andy-168-53555 Finished watching Britz and it was excellent on all levels. Another example of Kosminsky portraying multi layers of a complex, deep rooted, fragile sociopolitical issue (as he did so consummately in The Promise). He shows major flaws in opposing cultures but also wills the audience to see things from more than one perspective. By telling the story of cause and effect then revenge, on an individual's level, he portrays the bigger picture brilliantly.

carl_neville A previous review states that this is quite slow, but then again I believe it has to be to fully explain the dilemma's and choices that the two principle's have to make.With this being rushed then perhaps the agony that goes with making the (very contrasting) decisions made by the two principle actors would be less believable....thoroughly enjoyable, if you like to think during a film..Particularly poignant, especially given the heightened tension towards Muslims post 9/11, this applies globally, ans well as in the Uk....one side of this argument chooses to embrace their adopted country, however the other is unhappy and angry at the constant lack of acceptance and takes their frustration to extreme measures

shassant2 The long weekend of Thanksgiving 2008 would be the one that would go down in my diary as absolutely dreadful! Not only did I get exposed to the irreparably brain damaging Zohan movie with Adam Sandler, but I also ran across this equally implausible 2 part series shown by BBC America. The show feels like it might as well have been written by Daniel Pipes. Its characters are soap opera-ish, based more on a zealot's imagination than fact. The story goes like this, two Pakistani brother and sister, born and raised in the UK, have taken two different paths. The brother, a law student, secretly joins the Mi5. His story is the first half of the series. It all starts going downhill in the second part where his sister's side is told. His sister, Nasima, a girl with strong opinions about rights and justice, participates in protests, maintains a boyfriend, and also juggles a medical residency on the side. When her best friend is jailed on flimsy grounds, it sets off a chain of events that lead to her undoing. Upon release, her friend, also of Pakistani origin, commits suicide. Rather than mourn the loss with friends and family, the tragedy convinces her to attend a Jihadi recruitment session (go figure!). Her boyfriend, a black UK born Christian, a residence at the same hospital she is in, gets infuriated with her as he is asked to leave the session because he is non-Muslim. After attending the session, she obviously feels guilty about hiding the fact she has a boyfriend from her father, and one night confesses to him (such power these sessions have over young, naive and guilt-ridden girls that they would take such a risk). Obviously, that is too much for him to bear and orders the girl and her mother to sit on the next flight to Pakistan. Financially, the whole trip would cost more than 8000 pounds, a kings ransom for a family of her financial background, especially when you think how expensive seats tend to be when you book them the day before you leave (what to talk of other logistics such as Visa, vaccinations, the type of carrier, packing, buying gifts for relatives etc). It would have been more believable if the father, told her daughter to get out of his house, and that would have been the end of it, but no wait, the plausibility gap gets wider. The viewer, is asked to suspend reality for the duration of the rest of the drama. We see mother and daughter on-board a plane to Pakistan. The Jihadi outfit's representative is also on-board. He passes her an email address to a contact in Pakistan (how the rep gets wind of her impromptu travel plans is beyond my comprehension). Once in Pakistan, Nasima resides with relatives and her mother in some unknown village, and is paraded in front of relatives, played by somewhat more believable characters. Her boyfriend somehow finds the money to buy two return tickets, not even sure of where she is, travels to Pakistan and miraculously hones in on her location amongst the THOUSANDS of villages that dot the Punjabi countryside.Unfortunately, he comes all the way only to get beaten up by her relatives as he makes his clumsy approach towards her in their courtyard. Nasima, obviously distraught runs away and joins up with the Jihadi outfit where she learns to make explosives. The outfit arranges to have a fake body shown to her relatives to have them believe she has been killed in a fire. Lo and behold, after the relatives buy the story and bury her in Britain, she is given the dead girls identity, who conveniently, seems to look like her, and is also a British passport holder (I told you). In a nutshell, she makes it back on British soil, without being identified, whatsoever, and bombs a major London landmark killing innocent women and children. The message from the movie: Don't mess around with Muslim Youth, even the ones who are seemingly successful as they will take any excuse (friends death, arranged marriage, arrest and detention, political persecution etc), as a cause for waging Jihad, and they will hit you where you least expect it! They will justify killing Western babies, one way or the other, without an ounce of humanity, because the means is less important than the end result. Mr. Pipes couldn't have done better. The British Muslims I know, though very vocal about rights (as they should be) would shudder at this portrayal. If in-fact, they appreciate this garbage, they deserve whatever they get!

rudeboy_murray I watched the entire four hours plus of Britz in one bum-numbing session. It delivers exactly what you expect from a Channel 4 mini-series – hard-hitting, topical, well-made edgy drama. Sadly it is also overwritten, more than a little preachy, and some of the acting is uneven.Episode one, Sohail's story, plays like an endlessly drawn-out episode of Spooks. It has it's moments, and Riz Ahmed is rather good, but the highlights are few and far between, and an awful lot of scenes feel padded. Part two, Nasima's story, is more compelling and at the same time more predictable. The ending is a long time coming and you may spot it a mile off, yet the motivations and attitudes set up for the character lead one to feel that the outcome doesn't ring true. I won't give away the game, but I didn't entirely buy it.This is the first of Kosminsky's celebrated contemporary dramas I've seen and while the quality of his writing and the power of the subject matter are enough to maintain interest for much of the story, it's hard not to feel he could have achieved more at half the length.