American Odyssey Online

This show was actually interesting. Yes it did have some slow moments, and sometimes it was a little all over. I was waiting to see what happened to Odelle as she was on her way back to the United States, as well as the Muslim boy who saved her. But NBC goes and cancels. The ratings seem high for all ages. NBC use to be number 1, but in the past years they seem to not care what the viewers like and/or watch - only if they really care for it. I also guess this is too close to home. Oh something the US couldn't do - lie. Loved how social media was able to aid (and hurt) in Odelle's hiding and return. NBC stop cancelling shows that viewers do indeed watch, because you think they don't. You must not have those ratings boxes in the right houses!

I waded through this 13-part US import which like so many of these latter-day mega-series, as opposed to mini-series, has to fill a lot of minutes and didn't really do so very successfully in my view.

The connections between the various stories just never rang true, like US soldier Anna Friel's tortuous journey home where she somehow avoids serious harm at every turn, her motherly relationship with a young local boy, the straight-arrow clean-cut corporate accountant who uncovers and then seeks to make known the plot to silence Friel's story, his connection with of all people, the new female Greek Prime Minister, the geeky youngsters who also can scent the big cover-up and the female inside agent who inveigled herself into the hackers little gang of truth-tellers only to be revealed later as an assassin with a heart of pure mush...is that enough for you?

Coincidence follows coincidence with succeeding regularity, the viewer meant to recognise the topicality of military actions in the war against ISIS / Al Quaeda, the black-ops of multi-million multinational companies which put dollars over lives, with enough clout to get a three-star general in their pocket, the timely tie-in of the Greek debt crisis and the treatment of Western hostages by insurgents.

This was all just too much to believe and though I watched it all the way through, I never remotely believed any of it. The acting was no great shakes either, particularly the two teenage American children, who somehow talk like they're 10 going on 25. Anna Friel just doesn't convince as a multi-lingual, battle-hardened soldier and Peter Falconelli has no personality at all as the whistle-blower Peter Decker.

There was some good cinematography, especially Friel's escape through the desert but in the main, I found the cross-cutting between one plot strand and another somewhat contrived and even confusing. The theme of big-business corruption, a complicit US armed forces and techy-nerds able to hack into the most secure official filing systems just piled on the clichés as did the turned-out-all-right ending although the mystifying final shots of Friel re-entering the country under a newspaper reporter's name were obviously inserted as a teaser for a hoped-for second series that didn't materialise.

Which I think is about right. With its army of strange and unusual characters (I haven't even mentioned yet the Muslim transvestite TV personality, the hulking, can't-be-killed paid mercenary and the homosexual uber-geek with his housebound mother), for me it just never gelled, never felt remotely real plus the addition of the word "American" to the title by the producers just smacks of desperation, trying to capture the homeland patriot audience.

This is one 12 hour tour-of-duty it's really not worth soldiering all the way through.

I started to compile a list of clichés, inconsistencies and impossibilities of characters and plots but had to stop at eight, single line, pages. There were just too many. I really wanted to love the show, with its background story of increase of violent terrorism, failed sates, and America struggling to get a handle on things. But to no avail, the show failed miserably.

It would have been wise for the writers to let the main character Odelle struggle to get to some place from where she could get to the US (Odyssey!) but instead, she made it rather quickly to places where she could find allies, food, shelter, and above all, an internet connection and cell phones. The INTERNET!! CELL PHONES!! Do the writers know that you can use these devises to connect to just about anybody in the world? And fast?

So in order for the series to continue, they had to dumb her down to the level of a moron (down from a savvy special ops fighter). Just to make my point: She called the General, who in all likelihood, was in on her demise. Yes, she did call her family - once - but surprise surprise, the phone connection was blocked. How? Everybody else got through to the family's phone. And then, she called just one journalist from the NYT, but no, not to send her proof (the journalist apparently has no email account, just like the NYT doesn't seem to have one), but to arrange for them to meet in some obscure location.

It's a real shame that the script hasn't been thought through, because with the right premise, the background they have chosen could have made for a great story.

So to wrap it up: here is a synopsis of characters and plots that ruined it for me:

• The hacker: in this series, the hacker is one who uses Google and receives email. That's it. Ah yes, and he is of course all paranoid and lives with his mother

• The occupied wall street guy (Harrison): Does he even own a computer? Has he used his phone for anything else but calling somebody? He hooks up with Ruby,the undercover assassin, even though he knows she is not who she says she is. How dumb can you be as a leader of a large opposition group

• The husband: the one person you would think really, really, wants to believe his wife Odelle is still alive but instead, despite more and more evidence popping up to the contrary, he rather believes the story of the military that she is dead. And he even scolds his daughter to hang on to hope.

