The Grid (2004)

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

"The Grid" (we never really know to what the title refers) is a 6x45 min miniseries action/drama about international terrorism. The bad guys are a rogue terror cell operating out of Yemen, deploying operatives to the UK and the US where they are to attack with sarin nerve gas. The good guys are a joint task force of Brits and US Federal agents who are out to stop the bad guys. The film leapfrogs incessantly from Yemen to London to Washington to Saudi Arabia to Chicago, etc. globe trotting in a surprisingly well orchestrated conglomeration of good vs evil Muslims, interagency wrangling, boyish suicide bombers, covert ops, murder, love, and much more given this US/UK co-op's budgetary constraints. On the upside, "The Grid" gets busy and stays busy sufficient to engross and make some of the obvious histrionics easily overlooked as it provides an acceptable overview of the amorphous nature of terrorist cells and the international agency cooperation required to effectively cope with this 21 century threat. On the downside the film is difficult to follow at times, somewhat disjointed in an effort to be all things to all people, pushes the believability envelope occasionally, and is generally too pat to be real. Overall, "The Grid" is an acceptable miniseries worth a look for those who can commit to a 4.5 hour small screen watch. Those who enjoy this miniseries should also check out "Traffic (2004)". (B-)

1. Either I'm at right angles to the rest of the world(knowing me, that's a possibility;)) or the characterisation of this was actually pretty good. With all due respect to iceman Jack Bauer, good guys who are not all-out professional are easier to relate to IMO.2. As for the jihadis, well at one extreme there was Kaz who I wanted to get blown up by his own bomb in the middle of nowhere. So mate, why do you want to take part in mass murder? You feel you have to prove your manhood? What a sicko.At the other end of the scale was the Egyptian doctor guy.In theory not that bad a person, wants the best for his patients etc etc. Wanted out after the Lagos bomb. Got suckered back to the jihadi cause a bit too easily for my liking though but then again his only target in London were the Arab oilmen who he though were responsible for stonewalling the development of his clinic. Then again he did back up Kaz's efforts in Chicago but he also questioned the younger guy's reasoning. Complicated.3. Brave gamble by Raeza at the end there but I had a hunch he'd lose it.4. So Acton was backing up Muhamed's crew yet he's still around? What's that about?All in all though this was a job well done IMO.

I'll start by saying that I definitely enjoyed the first episode. The two hours pretty much flew by. I highly recommend this to anyone.However, there are a few glaring flaws: With two exceptions, virtually all the main characters are young and beautiful. , they are all supposed to be highly seasoned veterans in extremely highpositions within their respective agencies, Yeah, right.At least most of them are terrific actors. The one GLARING exception is Julianna Margulies. She was fine in her TV role as a nurse, and I liked her a lot in "Elysian fields." However, she is PAINFULLY miscast in this series. She's so non-believable (not to mention wooden) that everytime she was on-screen I got jolted out of the action with a blaringreminder that I was watching a tv series. Awful. Maybe she's battling a drug addiction or alcohol, who knows.... OK, but other than the above, the premier episode was terrific. Excellentcinematography, excellent screenplay, editing, etc. Also, as others have said, the "bad guys" aren't presented as one-dimensional. Rather, both sides of the conflict are presented with equal respect, and that's really something. There's a lot in this series to make you think.HIGHLY recommended.

I have just seen the first episode of the series, and it was compelling and well made.It reminded me of watching 24, without the high speed tension, and localized setting. This is a global 24 that isn't really hour by hour. But it works well, very well. In fact as you're watching you can sit there and see it working very well. It doesn't just involve the Americans doing everything, which is a nice change. I guess I should organize this a bit better and go into detail about a few of the things I like.First, I think recent events of the 9/11 commission and their ideas of making a centralized system, as seen in the show. It shows how the CIA and other agencies seem to dislike each other and in fact seems that it is quite like real life. These with recent events make it feel as if you could be watching the news of what could really be happening.Second, it's nice to be in London, seeing MI5 and MI6, doing their own work, and the relationship between those to agencies, as well as US intelligence.Third, the acting is quite good for a made for TV movie, and the development of each was well done. It is quite bloody, and has a nice amount of explosions. The camera work is nice and works well. Fourth, and lastly, the story itself seems to be very well crafted. It fits in so well to today's society that it is quite capable of being a news broadcast rather then fiction. In the end it is an all around well crafted TV "limited" series, and I will be back next Monday to watch it again! 9/10