I have spent more than a year in the Balkans, and have served in Bosnia Herzegovina, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Serbia, Albania, and Kosovo, and I have been awarded all four Balkans operations medals awarded by NATO and the United Nations. I have spent 38 years in the Canadian Forces, so I believe I am able to comment on the quality of production of ZOS.
The characters do not wear their uniforms properly, and the female captain cannot be wearing a Canadian uniform, the Canadian shoulder flag notwithstanding. First of all, we generally wore our combat uniform -- the khaki uniform that made us resemble a Heinz pickle. The tan uniform the female wears should not have long sleeves, and in any event, our uniform regulations would not permit us to wear the sleeves rolled half-way up the forearm. The tropical tan uniform (and the Balkans aren't in the tropics) doesn't have a long-sleeve version.
Her behavior with her superior officer would see her take a short cut to a court martial, with no "get out of jail free" card -- literally.
Her beret more closely resembles the coif that Sally Field wore as "The Flying Nun." The Canadian major wears a beret instead of a helmet with a fragmentation vest. We don't protect our bodies and leave our heads vulnerable. We even wore ballistic protective goggles, just in case...
The Azerbaijans drove away in a Canadian Iltis jeep, which was, interestingly, showing Canadian emblems.
The show is an insult to anyone serving in the Canadian Forces, and more so for those who served in the Balkans.
A TMN Customer Care Representative who corresponded with me told me that the production management hired a retired Canadian military officer as their technical adviser. I suggested that he might wish to verify the technical advisor's credentials, because I don't believe he and I were in the same Canadian Forces.
If I took the time to look beyond my personal disgust at the abysmal quality of this production, I am sure I could produce a very long list of errors, flaws and technical problems of the first episode.
Root canal would be preferable to watching a second episode.
