester accents of some of the cast are too thick to understand.

Surprisingly well made and engrossing.

Season 1 was something to watch when you felt like a WW2 drama that included a bit of everything, but it wasn't engrossing, and I even forgot to watch the end of the series.

Then season 2 arrived. Whatever happened in the years between I'm not sure, but the dialogue is just woeful, and the production seems like it was all done on the cheap - the desert scenes looked like they were made on a movie lot in the 50s, and I thought the gestarpo interrogation scenes were part of some comedy skit!

There were so many different story lines going on at the same time with no connection it just all felt very disjointed.

I'm not sure if it was the characters or the people playing them but they were pretty annoying a lot of the time. The only part worth watching was with Lesley Manville - and now Mark Bonnar has appeared I'm hoping it might get better.

Below the line is my original post.

I've just finished episode 4, and I've lowered my rating to a "2/10". Unbelievable that they've obviously used writers that have *zero* knowledge of basic warfare, or tactics of WWII. The British soldiers are portrayed as unorganised idiots that are so happy-go-lucky that they keep getting surprised by Germans because they don't even post sentries! For the record, at the beginning of the war, Brits were fierce warriors, even though severely outgunned.

The Germans in Poland keep falling for the female bait to their doom, but there's no retaliation against the innocent citizens?!

Oh, it's getting very, very bad, and not even Sean Bean can help this one.

I'll keep watching, but *only* because there's three episodes left.

Original.....................................................................................V

I was quite stoked for this after the first episode, even excusing some of the bad writing. I gave it a generous "9".

After the second episode, it's obvious that the men are weak, bumbling incompetents.

All the women are the leaders, strong, defiant, organized, and in charge.

Too bad that Hollywood has corrupted British film makers...

My rating slid to "5" stars, I'll adjust as necessary as the series progresses.

I thoroughly enjoyed the first episode and am already feel empathy towards some of the characters and look forward to seeing how their lives pan out. I particularly liked that you can see the human drama play out against the backdrop of war and not vice versa. Hope it stays this way and l shall look forward to Sunday nights.

1/10.... reallly? Poor acting... really?

You are on this forum, as am I, for ONE reason - to convey the cinematic qualities of what we have before us. This is NOT a historical debate forum. I'm glad we got that out of the way....

World on Fire delivers. It doesn't deliver historical accuracy - but it delivers "the sense of the moment" and it does so pretty damn well.

This is a half full glas and it's contents are pretty tasty. Any review below 6/10 cannot be taken seriously.

Enjoy.