gilesdereis There is good case that the issue of energy and climate needs to be addressed as fiction, since the public is more likely to grasp actors saying lines than it is scientists showing charts.There is a huge amount of drama in upper corporate life, even without the obligatory, and in this case, improbable, sex that needs (according to some unwritten law of scripts) to be included.However, if you are looking for either, don't look here.From the first scene onwards, the improbable aspects of the script overwhelm us. The shooting in the desert could have been carried out by Boy Scouts, for all its effectiveness. They start shooting in broad daylight and still, somehow, manage to miss 14% of the targets.The main character jumps from a middle level flunky position to being chairman of the board, with absolutely no rational explanation. An apparently British oil company reports its earnings as "12 billion Dollars" time and again, as if Pounds didn't exist - as if, by Big Oil industry terms, $12 billion was a lot of money. It is a lot of money, for a decent quarter, for a year it puts them squarely in the middle ranks. The new chairman seems to have nothing to do - which is unlike most chief executives of major companies in my experience - no meetings, no business trips to see operations, clients or bankers etc. He cheerfully accepts a Maybach as a "gift" from some unexplained Arab on his first day at work, which would mean, in the real world, his last day as chairman.The first episode dragged so much, and the story veered all over the place, that there was a danger of getting car sick.The second episode, was, if anything, stranger. Much of it takes place in Calgary, a city I know fairly well (full disclosure: I have spent three decades in and around the oil business) and which is, as a town, almost totally..functional. The Canadian side of the production decided to save money (and energy?) by cutting down on the use if lights, so many of the Calgary scenes are very difficult to see, much less follow.Silly things continue to abound. The Saudi oilfields are in the EAST of the country (generally referred to as "The Eastern Province") and yet the writer kept talking about "The Western Desert" - a term used in Egypt, not in Saudi. Geologic data on an area as large as France and Germany is supposedly gathered by seven secret geologists, and fits into a hard disc the size of an Iphone. The main character looks at it for ten seconds and knows exactly what it is.By 2008, when this was made, the prospect that the Saudis have been exaggerating their oil resources had been a frequent topic of conversation within the industry, and well beyond. Nothing in an Iphone was likely to prove, or disprove that very complicated discussion.I won't even go into the politics, except to say that the BBC managed to "get back" at Hollywood's idiotic habit for many years of automatically casting a Brit as the Bad Guy by casting the entire American government as The Collective Bad Guy.Why did they cast Japanese to play the PRC delegates? Since when did Chinese bow when they shake hands (a Japanese habit, which the Chinese would NOT do just for that reason)? I sincerely hope that oil lobbyist are not quite as incompetent as they are portrayed here, or you have to wonder how they could possibly be effective.In the first episode, the Inuits are central. In the second, they have vanished altogether, in spite of the fact that much of the action takes place in Canada. Were they cut out for reasons of environment?There was some decent music. Direction was slow. The storyline a mess. The characters cardboard cutouts. The issues were so vulgarized as to become meaningless. In short, a waste of time and money.

adonis666 A real shame it started to well on the first episode , but became a farce on the second. Most of the facts seem correct, but the over dramatisation ,poor acting and the just the plot lines which never meet , make it near impossible to watch with out thinking 'what's happening now ' . The 'lack' of quality acting shows through in the second episode. It's seems the production was rushed and many scenes are cobbled together with out thought of keeping the story line on track , also the ending turns in to a party political broadcast rather than a ending with any real completion . I think the BBC and Canadian global network ,could have done a better Job of this . Drama is meant to be drama , this is not in my opinion .unless you have lot's of free time on your hand's , give it a miss.

pmillsom The plot reverberation with thunderous force of oil politic. The script was gift to the cast who seemed to be enjoying the opportunity to convey the serious message and the message was all too prophetic. Frighteningly prophetic consider the script was written some years earlier. If you read "Carbon Wars" by Jeremy Leggett you will learn that the politics of climate summits is all too real and you'll appreciate that anything published ever by the IPCC is diluted dribble and at least 10 years behind the real consensus of honest scientists and heartfelt politicians.One key message it drives home at the finale moment (that maybe I should have realised before now) is that many US citizens really believe their country will survive or maybe have an overall benefit from climate change. So whilst much of the rest of planet will suffer greatly they have no need to sacrifice there living standard. "Six Degrees" by Mark Lynas tells us that another beneficiary will be Russia, but they risk getting invaded by China for their oil and expanded cultivatable farmland. And so the other key message in the programme's is that climate change and oil shortages could spark world war three. If you live in Europe may not need to worry so much unless - you are under 25. But don't buy a less then 2 meters below sea as it may depreciate in value as the populace becomes more aware of the future risks. This was a great drama with rich dialogue that I could watch again several times. That's the test of a good TV production, the 'watch it again' score.

PsyGuy I thought this was an excellent mini-series. It certainly managed to hold my attention. It was well acted with no notable exceptions. It was well paced, relevant, and frighteningly believable. I cannot say I know anything about this prior to catching it on TV, and I really don't have the background to suggest how factually accurate any aspect of this might be, but it certainly is an eye-opener and a possible starting place for people to become interested in the global politics and economics surrounding the existing establishment and the impact and importance of climate change and environmental awareness.This sort of program is what I have been expecting a move towards in a supposedly educated, modern world. I honestly think individuals fail to realize the power they have in todays society. The ability for any of us individually or collectively have our voices heard in a global forum via television, and in more recent times, the internet, is something we all conveniently manage to forget in our own personal pursuit of entertainment. Programs like this use the oft wasted resources not only to entertain, but to engage us, and even help to educate us to the fragile nature of the world we have helped to forge. At the end, we get to back to our self-indulgent lifestyle, but perhaps feeling a bit more consciously aware of our own silent participation and perpetuation of the status quo. I believe this mini-series challenges us to face the facts by confronting us with the cold reality that no matter what the ultimate reason ends up being, things will not just continue on the way they presently do. If were smart and bold enough, we will prepare ourselves to meet the challenges and deal with the issues before it is forced upon us, ready or not.