Why do you watch X Company?
I don't like war stories, but anything that Stephanie Morgenstern and Mark Ellis create is amazing. However, the real reason I watch the show is because Evelyne Brochu is in it. How about you?
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MovieChat Forums > X Company (2015) Discussion > Why do you watch X Company?
I started to watch it because of Warren Brown. I love his intensity and I was curious as to what he saw in this show. I honestly didn't know anything about it, but after the first few minutes of the first episode, I was immediately drawn in.
I like dramas, but I don't care much for that era as it scares the begeesus out of me. This show has some interesting characters and I really like the variety of emotions that it brings out in the viewer.
I am excited for the next season and I wonder how it will go for all involved.
“There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action.”~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
I don't usually like war stuff. At all. But this is well acted, well written and really fast paced. I have yet to predict an ending correctly. I started watching only because it looked interesting and I'm bad about giving Canadian productions a chance. I always think they will be cheaply done. this is NOT. It's excellent.
shareI watch it partly for entertainment and partly as a case example of a series that I nearly wrote off but then became moderately interested in -- even quite engaged with in certain episodes, and certain plots.
I started to become engaged more at the point when the show stopped being episodic and focused down on serialization. I think this was half-way through.
Ensembles are only as good as their weakest link, so it's good that Brochu has improved. Or has been directed better than in other cases, perhaps. Because I find Evelyn Brochu generally a block of wood as an actress. I have rarely believed her for an instant, including in this series. But she has had relatively better moments. This development is also interesting to watch.
I've also always found Hugh Dillon very weak. A tiny range of repetitive mannerisms. He isn't any better here; he's always the same, competent articifial gravitas. The overused Cdn. go-to guy when you need that sort of thing.
I almost quit after the pilot. Clunky script, clunky acting, clunky direction. The back-and-forth between Camp X and occupied France was absurd. There were much better ways to deal with this.
Overall I watch with moderate interest, but have been quite impressed by certain episodes some of the characters' plots, and I look forward to some of the writers more than others. I have a feeling that Hannah Moscovitch, the playwright, has made a major contribution to countering some of the more mainstream tendencies of the show early-on. Some of the writers tend to cliche and sentimentality, the usual bad habits of more conventional show writing. X Company isn't yet cable sensibility, but it's closing on it. I'm interested to see how far it goes.
One weakness is the lack of a consistent, engaging bad guy hunter-figure to focus the drama. It's Nazis in general, with different ones each outing. You don't have to have a single antagonist show up in every ep, but signs of them could. Always closing. That's what made Butch and Sundance work: "Who is that guy?"
"You must not judge what I know by what I find words for." - Marilynne Robinson
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Sometimes wooden acting is convenient; Brochu has relied on a repetitive expression (much as Hugh Dillon has). Hers is the wide-eyed, deer-in-headlights gaze. But she's been encouraged to try other things, and I've given her points for expanding, for seeming more authentic.
I don't see that as a weakness, because it's more like the way it was in reality.
I don't care about reality, I care about a dramatic depiction of reality. A genuine and insightful point of view. And I'm not looking for a simplistic Nazi or black/white storytelling. I would prefer an antagonist figure to consistently worry about, who I can invest in as much as the heroes, who is revealed over time to have as much as complexity as they have. Again, such a character wouldn't need to be physically present in every episode.
One reason why the latter episodes had more force is because they introduced complex Nazi/Nazi-collaborator roles. But they are short-lived. They don't evolve beyond the narrow and accelerated structure of one or two episodes. Because of their limited appearances, I can't help but sense the artificiality of how hastily and neatly their journeys are expedited. To me this contributes to the lingering sense of mainstream episodic TV, with all its comforting falsehoods, even as the series strives to be more serialized and "edgy."
These are the kind of questions that interest me, and the show gives me plenty to think about. I sort of pop in and out of suspended disbelief with this series, an experience I find interesting in itself.
"You must not judge what I know by what I find words for." - Marilynne Robinson
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Evelyne Brochu, period!
shareA couple months ago I saw a documentary on Netflix about the real Camp X where spies were trained in Canada. I think it was called School For Spies or something like that. I was fascinated that the CIA & other agencies were born from these efforts. I remember shortly after I saw an article about a Canadian TV show called X Company and when I looked it up on IMDB I knew it was going to be stories based on the work done by the people trained at Camp X. I set myself a task of finding a way to watch it. It took me a long time to find someplace where I could find copies of the show to stream. Once I did I was hooked. The acting is excellent and the stories are intriguing. Can't ask for much more in a TV show :) Plus I love Evelyne Brochu so I'm quite happy with my discovery! I just watched S2/Ep1 and they picked up right where they left off at the end of S1. I hope the show stays on for a few years.
shareHugh Dillon... I don't think I've ever seen any of his work that sucked... so I tuned in for the Pilot.
after that the show had me hooked...
I never believe Hugh Dillon for a moment, in anything he's in. He has a limited repertoire of mannerisms which he employs repetitively. I can't help but see the schtick.
"You must not judge what I know by what I find words for." - Marilynne Robinson
I heard so much about the war from my grandparents and what went on in Canada during it.
After I started watching it i was hooked. It is a pretty good show to be honest.