Fortunate Son

{Initial Response} A dive into the cross border (🇺🇸 and 🇨🇦) drama around the Vietnam war. For a series that depends on high emotion (personal and political) it struggles to find its footing (the news footage helps). It suffers, a little bit, by having every character having a disparate crisis. There is no steady ground, no safe place for them to land, no hope for the struggle, no destination for the journey to take, which makes the turmoil chaotic rather than forge a narrative. There are also some sloppy mistakes (the border crossing incident should have been on the American side not the Canadian side, what's with the gate at the border?, and how did Hunter know where to meet Lang?) but it has a good cast who are giving good performances (🇨🇦 produced, 🇨🇦 supporting cast and crew). Based on the first episode, I'm giving this series a tentative 6 (wistful) out of 10, hoping that they will begin to ground (and clean up) the story. {Drama}

Watching mainly for 60s atmosphere and soundtrack, at least the soundtrack is partly there. On the surface of it, the subject/premise seemed fairly original at least, the subject of US draft-dodgers running and hiding in Canada.

Canada avoided involvement in Vietnam-Australia and New Zealand did not.

So Vietnam caused all of the same social ructions here as in America itself. Peace-marches, khaki elections, Agent Orange. College students throwing buckets of red paint or pig's blood on returning veterans. 501 Australian KIA. Thousands more physical and psychological cripples.

I was 8 years too young to be drafted, don't know to this day whether I'd have gone along with it or run as well if I had bene old enough and had been called up.

Oh well, it was a good war soundtrack music wise. The shows song selection bears useful comparison with another recent 60s time-capsule series like AQUARIUS for example.

Yes, the US ,military or spy-spooks blackmailing some guy that had a patrol/firefight go pear-shaped in a friendly-fire FUBAR , to then go to Canada to infiltrate spy on and help sabotage the draft-dodgers and their support network IS a far-fetched one.

One other thing that could have been done without in both a continuity sense and annoying sense, is a teenager that goes "WHATEVER".

I don't think 'WHATEVER ' was invented in 1968. Which was a good thing.

The hippy-parents with a conservative business-oriented child maybe of course is a little (Alex Keaton/Family Ties) derivative.

It's enough to keep me washing past the episode #2 or 3 I'm up to so far..I'm at least going to look up some of the sound-track songs I did not recognize, about half I did recognize. .here in Australia they out it on about 2310 after he late ch9 news so, another advantage is that the ad-breaks are very short.

It's ambitious.

I remember a lot of growing up in the 60s. I am in disagreement with the previous review, I find the premise intriguing, great acting and believable. A fresh and captivating story. I also loved Anne with an E. CBC is on the right track.

Pandering to the false narrative that everyone alive at the time was either jive or stupid. I was there and I experienced some really messed up chit, but the backstory was much more complex than this Popsicle pablum could relate. Is this crap that your parents told you? Did anyone bother doing some real research? Or hire some technical advisers whose salary wouldn't amount to the first episodes catering bill? This is a story long overdue to be told, but when you fumble the plot so badly that it become farcical and unable for today's generation to relate to - you poison the field. All for a buck - can't be for any artistic motives, or you would have done due diligence. I hope you choke on your exploitative paycheck and the lavish luxuries it affords.

Kari Matchett is far too good of an actress to be involved in this propaganda play. It is obvious to anyone who experienced the late 60's that what is being offered up by the writers is pure biased speculation with no research being done at all, and it is a shame.

I was in the Navy as a corpsman, my brother a Marine in the swamps of Vietnam. We both knew people who objected and people who ran. I am sure at least a few are still alive and could have been used as advisors for continuity, correctness, reality... three factors lacking from the script.

I suggest the tag line, based on a true story be removed for honesty's sake.