There seems to be a current trend to drag out what would have made a good two hour film to six or more episodes filled with unnecessary characters who have nothing to do with the plot, presumably to fill in time, all moving along at glacial pace. This series is such, and to make it worse, the main lead has an irritating younger brother Victor, Freddie Highmore, playing the same disturbed character fighting with authority, defying all the rules, and generally getting into trouble before he brilliantly solves all the problems which he plays in the Good Doctor.
Set in bomb damaged London in 1946 Callum Ferguson is an army officer who is tasked with bringing over an essential German scientist to our side before the Russians or worse, the Yanks, get their hands on him and he has to accomplish this in four days, later extended to three weeks. The scientist's child does not speak English on day one but by the end of the first week is fluent. The scientist may be one of the war criminals being hunted down by an attractive young woman, a former secret service agent.
So many of the characters are superfluous that I don't know where to begin:
Alfred Molina as a rather cryptic wealthy businessman (?) who knows which strings to pull and spends most of his time dining as well as he can given the rationing;
Angela Bassett as an African american jazz singer - why was she even in it?
Freddie Highmore as an annoying younger brother who should have been strangled at birth;
Various mysterious Germans as red herrings;
A woman scientist/senior engineer working on jet propulsion who appears to be mixed race, possibly part African. Did they even have women working in such exalted positions, let alone mixed race in 1946?
Charlotte Riley as a wealthy American widow getting in everyone's way but used as the love interest; and the blond actress/prostitute living in the hotel getting in the Germans' way; The plot is so clunky with plot devices, such as wanted Nazis left alone after being arrested to wait for the police car to arrive, thus giving them a chance to run away - give me a break! Some of the superfluous characters were given a few lines to move the plot which could easily have been given to the main characters. The whole script needed tightening up by a good editor with red pencil and an eye for inconsistencies and holes in the plot. The later episodes of Foyles War covered this same ground so much better.
About the only thing which resonated with me was when Lindsay Duncan, as the wealthy widow of a German industrialist, gave a speech in the last episode where she described how she had known of what was going on but did nothing, shutting her eyes and ignoring the disappearances of employees. One was left to wonder if those who did nothing were just as guilty as the war criminals who carried out the atrocities.
Set in bomb damaged London in 1946 Callum Ferguson is an army officer who is tasked with bringing over an essential German scientist to our side before the Russians or worse, the Yanks, get their hands on him and he has to accomplish this in four days, later extended to three weeks. The scientist's child does not speak English on day one but by the end of the first week is fluent. The scientist may be one of the war criminals being hunted down by an attractive young woman, a former secret service agent.
So many of the characters are superfluous that I don't know where to begin:
Alfred Molina as a rather cryptic wealthy businessman (?) who knows which strings to pull and spends most of his time dining as well as he can given the rationing;
Angela Bassett as an African american jazz singer - why was she even in it?
Freddie Highmore as an annoying younger brother who should have been strangled at birth;
Various mysterious Germans as red herrings;
A woman scientist/senior engineer working on jet propulsion who appears to be mixed race, possibly part African. Did they even have women working in such exalted positions, let alone mixed race in 1946?
Charlotte Riley as a wealthy American widow getting in everyone's way but used as the love interest; and the blond actress/prostitute living in the hotel getting in the Germans' way; The plot is so clunky with plot devices, such as wanted Nazis left alone after being arrested to wait for the police car to arrive, thus giving them a chance to run away - give me a break! Some of the superfluous characters were given a few lines to move the plot which could easily have been given to the main characters. The whole script needed tightening up by a good editor with red pencil and an eye for inconsistencies and holes in the plot. The later episodes of Foyles War covered this same ground so much better.
About the only thing which resonated with me was when Lindsay Duncan, as the wealthy widow of a German industrialist, gave a speech in the last episode where she described how she had known of what was going on but did nothing, shutting her eyes and ignoring the disappearances of employees. One was left to wonder if those who did nothing were just as guilty as the war criminals who carried out the atrocities.