Sky's Cobra Season 1 Review & Comments

Casimir Harlow

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Well I'm on episode 4 so far and its a bit take it or leave it.
I'm finding it really 'B' rated to be honest and I don't think I can be bothered to sit through anymore episode's !!
 
Homeland Season 8 in a few weeks. Hope it its as good as season 6 and not as bad as season 7
 
Yeah 6 is about right OK at best, better off spending your time watching Wisting on BBC4 or even better Outsiders on Atlantic which are currently running.

With luck Sky will ditch the Cobra series after this season and spend the money on a new project. Probably the best character in Cobra for me was played by Richard Dormer.
 
Thanks Cas - I might have been tempted to give this a look, but having read your review, & being a big West Wing & 24 fan, I think this would only annoy me.
 
So Cas, not quite, but nearly, "A load of Cobra's" 😇
 
I’m 4 episodes in and actually quite enjoying it. Not sure where it can go throughout the rest of the series though.
 
Started off ok with episode 1, then it just turned into a left wing propaganda film, gave up after ep4.
 
Yeah watched 1 episode and it really stinks of low budget, poor acting just really average, On the upside someone recommended me to watch the outsider, based on the Stephen king novel, and this is like night and day watched 2 episodes back to back, very good so far 9/10.
 
Thanks Cas. A score of 6 is about right.
Ep1 showed promise and if they had continued with a more scientific approach about solar storms it may have been worth a watch, but they took an easy soap opera type course instead. I gave up after episode2.
 
Yeah 6 is about right OK at best, better off spending your time watching Wisting on BBC4 or even better Outsiders on Atlantic which are currently running.

I agree with you about Wisting, though I'm not sure episodes 6-10 are going to be as good as 1-5.

Based on episode 6, it's like two separate seasons have been amalgamated. They appear to have been filmed some time apart - all the snow has gone!
 
I quite like it, but there’s something that’s troubling me....

if an electro magnetic storm is powerful enough to take out “super” transformers on the national grid and down planes, then how come cars, helicopters, mobile phones etc still work fine?
 
I agree with you about Wisting, though I'm not sure episodes 6-10 are going to be as good as 1-5.

Based on episode 6, it's like two separate seasons have been amalgamated. They appear to have been filmed some time apart - all the snow has gone!

Well unless the two stories somehow fall into each other for the last two episodes, I dunno maybe that is the idea. Or maybe as you say it is just two totally separate stories, one perhaps weaker than the other.
 
Well i'm enjoying it nice to have a british series for a change thinking how i would react if it happened for real in england made it more believable for me however trying to binge watch it all on virgin media but I've only got up to episode six and there is no more episodes to stream when is it on again?
 
Thanks for the review @Casimir Harlow

BUT ....

We managed 2 episodes and have had to ditch it 😂

it really is like an ultra low budget version of Designated Survivor with some low rate acting and poor set pieces & unconvincing Directing IMO which doesn’t immerse you in the story.

It lives up to Sky’s usual low standard productions though lol 😆
 
One episode in and find it enjoyable, whether that will remain the same given comments above I don’t know! Although it clearly didn’t have a great budget going by the plane crash scene.

The cliche arsehole/doesn’t believe scientists character ruins it a bit.
 
I love stories about scenarios like the space-borne one in Sky's Cobra so watched all six episodes. Talk about a Chernobyl wannabe! It reeks of Chernobyl but lacks its authenticity and heartfelt drama. I reckon this was written by a committee at Sky and none among them understood how subplots work. In Chernobyl, for example, the subplots (miners, fireman's wife, female scientist, pest control dudes, etc) enhance the story's themes (corrupt and incompetent government and institutions, poverty of empathy fostered by the communist ideology, etc) and main storyline. In Cobra they feel either contrived or incongruous with the theme and story of the main plot. Just padding and fluff, nothing more.

Some of the lines did make me laugh at times and its humour was more risque and darker than I expected, especially whenever Robert Carlye's dastardly and shameless opponent was involved.

The event itself was entirely forgettable and merely served as a vehicle to tell the Eastenders version of something like House of Cards.

Absolute drivel. I'd rather pray for another Carrington Event to put my TV out of its misery than watch this toilet again.
 
They are certainly advertising this constantly on the radio. Viewing figures must be poor.
 
Once again the power of AVF saves me from some pain! :smashin:

Was unsure whether to dip in or not, but I think I can let this one pass me by now.
 
I love stories about scenarios like the space-borne one in Sky's Cobra so watched all six episodes. Talk about a Chernobyl wannabe! It reeks of Chernobyl but lacks its authenticity and heartfelt drama. I reckon this was written by a committee at Sky and none among them understood how subplots work. In Chernobyl, for example, the subplots (miners, fireman's wife, female scientist, pest control dudes, etc) enhance the story's themes (corrupt and incompetent government and institutions, poverty of empathy fostered by the communist ideology, etc) and main storyline. In Cobra they feel either contrived or incongruous with the theme and story of the main plot. Just padding and fluff, nothing more.

Some of the lines did make me laugh at times and its humour was more risque and darker than I expected, especially whenever Robert Carlye's dastardly and shameless opponent was involved.

The event itself was entirely forgettable and merely served as a vehicle to tell the Eastenders version of something like House of Cards.

Absolute drivel. I'd rather pray for another Carrington Event to put my TV out of its misery than watch this toilet again.

Probably not the best comparison because Chernobyl was a adaptation of actual events and the people involved while the Cobra story is entirely fiction.
 
Probably not the best comparison because Chernobyl was a adaptation of actual events and the people involved while the Cobra story is entirely fiction.

Of course and I was going to say that in my post but I was left with a strong impression that Sky borrowed from Chernobyl in creating this story. Even got some of the same cast.

Even still, I don't think the difference in quality between the two is down to the fact that one is based on real events and the other is a fictional account of a natural disaster. Sure it's easier for the writers of Chernobyl to match research to stories and characters they wish to tell but in the case of Cobra the writers' imaginations were unable to conceive of subplots that felt connected with the main plot. They were forced into the script to evoke tension and conflict but were dull and unrealistic.
 
Of course and I was going to say that in my post but I was left with a strong impression that Sky borrowed from Chernobyl in creating this story. Even got some of the same cast.

Even still, I don't think the difference in quality between the two is down to the fact that one is based on real events and the other is a fictional account of a natural disaster. Sure it's easier for the writers of Chernobyl to match research to stories and characters they wish to tell but in the case of Cobra the writers' imaginations were unable to conceive of subplots that felt connected with the main plot. They were forced into the script to evoke tension and conflict but were dull and unrealistic.

I understand your feeling. Chernobyl was HBO in association with Sky while Cobra is a Sky original.

Does that let Sky off the hook, no because they have done some fine Sky original content.

But on the other hand over the last few years Sky originals/HBO/HBO in association with Sky have put out some pretty good stuff. So the odd bit of junk is expected.
 
Nothing wrong with taking inspiration - even large doses of it - from a beloved TV miniseries based on fact and using it to tell a fictionalised account of something that will happen one day. In the right hands Cobra could have been a riveting and thrilling story about a future that awaits us but instead what we got was a limp, shallow and preposterous account of a modern-day Carrington Event.

It was more like the aftermath of a particularly demanding day for the UK's energy grid rather than the aftermath of a solar flare whipping our planet and toasting our electronics and the modern infrastructure it underpins.

Genuinely one of the weakest TV shows I've ever clapped eyes on.

 

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