Brief Story Line
Story was set in the year 1990 Britain where heroin were flooding the country and the Prime Minister then decided to go on war against drugs. The head of Customs and Excise Department Angus Blake (Douglas Hodge - G20, Diana etc) was given task to stop the illegal importing of drugs. But without any additional budget, together with his Head of Operation Don Clark (Steve Coogan - Despicable Me 4, Our Idiot Brother etc), Blake decided to form an undercover team comprised of the Customs officers to infiltrate gang of drug dealers and find out their leaders to stop them.
It was not an easy task though as only handful of people would suit the requirements. They did manage to find 4 persons including Guy (Tom Burke - Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, The Musketeers TV series etc), Kate (Hayley Squires - The Night Manager season 2, Blitz etc), Bailey (Aml Ameen - Till Death, The Porter TV series etc) and Erin (Jasmine Blackborow - The Gentlemen TV series, Moss & Freud etc) to form the team. As they investigated into more details, they found the drugs importing were handled by two organizations led by the Turkish Hakan (Numan Acar - Young Sherlock TV series, Desert Warrior etc) and scouser Carter (Tom Hughes - Victoria TV series, Sheperd etc) with his right hand man Eddie (Johnny Harris - A Gentleman in Moscow TV series, Jawbone etc).
So what would happen to this team of inexperienced officers? You could find out in this series.
End of Brief Story Line
When I began watching the early part of the first episode, I immediately liked it as it has a strong British feel with the witty conversation and dry humor. My most favorite part was definitely during the recruitment process where we could see how difficult it was to find the right people giving all sorts of comments which made me laughed. However after that early lighter moments, the series became more serious as the team started to work on their targets. It was really refreshing to see ordinary people trying to do very challenging work, but I really enjoyed seeing them solving one problem after another.
The first half of the series seemed pretty normal like standard undercover operation film/series. But the second half felt different as the stakes were higher and danger became more imminent on these people, especially when the persona ("legend" as they referred to) created for them started to get into their mind. Now though the series involved catching drug dealers, it was not a full action type. It did have action occasionally but not the explosive kind. However that was not the main attraction anyway as the series focused on these ordinary inexperienced people working on something very dangerous. It made me admired them even more when I read the closing credits mentioning it was inspired by "The Betrayer: How An Undercover Unit Infiltrated the Global Drug Trade" novel by Guy Stanton and Peter Walsh which after finding out more, turned out Guy was an actual person (not his real name though).
The series was written and created by Neil Forsyth (creator of The Gold, Guilt and other TV series). It only has 6 episodes which was pretty standard for British series, but most importantly it was made available on Netflix so more audience like me can watch it. The duration of each episodes ranged from 48-74 minutes with its finale being the longest one. Although the end was pretty conclusive to me, I still felt they could renew and make subsequent seasons if it's successful enough. Besides, I am sure there would be more stories to tell since the investigations were done during the 1990s. Oh just reminder that despite based on actual person, the series was dramatized for entertainment purpose as it is not a biography after all.
In addition to the names I mentioned above, the series also have some supporting cast such as Charlotte Richie (Ghosts TV series etc) as Guy's wife Sophie, Gerald Kyd (Casualty TV series etc) as former criminal Mylonas, Thomas Coombes (Save Me TV series etc) as VAT officer Shaun, Joshua Samuels as Hakan's right hand man Zeki and several others. But since I do not watch British series that often, most of them were unfamiliar faces to me, except for just a few. The make up department also did great job in making sure the appearances looked like people from that period. Critics were pretty impressed with the series as well and if Netflix decide to renew it, I would definitely watch.
Overall this was a series that was better than I expected and I truly enjoyed it. It has the strong underdog feel, some intensity, a little bit of drama and of course well written with plenty of enjoyable dialogues. The story was wonderful with added value as it was inspired by actual people. Plus it only has 6 episodes which you could easily finished binge watching (I saw the finale just this morning after did 5 episodes last night). So if you are looking for something interesting and worth the time to do, you are certainly welcome to check this series out, especially if you are into the attributes I mentioned earlier. But if your preference is a more stylish or full action crime thriller series then this might not be to your liking. The choice is yours.
Mike's movie moments rating: 3.75 out of 5 stars
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