One of the actors in an interview slandered the audiences who considered episode 3 to be the worst because of the mystery-aspect and called the unbiased press who reported ALL viewer-opinions to be manipulators, hence i felt the urge to write a review.
The newspaper producing the interview (VL) was at the same time a sponsor of the show, accusing others of manipulation while reporting biased and selective seems to be pure projection, they even ignored their own comment-section. The series just had a bad script, considering that croatia has combat-experienced veterans they shouldnt be wondering to get called out on it.
Just to show how much the screenplay lacked here are a few major points:
(1)
Thru 3 episodes the six just watch how friendlies are killed without even engaging, that made them appear weak. It would have looked better if those six have appeared in the aftermath after those friendlies where killed, they where on foot after all while the enemy had vehicles. This "trail of blood" would be the thread that connects all episodes together, to emphazise Ljubo as the villian he could have had some "signature move" that makes him identifiable thruh his victims.
Instead i sympathized with Ljubo within the first 5mins of the series, he put the 3 captured enemies first in the truck, than another vehicle came and in the back we see some of his own soldiers bloodsmeared & dead since they where killed by those captured, after seeing his dead men he immediatly decides to avenge them which in that context was relateable.
If you create a scene where the "supposed villain" is more relateable than your own guys, you already messed up the whole plot !
I couldnt relate with the six because the sniper, having Ljubo multiple times in his firing line, didnt engage. Instead they watch how their own troups get executed. I wouldnt want to serve with soldiers like this in any war scenario, thats sure not a "Band of Brothers".
There was also always something missing that left clues where to look for Ljubo next, how did they even know where to go next ?
(2)
Same on the start, it would have been better if the three where killed before the six arrived, Gradski would have been captured later from his hideout while Ljubo and most of his men have already driven off and comanded his few men who stayed behind to "finish off" Gradski and bury the evidence, this is where the six than interven, they kill the few enemys, save Gradski but lose there friend in the fireexchange. Therefore now decide to hunt down Ljubo.
Here we dont even know why the few men where left there by Ljubo and why there werent more guards watching the surroundings, moments ago they just captured enemies, you should think they are on high alert assuming there are even more around hiding. The surroundings are partially still burning, it was never shown why.
(3)
Its bad cinematography if you dont show a over-the-shoulder-shot so we, the audience, actually get an feeling/estimate how far the scene our six scouts are looking at is and where we actually are, what surroundings. We actually never get to see the surroundings to have some orientation.
(4)
Gradski should have had the nightmare instead of Nervoza! A flashback and in it, he dreams of the incident from the start of the series that resultet in the capture of his comrades, showing it from his perspective how they actually where ambushed. THAT would have brilliantly connected the start together with the 3rd episode before the finale of the series and resolved some questions. Gradski feels shame & guilt because he is alive while his friends are dead, he couldnt help them from his hideout, witnessed their execution before he got captured too. When Ljubo kills his last comrade with a headshot, the moment Ljubo pulls the trigger, Gradski wakes up all sweaty and in shock from his nightmare.
Or they should have let Nervoza get shot in the dream to "foreshadow" the end of the series where his character actually gets shot. They slightly tried this with Nervoza repeating his last line from episode4 "pape govori" in the end of (the way too long) dream sequence, but that was too much of a stretch together with the female "angel of death"-character staring at him while he sleeps. That whole part seemed out of place and ruined the show.
Multiple bad "foreshadowings" together with multiple bad "red herrings" (papa speaking regularly, papa dying) did backfire here, it negated one against the other out. They foreshadowed it again in the dialog when the kombi broke down in episode4 which was okay because it was subtle and in the same episode it later actually happens.
(5)
That female "ghost/angelofdeath"-character was totaly out of place and overused, first she saves them from a landmine and later from a squad of serbs and gets shot in the end while the six (again) just watch and than re-appears at the end of the series in the last scene where they drive of home on the street.
It would have been better if they just added another clue-sequence with normal supporting actors (from the other village that was shown) than that nonsense. Or she should have only appeared in Nervozas now multiple but short dreams while he takes a short nap.
Putting her in the real world turned it all into a mess and everyghing questionable!
MAYBE the complete series was just a dream and our six arent a special unit but just regular man who never enlisted during the whole war, never have seen real action but rather fantasized of it while barbequing a lamb in the safety of croatias main capitol city zagreb while others where fighting the war for them, 25 years later they ended up in showbiz.
If you write a script, you have to ask if a scene can easily be misinterpreted, if the answer is yes, you have to work on it more.
(6)
The main-argument for the nonsensical first 3 episodes according to the screenwriter, "Well, they coudlnt engage and kill Ljubo with the Sniper, because if they miss they will be discoverd and in trouble", utter BS, first of all, they where six and Ljubo and his men where only 12, but the enemy itself isnt aware how many enemy forces are hiding and attacking, how should they know they are only 6 and not 18 ?
In small groups you usualy use Guerilla-Hit-and-run tactics, a tactical doctrine of using short surprise attacks, withdrawing before the enemy can respond in force, and constantly maneuvering to avoid full engagement with the enemy.
So in this case, if you kill Ljubo, you run away, if you miss, you run away, regroup and try again next time from a different location. But on three occasions never to engage while having Ljubo directly in the firing line is just a stupid plot.
In the last episode the six end up in the enemies main headquater with more than 60+ armed enemies, them six not even with proper insigina on their uniform, just a enemies hat and all of a sudden the reason mentioned above doesnt apply anymore ? Nobody even asks for any papers while they travel thruh the whole enemies territory, even on road blocks, you just talk your way out of it, yeah right ? Them killing 4 enemies nearly in plane sight in close combat is NOT a threat to their safety if something goes wrong, someone screams, someone takes notice ? Where would they run and hide if something goes wrong? Instead they have even time to pickup an ex-girfriend in that place. All this was even worse than General!
What a contradicting excuse and statement after watching episode4!
(7)
Why does the fat-guy kill Ljubo, why not the boss of those six (boss against boss) and why does nobody cover his back while he is doing it. Why didnt Gradski do it, if he kills Ljubo in a rage with a rock it kind of makes more sense because he avenged the death of his friends he witnessed being killed by Ljubo. Seeing a fat guy fight a skinny guy seemed pathetic, like a school bully picking on the weakest guy.
(...)
I could go on and on and episode4 was just more nonsense thrown together, how long where they even driving, they drove of by night during a fireexchange and in the next scene they where still driving and shooting while its daylight, if they drove the whole night till dawn by now they should have reached Vienna/Austria and of course been out of ammo long time ago.
That screenplay was just amateurishly written and full of plotholes, hence the series was painful to watch, suitable for teenagers maybe, not adults. Considering the amount of money (7.4M kn according to imdb) they had and the amount of good and real veteran war-stories out there im in utter disbelief how someone could come up with THIS?
For that money there was even far far less noteworthy content or scenes (production value) in it than in General. Mountain nature, abandoned villages and an abandoned factory site, in croatia you get plenty of that for free! Like General they stopped doing postproduction at some point, mostly evident during the shootouts in episode4.
I give a rating of 1 because of the audacity of producing a lousy script for the 25th anniversary and all the media-fabrication they did but accused others of. How many citizens know that the number of alleged 420.000 tv-viewers is an estimate based on only 810 households ? As well as the always same twitter-girl with the multiple press-ready loveletter-tweets that always ended up being quoted by the productions favourite sponsor & newspaper (VL).
If the production-crew believes to be so awesome they should use their own money instead of taxpayers-money, produce a 100 minute war-movie and lets see how many movietickets are actually going to sell, still insist on the number of 420.000?
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