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Review: Emotional fireworks highlight X Company’s second week

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Last week’s first episode of X Company was exactly the edge-of-your-seat drama that fans of co-creators Mark Ellis and Stephanie Morgenstern are used to. The duo are able to mix action with engaging characters (and a mean music montage) into tension-filled moments that leave you wanting more.

So, did Wednesday’s second episode, “Trial by Fire,” keep up the pace of last week’s debut? Yes, but in a very different way. Whereas exploding bridges and gunfights were at the centre of the debut, Wednesday’s newest storylines focused more on emotional fireworks than physical (though literal fireworks were featured during Hitler’s birthday celebrations in German-occupied Chartres, France).

Alfred went on his first mission with team and everyone—including him—realized the huge gamble they made by adding him to the team. Sure, he was the man of the hour when it came to the team’s mission off the week—to gain access to codes that would help stop the German bombings of England—but when presented with the rigours of say, parachuting into France and facing a German officer face-to-face—he was woefully unprepared. His panic attack in front of the code officer was equal parts scary and frustrating because I just wanted Alfred to snap out of it and utter the German dialogue he’d been trained to say.

Luckily, Neil was there to save their butts, but it was a harrowing few moments before the officer was dispatched and the situation rigged to look like the man had gotten drunk and taken a fatal fall out of a window while watching the fireworks.

Tom, meanwhile, used his knowledge of propaganda and gift for words to not only avoid killing the French family that saw the team land in their field but to set the record straight on the Germans, who had convinced many of the French that they meant no one harm. Dustin Milligan—who is doing double duty on CBC on X Company and Schitt’s Creek—is pitch perfect as the charming ad man with expertise in the power of words.

“Trial by Fire” was another nail-biter of an episode and, with Alfred agreeing to more missions, is taking its first steps toward one heck of a Season 1 adventure.

Notes and quotes

  • Smart move by CBC to re-air the previous week’s instalment in the hour before a new episode. Not only does it give those who missed it the first time around a chance to tune in, but it really plays up the TV-movie feel the show boasts.
  • I’m hoping the producers continue to use the spinning globe segment to show the team going overseas. It was cool.
  • One little quibble: the team should have been wearing helmets during the parachute jump.
  • Having the piano keys and Aurora both emit the colour blue—the shade that reminds Alfred of home—was a nice touch.
  • Is Harry emerging as the Q of X Company? I sure hope so.

X Company airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on CBC.

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Featured, X Company

Canada’s secret Second World War role uncovered in X Company

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It’s a story that has never been told on the small—or any—screen before. The dramatic scripted tale of the role Canada played during the Second World War by training spies in Southern Ontario for missions behind German lines. That history is re-told in X Company, debuting Wednesday on CBC.

“This is an idea that we had 14 years ago, and we couldn’t believe it hadn’t been told,” co-creator Mark Ellis recalls. “And whenever we would tell the story to other people, they couldn’t believe it either.” Ellis and Stephanie Morgenstern—who co-created a little drama called Flashpoint—now get their chance.

Starring Jack Laskey (Endeavour), Evelyne Brochu (Orphan Black), Dustin Milligan (90210), Connor Price (Being Human), Warren Brown (Luther) and Flashpoint alum Hugh Dillon, X Company spotlights Camp X, the secret base located east of Toronto where the British and Canadian governments trained spies on surveillance, burglary, interrogation, close combat and killing.

Inspired by real-life tales, Wednesday’s debut begins in 1942, with the Germans in control of Europe. Viewers are introduced to Alfred Graves (Laskey), a Brit with an intriguing medical condition: synesthesia, which has fused all five of his senses together. The result? A man bombarded by his senses all of the time … and the perfect spy because he has nearly perfect memory. Along for the ride are the rest of the team in Aurora Luft (Brochu), a half German/half-French Canadian woman; Harry James (Price), a munitions expert; Neil Mackay (Brown); and propaganda expert Tom Cummings (Milligan) who are under the watchful eye of Duncan Sinclair (Dillon), their commander.

“This is an angle we haven’t seen before,” Morgenstern says. “We’ve seen the epic battlegrounds, but this is about ordinary people who didn’t have a life vocation to save the world but each has a very special skill.”

Ellis describes it as a coming-of-age story about Alfred, a man discovering who he is and, ultimately, a hero. Wednesday’s bow is full of drama and gorgeous cinematography. Sinclair’s squad is dispatched to small-town France to not only assassinate German commanders but destroy a bridge, cutting off an important artery in the Nazi transport route. There is tension, violence, fear and jubilation packed into the tightly-wound, highly entertaining hour.

“We want to pay homage to the truth of what it was to be behind those enemy lines, what the ethical choices were and the shades of grey that you had to live in,” Ellis says.

The long-awaited story starts tonight.

X Company airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on CBC.

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