The Golden Hour

Bloody awesome! The Dutch, outsiders on the film scene, are absolutely shocking with this series, crushing the competition and winning by a landslide. Amsterdam is overrun by organised terrorist attacks by Muslim scumbags and it's done so realistically and authentically that you'll shiver like never before! I haven’t been as uncomfortable watching a movie or series as I was here, part of the reason for that is that European terrorism is quite topical and here, watching it, you get the feeling that it's really happening and you are in the thick of the action and the chaos itself. I really appreciate that the series doesn't once slip into family drama or any other plot digressions, and we don't have just one attack here, but several! The protagonist is a detective, originally from Afghanistan, who learns that his childhood friend has come to Amsterdam and immediately afterwards the city is in chaos, so he searches for him on his own, only he becomes the main suspect in the case – The Fugitive and Hotel Mumbai in one! The highlight is definitely the 2-part massacre at the mall, where they fire uncompromisingly and coldly at everyone with a Kalashnikov. The hopelessness, helplessness and fear is unbelievable. The atmosphere of all those corpses rolling on the ground, including children, is uncompromising! I was a bit annoyed by the rules of the police waiting half an hour for a commando while the terrorists shoot 200 people, with the police waiting outside, but that's the lame protocols. For me, excellent stuff that keeps the pace, the tension, is uncomfortable and action packed enough. Quite possibly the best series or movie on terrorism I've ever seen. 10/10. (07.02.2024)

Awesome! A six-part series about terrorists that a group of criminal investigators are on the hunt for, but things gradually start to unravel and there's a game of time to the last big explosion. The Golden Hour won me over from the very first episode, as it skillfully introduces us to excellent characters and their backgrounds and depicts where the plot will go. There's a surprising amount of tension, with practically the whole six episodes playing cat and mouse not only between the terrorist investigator, but also the whole police force is after the lead investigator, because they think he's behind it due to his Afghan background. It's visually good, the acting and characters are great, and most importantly, there's always something going on - from the opening bombing to several terrorist shootings to the final action set-piece. But what I have to specially praise the series for is the art of how it manages to work with details, for example, in several non-violent and absolutely well-situated scenes it manages to portray the prejudice against Muslims by ordinary people and how everyone is hostile and suspicious of Afghans or other similar people from the very beginning of the investigation. I was squirming in my seat in amazement almost the whole time; tension was definitely not spared here, you don’t know who to hate more during the course: the terrorists or the motherf*cking, uncompromising detectives, and I was totally engrossed in this whole chase. And the scene in the mall, where they shoot everyone who moves, was incredibly chilling. I just can't help but give it a full score. (21.02.2024)