• The attorney Peter: BTW, he is the one with one single facial expression so far throughout nine episodes. He seems to have figured out everything but all of a sudden walks into the lair of evil (the CEO of the company that is responsible for killing all these special ops guys),and TELLS me that is onto him. Right,that's what you do, walk right up to your enemy and tell him you know everything. For what purpose? Did he except him to break down and confess everything? And the final kicker then was: All of a sudden, he demanded 40 million dollars. WHAT?

The US have lost over 6,700 killed and over 50'000 injured in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2003. Among the coalition forces another 300+ were killed including 179 Brits. Not to mention the million or so Iraqi and Afghan deaths Both conflicts are total failures militarily and politically. These brave people died for what exactly? The only true winners in these wars have been the defence contractors. Halliburton's stock went up over 500% and they aren't the only ones to make a 'killing' on these wasteful, terrible wars. Would a US corporation kill American service men to protect their profits. You bet they would. They have done it everyday for 13 years. This programme tells an all to plausible and engrossing story that sorely needed telling. The production values, acting, directing are all excellent. It is television at it's best. I highly recommend it

I forget whether a "wise" person once said to believe or disbelieve 2 implausible things before lunch, but the strain on one's credibility in this series does become too heavy a weight.

The initial "shock" of believing a US corporation made a deal with terrorists is hardly a shock; that hardly puts any tax on one's credibility. That a paramilitary company is used for "off-book" activities is likewise no harder to swallow than milk to a child. A general's collusion is more difficult, and far too many "evildoers" acting with impunity and no fear of consequences is a bit of a stretch, however.

Aside from Ms. Friel, who is more than equal to her role, the rest of the cast occasionally finds it hard to sell the dialogue the writers gave them (unless the editing is simply worse than it seemed - hardly award-winning by itself).

They did a lot of things right, however. The essence of the plot was good, flipping through various languages for a series that stretches through 3 continents was something we need to see done an awful lot more, and they kept the pacing nicely even, and the narrative of the three separate stories lucid (for the most part). Worth watching if your expectations aren't too high.

I'll agree that things were at least digestible right through the hook, but then I began to gag. First up, the sheer stupidity of a supposed elite soldier who, while traveling incognito, gives herself away because she can't resist the urge to administer Tylenol, in the middle of the night, to a boy who seems a thousand times tougher than she is. Then there's the attorney guy who keeps revealing everything he has learned to the conniving co-worker whom he knows has already betrayed him. Oh, and let's not forget the husband who offers no resistance to the suggestion by the military to just cremate the supposed remains of his wife--no second opinion, no independent confirmation, no nothing, just "ok, Colonel, sure thing." My wife and I never called our TV stupid so many times before.

What could have been good just turned incredibly bad.

Where to begin, the women who does not look the part,and nor has the brain capacity you would expect of even a regular soldier.And she is suppose to be spec ops material? Com on. Not to mention in her journey/escape she goes so out of her way to be noticed, when she is supposed to blend in, that you start laughing and groaning by the absurdity of it.

It's so predictable, you actually start to wonder if its written by 15YO gamer The supposedly skeptical,occupy wall street movement leader.That have no problem trusting a woman he just discovered lied to him, about who she worked for. He supposed to be this great charismatic leader, but he can't read the people closest to him at all.

***************Spoilers********************spoiler*******************

A slightly paranoid guy, who have just witnessed his secret source being killed off in a hit and run.Goes jogging at night,not on the sidewalk,but in the middle of the road in blacktrack suit with no reflexes on. I guess it was suppose to build suspense,but it wasn't working.Not for me anyway.When you're a little paranoid because you have more or less just witnessed, some secret government agency ,kill off your highly reliable secret source in a hit and run.You don't go jogging at night in the middle of the road. And the fanatical obsessed conspiracy nut and hacker.Who suddenly delete all he work he was so obsessed about telling everyone about.Yeah right

Well, it's not much better this side of the pond. Compared to the quality writing in the very best TV series (Homeland, GoT, Breaking Bad etc) this is not only disappointing, but soon becomes so irritating, that anyone with a love for great writing will surely watch something else. I've struggled through episode 3 (torture) and won't watch any more.

