Gallipoli

Little to no direction or like-able characters didn't help make up for the lack of production. At one point they mention on screen there is 90,000 men on the beach, in reality it looked closer to 40. Wide shots of the navy where you could hear canon fire but it was clear there was sound effects but no visual effects to go with it. Save your time, go watch Band of Brothers

The overall tone is spot on, painting a devastating picture of the Gallipoli Campaign. Acting was uniformly excellent, particularly the subtlety and control of Kodi Smit-McPhee in the lead role. My biggest criticism is that character development and clarity are sacrificed for the sake of a historically detailed plot. It was such a large and fragmented cast that it took several episodes to be able to identify anyone other than Tolly. Without detailed knowledge of the historical figures and facts it would be hard to keep track of who's who beyond the basics like, "oh that guy's a journalist, that one's a pompous British commander etc." The filmmakers chose to tell the broader plot rather than focusing on a smaller but more personal experience of war. I expect they would have been equally criticised had they chosen the later. But ultimately this choice leaves the series with less emotional depth and (I predict) less long-lasting impact than the personal stories of "Changi" or Peter Weir's "Gallipoli". None the less an excellent series. It captures the courage and inner strength of the ANZACS, giving some insight into the campaign that was fought in this terrible place 100 years ago.

Poorly written, has no dramatic tension, and feels like a war of thirty blokes instead of thousands. Couldn't empathize with any of the characters and the series is too shallow to offer any answers to the questions around Gallipoli.