Last season, I reviewed X Company on a weekly basis, commenting on the characters, story structure, etc. It was a lot of fun, and satisfied the part of me that loves history. I decided that, for Season 2, I’d step back a bit and wait before writing anything about it. The reason? I wanted to let X Company wash over me and percolate before I wrote anything resembling a review. Now, after four weeks of episodes, I’m ready to write something.
X Company @#$%ing rocks.
Season 2 is tighter, packing drama, danger, emotion and levity into every 42-ish minute episode. There’s action at every turn, consequences to every decision and an understanding of what every character is going through regardless of what side of the Second World War they’re on.
The Allied group, headed by Aurora, is a much tougher and cohesive team. Alfred, has quickly evolved from a man struggling to control his warring senses into one willing to die to save both his team or those in need. I said, “What is he doing?!” to myself when Alfred ran out to replace the fallen POW in Wednesday’s latest episode. He quickly assessed the Allies needed someone on the inside to figure out how to bust five men out and decided the best way to do it was from inside the prison. Aurora has evolved too. Yes, her emotions are still very close to the surface, but she can make sacrifices to keep “the good guys” safe. She proved that last week when she killed René to keep him from spilling more secrets to the Nazis.
Speaking of the Nazis, I’ve been silently cheering for Franz Faber and his wife, Sabine. The pair made the awful decision to kill their developmentally disabled son, Ulli, rather than send him off to be murdered by strangers. Now the repercussions of that decision, including Faber eliminating that jerk Forst, are beginning to close in. Seeing Faber and Sabine struggle puts a human face to the side of the Second World War the Allies viewed as evil. But, of course, they’re people just like us, regardless of who or what they were fighting for.
Heading into Season 2, Dustin Milligan told TV, Eh? “the shit has hit the fan” for the team. He wasn’t lying. Time is running out for Aurora et al. to get organized in time for the invasion at Dieppe, while the mysterious scuba man has arrived in Whitby, Ont., intent on targeting Duncan Sinclair. The Second World War has arrived on Canadian soil, and I’m not sure what will happen next.
I can’t wait to find out.
X Company airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on CBC.
I think X Company is one of the best television shows out there. Every episode I am impressed at the writing, acting, and cinematography. Fantastic show and I can’t wait to see what happens next.
Yes! Season 2 has been explosive so far! I missed season 1 ( I was mourning the loss of “Strange Empire”) but season 2 of X Company is so good!!! Keep this show coming!
I really like X Company. It has a great cast and writing and the show continually evolves and gets better and better. Im sad there’s so few episodes. I cant wait to see what happens. Looking forward to seeing how things play out
Why are there subtitles for the German speakers when they are, at times, not on the screen long enough to read. Of course the Germans speak German. I get that! The French speakers speak English! It seems an unnecessary frill that does not add to the story and , in fact, takes away the obvious struggle of emotions that the German Officer and his wife are dealing with. …and to top it off “The Corporation ” will slap a banner ad across the bottom of the screen at the most inopportune times– when there is a subtitle being displayed. Otherwise we both love the series. It was an amazing period of history ordinary people became extraordinary and made huge differences to the outcome of the War. We have been aware of the Camp X/ Oshawa/ Whitby/ Bowmanville contribution to the War for years. Thanks for letting me gripe about the language thing. DB
I said on twitter a few weeks ago that it is not just good Canadian TV, it is just good TV.
I do wish people spoke their native tongues all of the time. But, I imagine that would require the main cast to speak German and French which might be difficult. I think audiences are no longer afraid of subtitles (if they ever were).
Seek out ‘Heavy Water War’ (a Norwegian show about the German nuke program) and Generation War (a German show about WW2, amazing), they are both excellent.