Here are some examples of the truly awful writing:

1) With the rest of her unit wiped out, Anna Friel manages to send a text, from an iPhone, in the middle of a desert. Really? 2) She hooks up with a boy whose entire family have been wiped out by American mercenaries, but chooses to help this American. 3) On the camel train, where it's vital to keep a low profile, she gives tablets to a kid. 4) A ruthless trained terrorist shoots to kill the boy at point blank range in the back of a pickup, but he survives with the flash drive. Good grief... 5) The same boy then spots an unaccompanied camel train loaded with coke, climbs on board breaking one of the coke bags whilst doing so, then on arrival at the big drug dealer's place, he is helped rather than killed. 6) The boy sees a cross dresser on the TV, expresses his disgust, then later discovers it's his uncle. 7) Anna Friel is about to be beheaded, twice, but is saved by a terrorist who is a former U.S. College boy. 8) The hero lawyer trusts everyone with every piece of information.

I could go on and on and on, but I'm now even bored of writing about this show. If they commission a second season, I'll be amazed. I just wish the drone strike had killed Anna Friel's character as well, and we could all have moved on with our lives much more quickly.

I found this first episode quite entertaining. A special unit finds out they've killed a prize terrorist and can't believe their good luck. In addition, they discover a laptop full of arabic intel though one item is in English and appears to be a money transfer from an American firm. Soon this unit gets a call from the top commander ordering them to stand down, telling them that the Intel unit will be there to take care of bodies and all material. They find this order odd but are told it comes from the highest of all high. And with this, their troubles begin.

Meanwhile, back in the states, a former US attorney runs into an old friend who casually tells him of an investigation into a corporation that his legal team represents. That attorney informs his colleagues of the info and soon gets shut down completely when the Corporate Man shows up and says they are all clear.

Bring in the Occupy Movement who are protesting all kinds of corporate and govt malfeasance and you've got a brew all connected to this Corporate/Military/Govt Conspiracy.

I give the series a number of points for showcasing the Occupy Movement! I give it more points for highlighting a Syriana-type corporate/govt conspiracy. The remaining points go to the entertainment values. So, yes, I'd recommend you watch it and see some truth in it.

The writing in this show is dreadful! The characters behave so stupidly that I have actually groaned while watching the show! The lead actor is a good actress but the writers have turned her into a very unintelligent character. The "good guys" in the show never learn from their mistakes. Basic life stuff seems to be forgotten! Harrison is a complete idiot - he trusts everyone even after his father's death!!! He deserves all he gets in future episodes. I will not watch anymore of this rubbish until the writers grow up or go to script writing classes! seriously! What could have been a great show, is instead annoying, predictable, insulting and very implausible.

Critics have attacked this, but I found it just as credible as Homeland. We all know how deeply US corporations have been involved in war in Iraq, providing private security, and helping generate the misery that we see in the Middle East today. The bullying of Greece over its debt was also a nice realistic touch. OK, it is just a fictional story, but it is as credible as Homeland, which in later series became rather tedious and dragged out. It was also just as far fetched. The idea that the US would take any form of action against their ally Pakistan was utterly incredible. They allow this terrorist sponsoring state to have nuclear weapons without batting an eyelid, while threatening Iran. They need states such as Pakistan and Saudi Arabia as allies, even if they are the most extreme Islamic states in the world. As entertainment, I felt it kept the pace up well right until the last episode. Pity it has been dropped now, but I guess follow up series often tend to get weaker and weaker (except Breaking Bad, of course!).

Ignore the negativity here at IMDb about this show. This is an interesting but complex mini-series that examines what happens when a monster corporation with good connections gets into political intrigue for the sake of profit, and tries to cover it up. We see the plot unfolding from three pairs of eyes: a young political activist (with a blue-blood background); a female soldier from an elite team who take down a wanted terrorist; and a lawyer who has signed on as an employee to defend a company that is in 'over their heads'. This show lacks the explicit language or sensual activity of series of this genre produced in Europe, although BBC (and, lately, the Danish) have certainly produced a bumper crop of hard-hitting (but adult-rated), exposé-type of shows, broadcast over 9-15 weeks. Nice to see an American show take up the challenge to produce a quality non-cheesy, but (PG-13) offering. My only complaint is that the remaining (6?) episodes of Season-1 are not yet available at Netflix - so, we will all have to wait for a final resolution. M Gull (May-2015)

No stereotype left out! Evil multinationals. Ruthless executives. A military industrial complex that kills heroic American soldiers on purpose. A Hollywood version of an Occupy Wall Street leader. A Hollywood version of a crackpot conspiracy theorist. (In addition to piles of paper covered with scribbling, he has genius-level hacking skills. ) Various one-dimensional characters, both good and evil. Villainous operatives who somehow know who knows what, exactly when to show up, and whom to get rid of. Lots of implausibility, e.g. when would Occupy Wall Street ever unite behind an American soldier for any reason?

