kderksen-68265

I am not a fan of political dramas so I honestly didn't have high expectations. I started watching because of the cast. My rule is to watch at least 3 episodes because a new series almost always needs to get going.

I was pleasantly surprised. The cast is solid, the chemistry between them is good, the character depth is clear, it has humor, it is thankfully not overdramatized, there are no ego roles, it deals with substantive issues, the story is satisfying and the production is good.

For me it's a pleasant breeze of fresh air.

I hope there will be a second season.

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I can honestly say that I was disappointed with the first episodes of season 1. And then I immediately say that I didn't understand the tempo. I only picked up on that towards the end of the season. That was the point where I saw where the creators were going and that they were taking their time with it. Something you rarely encounter these days.

I really enjoyed season 2. Though on the basis of the last episode I hope production will hold on to the chosen development and not deviate from it.

To the creators: a sincere thank you for staying with your vision, choosing your one pace and let the story develop in the time it needed.

PS The 'Sam Neill scene' in the first episode threw me off. I think that's the only point of which I question the value.

On the surface it seems a movie of grandeur, solid main cast, splendid locations, stylish period representation and the potential of telling a story of a pivotal event in time from different perspectives.

And that's were it got stuck, in a one sided and two dimensional narration.

With one issue being the almost lack of depth of characters and relationships.

However the main issue for me was the use of only one perspective to tell about such a devastating world changing event.

Except for the occasional skimming of the ethical side, you can get the idea that this is a showpiece about a brilliant invention. It almost seems to whitewash the use of a weapon of mass destruction that wiped out the bigger part of two major cities and killed at least 200.000 people.

It would have been an essential enrichment of the story if sufficient attention had been paid to the ultimate impact, the aftermath and the longterm consequences for the affected areas. By showing, not through a few abstract images and a quick quotation of numbers.

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A better suited title for this show (can't call it a docu) would be: 'Humans and their dogs'. I was really hoping for a docu about dogs and the history and development of their connection to humans. But maybe that is a kind of docu for a more serious network, instead of a marketing based one. For me this is a reality show about humans and their reasons for having a dog/dogs in their life. It is at least 80 percent about the people in an episode and about 20 percent about the dogs. And even then it is about the 'why'/background/needs/wants of the person and not about the why from a dog's perspective or the relationship itself. I have seen far better coverages of the the same subjects on YouTube, including one about Territorio de Zaguates.