Our Girl

I really enjoyed series 1 of Our Girl. The Pilot was excellent and I was glad they did a series. Ok some of it was a little far fetched but the action was brilliant. I personally felt they made a mistake not keeping Molly (Lacey Turner). Series 2 and onwards is ok, just not as good.

This is not a bad sequel, but it is not the excellent drama that was produced in the pilot and the first full length series. It contained far too many crowd pleasers to try and keep the die hard fans of those such as Ben Aldridge.

The story line was too focused in the romance rather than the elements of army and how it effected the lives of those in a army family. Too much flashbacks and reminders, so much that they had to release special interviews to explain the disappearance of Molly Dawes, who in fact was now Molly James. For the leader that Captain James was portrayed, the writer almost forced the existence of the character because so many fans was desperate to see him in it. Also the fact that he has a son also from the first series, you would have thought that there would be a mention or something. I think it would have been even better the fact that Molly's character wasn't returning that they added how a active soldier copes with balancing to be home to see his own child.

Also Captain James seems to be the most linked guy ever, he is linked with every situation in the army and in other colleagues relationships. I enjoy watching Ben Aldridge as an actor, he is a highly trained actor and a highly accomplished actor, but unlike the first full series, it seems that there is a lot of forced acting, which maybe it is because the writer had written the poor guy into almost every scene, but the natural flow was not there.

The addition of Michelle Keegan's character Georgie Lane was not surprising when Lacey Turner turned down to reprise her role as she had commitments at Eastenders and in the middle of a leading story line. But Michelle Keegan is not yet in the league to be heading the drama. She is not a bad actress but she is not a great one to be a leading role.

A new series is being filmed as i write this review and it looks like the BBC are banking on this as a end of the year winner, as they have extended the 5 part to a 10 part, which means longer filming time. Lets hope the crowd pleasing story lines disappear and get back to basics and stay true to the pilot and the first series. Also a little less of Captain James, as i think him being in almost every scene in the second series just didn't do the drama any justice and even to the extent the actor any justice. Its great the writer has a twitter following from the aldridge army and he does communicate with them, so maybe that's where he is getting his inspiration from.

But i think if this 3rd series fails to bring back the original elements of the drama, then surely the BBC need to move on, they axed or do not recommission some fantastic dramas in the past and I do not think Our Girl is quite in that league. Don't get me wrong, I am still a big fan of the original pilot and the first series, but the second series was no where near worth tuning in for.

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!

Series One is film making to perfection. Well, it's a character-development story, so we can excuse the lame combat scenes with actors forming a nice target while their guns are inadvertently pointing at each other. Molly Dawes is the underdog we all want to succeed, and this movie sets MD in a perfectly human situation: Loser BF, loser role models, she thinks she's smarter than she is (aren't we all guilty of this?) and she's an adult clinging to childhood.

As a Yank, I LOLed at the difference between British boot camp and the Hollywood DIs dressing down recruits. It's painful, though, to see a UK depiction of US Army officers. Tsk tsk.

Series One gives us real character growth, real drama, lots of tugs at the heart, and a scene where MD goes to a church in the last episode was perfection. The actress deserves something north of an Emmy. Series One, including the original movie, is absolutely excellent. I recommend that you watch it and then call this show "done".

Series Two casts MD away. The "more experienced" character is gorgeous and plays her part well, but who can get on board with "rich girl joins army"? The combat scenes are not well thought out, actually a little worse than series one. The story arch is forgettable and cliche. Series Two is an example of good production values mixed with "good looking perfect characters" without humanity. The boyfriend is just a face on an IPad. The officer has always been a friend. The "platoon" (squad?) is always off to the side being a bunch of noisy baboons when they're actually supposed to be Georgia's "family". This series is just two attractive guys with non-military haircuts who interact in stereotypical fashion with the pretty girl.

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.