The idea of the heroine having to find her way home from war, like Odysseus, is interesting, but it would be more interesting if the conspiracy building against her didn't seem so implausible. A more realistic story would be interesting enough. Sometimes less is more and realistic situations are usually more involving than comic book fantasies. This series has started out on the wrong foot.

Well it started in a good rhythm .. an operation in Mali, G8 protest a Privet Military or whatever they called it then Boooom ... a wipe out operation to cover up their secrets .. everything is gone, data, soldiers .. it makes you think did really something like that happened before in reality !!! i mean did that really happened after they killed Bin Laden !!! conspiracy !! propaganda !!

The plot is so catchy .. after the first 15 minutes it pulls right into wanting to watch more... the storyline is spot on, Peter Horton is not new in this and he did a good job producing and co-writing and same goes for "The following" guy; Adam Armus ;)

The cast were All fine,, doing a great job here .. the thrill is distributed over the whole characters .. each have story to tell and it might seem not connected at first, Ooh they appears to be are :)

I have no idea how much was the budget for this but hell i'm sure they spend a lot of money on the cinematography the Sets and locations .

I don't know if this is gonna last and i hope it does with the only condition of they're keeping it rolling on the same level of agitation and this could become a new NBC hit.

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Well for the second episode things still keeping us alarmed, full of suspense .. to be fair.. not as thrilling as the pilot but still averaged a 7 out of 10 for me.

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1st episode was quite good. I already care about what will happen to several of the characters and the suspense held my attention. Definitely worth a watch.

I love the themes of corporate and government immorality vs true heroism.

Looking forward to the next episode. It does remind me of Homeland a little bit, but faster-paced. Very few programs rise to the level of that quality.

Why IMDb.com forces a reviewer to write ten lines of Text is a mystery - that's a little much! What else can I say _ try it!

The first two episodes were entertaining, although predictable. When a character is introduced and you know immediately that they will kill that character off, well that happens, but to kill them after the commercial break? Where is the suspense? Where is the creativity in writing? What was not predictable was how stupid the story line was going to become. This "soldier" does something so completely contrary (and stupid) to what her training would have been and gives herself away. Does the writer have some issue with women being in the military? Why would they write something so incredibly ridiculous into this story? Trying to make a statement that women would make bad decisions and should not be serving? I just shook my head when I saw the last episode. If I was a female in the military this show would totally irritate me. I will not be watching anymore episodes.

My wife and I had seen the trailers and were eagerly anticipating this show as we are great fans of Homeland. What a disappointment! After the first few minutes we wished for a power outage to save us from this disaster of a show. As there were no re-runs of the Mickey Mouse Club we decided to soldier on. The acting, plot and direction of the show was abysmal. Anna Friel was miscast, if our soldiers look like this we are in real trouble. She spends he time quivering in terror and looking like an escapee from The Walking Dead; where is the training special ops supposedly have to deal with tough situations? The scenes jump all over the place so fast that all of the characters become a blur. One is left scratching your head wondering what is going on. Give this show a miss and be patient for the return of Homeland.

The biggest problem of this show is that most of the characters are too trustworthy to the point of stupidity or just too plain stupid. In particular the activists who one could really nickname dumber&dumber, but also the corporate lawyer. Then again most people would probably behave the same.

Said that I really liked all the part in Africa involving Odelle, the main character, the diversity of characters albeit some unbelievable, like the publicly transgender uncle, their relationships and the fact that they spoke a mixture of English, French and Arabic. I quite liked also the way it ends, though that was meant to be only a mid-season finale and not a series finale.

In the first 10 minutes you are hit with a barrage of characters. It reminds me of an old 1940s black and white film where actors come in, talk very excited, and then exit. The actors I guess that are going to be the main characters were the same; fast talking.

This was an ADHD story that jumped around like a Mexican Jumping Bean. At 14 minutes I checked thinking it had been 20 mins and how long was I going to wait before I just stopped watching.

