sixbells99
Watching it is a little bit like eating a half cooked chicken, the cooked parts are succulent, full of flavour and originality and just as you are savouring it you take a mouthful of raw chicken and run to the bathroom ready to throw up. The best parts are for sure the lack of morality and ethics to the show, you get the feeling anything could happen. No A- team fire a million bullets and no one hurt here. Instead the violence is really well.. violent! The Good guys are just as ruthless if not more so than the bad guys and this gives a unique twist. It also has a healthy hint of the professionals, but Ross Kemp doesn't have a perm and this is where we hit the raw chicken. It's very hard to swallow a middle aged man who looks like he has a pillow stuff in his behind and a giant turtle in his front, as a ultra fit super solider. Some of the later series are almost laughable where they made a quarry in Chester look like the Tora Bora mountains just by making all the characters wear Arab head dresses. The one when they are in Africa is even more laughable where they use School Paint 5 to turn every scene into a flickering heat mirage.But if you miss the professional and like the SAS there is enough here to keep you entertained, but the shows quality has more ups and downs than a seesaw in kids park.
Tazio Ratnayeke
For a series on 22 Regiment.... its quite good. Yet it has its flaws.Anyone who has read books by Ryan, McNab, Horsefall (all aliases) and of coarse the legends of 'Paddy' Blair Maine, De le Billiere will enjoy it. Warning, don't expect too much! Firstly some of the technical stuff has been changed for the obvious reason that certain strategic data cannot be revealed on television. Chris Ryan has done a good job as technical adviser and protected the essentially secret and surprise tactics. Anyone who has followed the history of the Regiment or has served know what I mean.The good thing is, there's no grandiose bravado and over pepped up scenes like in most movies about 'other' special forces...... that make it look like Batman and Robin are kitting up to save the world. The other good thing is, no one on this series is 'invincible' or comes across as a 'super-soldier'..... the directors got one thing right which most others don't get.... special assignment combat troops are not 'The Terminator'. they are flesh and blood, make mistakes, rely on each other..... in short, ordinary men, in extraordinary circumstances, performing the necessary. To those of you who didn't get that, well go watch "The Guns of Navarone" very carefully again.One thing that most people should take from this series is what it shows in certain episodes. People are over eager to condemn good soldiers as senseless butchers who 'love to kill'. This may be true in some instances, but that's a limited exception. They do what they do because they're trained for it. Guys forgive me for the comparison but, people love Dobermans and rothweilers......despite the fact that they can rip a man apart. yet you have them as guard dogs. Same with special troops. We need them We can afford to condemn them in a self-righteous manner when the goings good. When we're the hostages, we thank God for having men more brutal and lethal that the terrorist. This comes out in the episode with the tribunal. Its easy to talk technicalities when you're safe and not the one looking down the wrong end of a barrel. Who dares wins, yet who hesitates, dies.As for the characters, its only to be expected that they'll be like this, after all this is a series, not a documentary. So one may have to ignore the mushy stuff and the clichéd character portrayals etc... to comment on the actors would be fruitless.... they did the best job they could so live with it...Although the traditional aspect of the Regiment were brought out, the close knit bond, closing off your emotions to death so that the job gets done, the difference between officers who look out for their men and the old school 'Ruperts', the devil's in the nightmares, the fear of going 'US' or 'unserviceable', the strain on the home front. These were the real aspects that were brought out. The romantic affairs etc....cest la vie.One particularly fascinating scene was when the men line up and salute the out-going officer. That whole scene conveys so much as to what the heart of the SAS is about. Now that is the act of gentlemen soldiers. Scenes like that, speak more for the Regiment than the whole series itself.The plots may seem unbelievable but some of them are very real situations which have come up during the history of the Regiment. The plots borrow heavily from Ryan's books, who in turn has taken the situations from past campaignes. Notice the lack of 'let's stop dooms-day' plots. That's because... they rarely happen. Hostage situations, airline hijacks, embassy sieges, and the various black-ops are part of the Regiments 'legends'.The woman in the SAS was a nice idea but I wonder how many women can tackle the Brecan Beacons? If there are any, then perhaps 22 should reconsider because 'She dared, she should win'. And speaking of the Beacons... why weren't they shown in the episodes about selections? In conclusion, it is a shame that the series was limited to the exploits of Red troop. It would have been nice to see both Red and Blue in action together or better still, to see more action from A B or D squadron. I'd love to see "Land of Fire" and "The Watchman" made into a movie! So.... when are they going to do that?Cheers Gentlemen!!!
NYCgetsjacked
this show shows us the real exploits of the S.A.S its got primary sources of evidence as the writer of 'Ultimate Force' is Chris Ryan, a former S.A.S hero who fought in the gulf war! i have series 1 and 2 on DVD and on the special features it shows Chris Ryan and a team of experts teaching the actors (Ross Kemp, Jamie Draven etc) how to fire real guns properly, commands when in a firefight and took them on actual hikes so they learn the experience first hand. This is why the shoe is so brilliant because they have picked a 5 star list of actors who make their roles look so real! It also shows that in the S.A.S it isn't guns blazing 24-7! there's tactics, comes, ICT etc. a career for everyone which i would highly recommend
Anne-Marie Caluwaert (anmariec)
It's surely one of the best action series of recent years - it has a lot of action, the right characters and a good cast! The first two seasons were good - you felt it was Chris - former SAS man who turned author of some action adventure books 'advised' them on story and character. Than there was a change of 'cast' and the plots started to slip in 'too much of I have seen this before' action... a shame really as the series could have gone a long way... Perhaps they wanted to make it too 'up to date' thinking they could temper with the concept. But as they say - never change a winning team not even when you 'dare to win'! And as there are no rumors of a new series to be made it's clear that the success of this series has started to lose steam as did the characters and plots!
