The Eastern Front, 1943. Two Soviet pilots, straight out of training, join a veteran fighter squadron on the front line. They will have to learn quickly as the adversaries are experienced and cunning and a mistake could make the difference between life and death.
Great Russian WW2 drama series. Quite realistic in its feel, with gung ho heroics kept to a minimum and the detail largely quite accurate. Not just a one-dimensional action series either as it looks at the war from many angles and covers many themes: home life, combat fatigue and how it is misunderstood, conditions in the trenches, treatment of wounded combatants. The wasteful, inefficient Soviet politics and ideology also receives much attention, unflatteringly (to my surprise!).
Throw in some good character depth and some interesting sub-plots regarding the pilots' personal lives and it is quite engaging and entertaining.
Special effects and action sequences are generally pretty good. However, some aspects do feel quite cheap, e.g. Flying scenes that look like they're from a video game. Some of the plot developments are quite clumsy. Worst of all, the English subtitles are very badly done. I don't understand Russian but some of the translations can't possibly be right. However, you get used to the clumsiness of the subtitles and learn to figure out from the context what was said (or just hope that a particular undecipherable sentence wasn't important!).
Also a pity that the writers couldn't maintain the solidity of plot until the end. It was going very well until about Episode 10 or so, after which the plot starts to get a bit loose. The final episode is particularly loosely written, making for an ending that is a bit disappointing.
Still, great entertainment and enthralling viewing.
