I trusted the ARTE TV channel which usually brings good quality TV series from Europe, but this was one of the occasions when they really abused my trust. ‘Our Girl‘, the story of a British young woman, lost in life and recovered by the British Army to be sent to serve in Afghanistan as a combat medic, is quite an unfortunate combination between a soap opera and a military series. I am no big fan of any of the two genres, and the combination did not make me change my opinions.
Premises are not that bad. Molly Dawes, who turns 18 in the first episode of the series, grows up as the elder of numerous siblings in her family living in an English city where she might be ‘the last white girl’ in an area populated mostly by immigrants, many of them Muslims. Her boyfriend is actually Muslim and has plans to take over her life and marry her. Her family, with a drunken out-of-work father and an exhausted mother, is broken . Recruiting to the Army may be her only escape, not necessarily because of social advancement, but merely to prove to herself that she is worth something. Surprisingly to everybody excepting the authors of the script, she passes all the tests, enrolls in the army, completes basic training, is sent to combat in Afghanistan, catches the attention of a fellow soldier but also of her commanding officer, becomes a hero and breaks the hearts of her two potential candidates to her love.
The seven episodes of the first season describe the path of Molly Dawes from lost girl to decorated soldier returning to Afghanistan as a voluntary for a second round of duty. The acting of Lacey Turner in the lead role is actually one of the few aspects that I liked in this series. There are some elements of authenticity in the description of the British low-class suburbs and in the landscape of the Afghan mountains and villages, but all is buried in a multitude of stereotypes. The British involvement in the war is described in an idealized, almost propagandist manner. The romantic thread is as schematic as bad soap opera can be. The first season was followed by a few more, but I will not look hardly to watch them.