If the target audience is young viewers; then this might be OK.

An example of a good show to me that is high level is homeland season 1 & 2. This one couldn't even draw me in with the promise of some kind of story within 19 minutes I just stopped watching.

I was hopeful it would be a little intelligent/interesting to watch during the week; I was sadly disappointed.

Well, I'm not one for Network T.V. but saw the ad for this show during the SuperBowl and figured I would check it out…. So I turned it on while I was playing a game on my phone and didn't think I would watch the entire show. I was surprised to find "American Odyssey" particularly intriguing and put down my game to follow all the nuances and characters….. I thought the acting was better than most TV and really liked Anna Friel as the lead….. the writing was seductive and the directing a cut above the rest….. I actually wanted to watch the next episode right away but I guess it's not available yet…. Anyway, I highly recommend this show and will continue to watch for the content and the creative delivery…...

Promised a lot and failed to deliver. First problem - too many characters. Second problem - too many sideline stories.Third problem. Clunky, slow paced script, that seemed to miss a meaningful edit. An adventure story, that had way too much Days of our lives, soap quality about it.Big problem- nothing resolved at the end, which is galling, especially as season 2 was canned. (not exactly a big surprise). Another thing that spoiled the series is the casting was not very good. The good guy lawyer looks far too young to have all the experience he was supposed to have.The female star looks too old to be in this sort of military action.The young activist was so bad, that I was fast forwarding his contributions after a while. The computer geek hacker stood out, as the best cast member. The transvestite in an Arab country seemed to be more of a soapbox statement by the writer, than anything else.It was just not believable. The romantic hookups all lacked chemistry.In the story, the writer seemed addicted to plot twists. There were so many that it became predictable and boring.You could have canned over half the scenes and missed nothing. Slow paced story, that promised a lot at the start, but went downhill very quickly. Don't wait for a re-run. It won't happen.

I never saw American Odyssey on NBC, but I just finished watching it on Netflx. It's a pity NBC has cancelled it. I hope it is offered on a cable channel for a season 2. The characters are great, Actors are top notch. I want to see more!

Although there are parts of it that feel rushed and incomplete or Network blandness, it manages to be a mostly tight thriller that is very reality based and sticks to it's controversial story with very little compromise.

Seeing it on Netflix without commercial interruption is probably far better then seeing it on NBC.

It's cancellation by NBC, like the cancellation of Hannibal, is a travesty and it should be a warning to other film makers to watch out for NBC's top brasses fear of controversy and lack of caring about the viewer.

My wife and I started watching this at the beginning and setting aside Sunday evening for it. I found it exciting and entertaining for a while but finally got disgusted with it. As a mini series it would have been great but...is this woman ever going to get home before she dies of old age? What I finally couldn't stomach was the PERFECT intelligence of the opposition and the sheer stupidity of the good guys. The opposition can tell you what you had for breakfast and how many ounces you urinated. The good guys wouldn't know a bad guy if they wore a sign. Maybe it's a sign of a well written and acted show when your are so taken with the characters that you get mad at them. I don't know but I can't watch it anymore. I unrealistically want the good guys to win sometime.

I really liked the first episode; it was action packed and kept me on the edge of my seat. The actors are great but the plot is a little odd. First of all, as others pointed out, the main character isn't too bright. She has made two phone calls (to military and someone else-- non-family). She keeps telling them to let her family know she IS alive. She then watches her burial on TV and realizes the military lied and did not tell her family that she's alive.

She seems to be able to make phone calls every now and then--how about calling your family direct? Or a US major news station? Nope, instead just keep calling your one military guy that you know is lying to you. Oh, and keep going to their suggested "safe houses" which turn out to be not-so-safe.

It's too bad because the show could be intriguing and I had high hopes but the character's stupidity is frustrating.

Here is Hollyweird once again at its worst. To begin with, the underlying plot is absurd and ridiculous. A large American corporation funding Islamic terrorists? Why? For what reason? There is no reason that can make sense at all.

The producers are suffering from "Homeland"-envy. That's this is: galloping me-too-ism. Do yourself a favor - re-watch "Homeland" and while you're at it, watch "The Americans". After that, watch every episode of "Justified". And forget "American Odyssey".

I now see that Hollyweird is also suffering from "Survivor"-envy. There is an upcoming series called "The Island". Guess what *that* show is about.

Please don't reward repetitiveness and lack of originality. Boycott these shows.