X Company

X Company... wow...
Well... I NEVER write posts about TV shows...at least no usually...
Sometimes there's a diatribe on Facebook, or multiple posts on Twitter...but...not...this...

First off... thank you to Mark Ellis and Stephanie Morgenstern for creating this WONDERFUL, beautiful, and heartbreaking show. I was fortunate enough to be able to see it before everyone else did, so thank you to the Writer's Guild for that as well! I also got to see the preview of it with the cast a few weeks before the premiere on top of that... can you say I was looking forward to it?

I'm not going to talk much about the show itself... I think more than enough people have done that. I want to focus on something a little different. And I need to get a few things of my chest first...

1. The cast. Holy hell you guys are great...individually, and as an ensemble! Hugh, Evelyne, Jack, Warren, Connor, Dustin... You make a team a team...and you show it. (Well, okay, Hugh is 'away'...but still intricately connected...) I'll get back to this later...

Torben... Man...great job... every episode you showed something that...well... I'm NOT SUPPOSED TO LIKE NAZIS! But...somehow...you did it... and the final scene... I wanted to both hug you and kill you... (or, at LEAST your character...)

2. Directors: David, John, Jaime, Craig... what you brought to the 'stage' was... amazing. You could see each individual 'personality' in the episodes, while keeping to the overall tone set in the first two episodes. You didn't try to make it your own, but kept it as true to the story itself.

Finally...

3. Mark and Steph... dear god you guys are great! I met you guys at the Writers Guild event, so I'm not going to re-hash to much since this is for you...but... the first episode meant a lot to see it with you, and talk to you after... Steph... I haven't been able to do anything more on my grandfathers story since we talked, but I CERTAINLY saw a lot of him in the plot lines of ALL the characters this season. And for that...I thank you and Mark and any other writers on this immensely. As you know, he passed in 1995, and obviously I miss him. Walk With the Devil premiered on the 20th anniversary of his death... so... ouch... I don't know how long Steph and I talked...it felt like an hour... (Even being in the entertainment business myself, I can get nervous talking to people I admire and respect...) Talking about my grandfather chokes me up sometimes because of many things... Mark, I wish I had more time to talk to you that night, but... well... next time my friend!

Now... to what I really want to say...

This is a WELL researched show... while of course there are 'not real' people, I can easily say this is one of the best shows on TV right now... it's hard hitting in EVERY scene, and is so close to reality (based on historical things I've read) that it might as well be a documentary! If it weren't for the quality of the shooting (and, well, colour) it'd be hard to say some scenes WEREN'T shot during the war...

The real reason I'm writing this... my Grandfather... where I'll bring the cast, and my chat with Stephanie back into it...

 My grandfather may (or may not) have been a commando during the war (same as the cast are playing). Trained as a medic, joined underage, and was 'in theatre' for the duration of the war... pay records indicate he was in the most dangerous places in the most dangerous times during the war... not associated with a single company at all (which was common practice). A year into his deployment (shown as a nurse or medic) his pay records go silent for 3 months. I have it on good authority (not verified) that he was in Scotland at the time...training for new missions. As with many...he never talked about his time in the war... Others, who have talked...have mentioned that something like the pre-cursor to CampX trainees did train in Scotland to be deployed... not in the same thing as like in the show, but for the same purpose... to disrupt, destroy, and eliminate Nazi infrastructure and soldiers. He was in Amiens when it fell back into allied hands, and his best friend died in his arms (the ONLY thing from the war he ever mentioned...) This reminds me of Rene from the first episode... though he was hanged for what he did...it still triggers an emotional response...
I seriously don't know what else he did during the war since he never talked about it, and, since he died when I was 15, I don't know if it was due to me not being 'old enough' to handle it or other reasons, my guess is the latter... he never talked about it in detail with anyone really... was it what we now call PTSD? Who knows...but...likely... I say that since there were many things found upon his death that even my Grandmother didn't even really know about. There were a few German bullets found hidden in a chest, a star emblem which is NOT allied affiliated (which I have now), and a ring which I wear EVERY DAY which is (as confirmed by a former British Officer) an authentic WW2 officers ring which is ONLY handed out to Officers and Allied Commandos (who, apparently at the time were ALSO considered officers within the British ranks...no matter their actual rank...). All of this, combined with the stories from some of his close friends who came home and spoke after his death lead me to believe that this is true. He was a "commando" ...one the FIRST ones in the war...

This makes XCompany hard to watch. Every single episode evokes his memory to me...

Steph and I talked about the OSA, the Official Secrets Act, which keeps British secrets classified for 70 years (so next year will/should release a TROVE of things) and other things.... things that have...for all intents and purposes have kept them from many other things that have happened during the time they are trying to tell in the story. It's not clear whether anything WILL be open to the public, or how we'll be able to access it...

So...to end this, I want to say, THANK YOU Mark and Steph, from the bottom of my heart for bringing this to the screen. Many have, and many have failed. You have not! And to the actors (not just the ones I've mentioned, but to all involved... thank you... You've been SO amazing...


All in all...thank you everyone...