Molly, une femme au combat

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 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.

This rating is for season 1 only. Do yourself a favor and don't watch any further than that. They replace the main character, Molly, in season 2 and proceed to totally spit in her face later on. As far as I'm concerned "Our Girl" only has one season.

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.

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.