*spoilers ahead* If you expect this show to be about Kurds, the YPJ or women, as the title might suggest, think again. This show is largely about European men with Kurdish women and Arab men as a backdrop to their stories. The only Kurdish character who gets more than a few lines has grown up in France and returned to Syria. The main YPJ characters who speak are the foreigners who've joined up. While we get a taste of the Kurdish struggles, especially early on in Season 1, they pale in comparison to the main white, male character's story arc. Even on the ISIS side we follow British men (including two POC).
The storyline gets worse and worse throughout the first season, particularly as Anna's character becomes more prominent. She's blonde, impulsive and unable to blend into her surroundings, wearing low-cut tops in Iran and Egypt, and in the latter she isn't veiled (the men who made this clearly have not set foot in Cairo). Yet somehow she's a natural super spy who instantly knows how to interrogate and recruit people after a day of training. Of course, when she joins the YPJ she veyr quickly becomes one of their leaders despite not seeming to speak Kurdish. I'm not sure whether that's more insulting, or the show's suggestion that the Mossad fuelled Iran's Green Movement.
Does the show nonetheless entertain? It moves along at a good pace. The acting is mostly fine, especially from the persuasive Mossad agent. It just seems like it could have been set in any number of conflicts, but having the YPJ allows the main character to have a solider love interest, and for his sister to be high up in the resistance force. Nothing more.
The storyline gets worse and worse throughout the first season, particularly as Anna's character becomes more prominent. She's blonde, impulsive and unable to blend into her surroundings, wearing low-cut tops in Iran and Egypt, and in the latter she isn't veiled (the men who made this clearly have not set foot in Cairo). Yet somehow she's a natural super spy who instantly knows how to interrogate and recruit people after a day of training. Of course, when she joins the YPJ she veyr quickly becomes one of their leaders despite not seeming to speak Kurdish. I'm not sure whether that's more insulting, or the show's suggestion that the Mossad fuelled Iran's Green Movement.
Does the show nonetheless entertain? It moves along at a good pace. The acting is mostly fine, especially from the persuasive Mossad agent. It just seems like it could have been set in any number of conflicts, but having the YPJ allows the main character to have a solider love interest, and for his sister to be high up in the resistance force. Nothing more.