Our Girl and Captain James XLVIII

[Ilovelblue]

All discussion on the latest series of Our Girl, with particular reference to Captain James, is welcome here.

The plot was totally ludicrous but I really liked the cast. This series gave a lot of opportunities for other characters to develop. The music got better too. The ending was cool in a way but irritating also. Shouldn't an exit strategy have been part of the plan?
One of my ds's best friends is in the army. Every time he's home on leave, I'm tempted to ask him if he's seen OG and what do real soldiers think about it!!

Eliza my neighbour is a nurse and she knows I am a Holby fan but says it's never like that in a real hospital. (I think I know that anyway - for one thing, their promotion ladder is amazing. You can go in as a prostitute with a client and are employed as a staff nurse by the end of the programme). Another friend is a registrar and there was a drama on called Love, Lies and Records a few months ago which wasn't exactly true to life. I am sure military life is not how Our Girl portrays it.

In the very first thread, we had the wife of a senior army officer who used to post and she was very scathing of the programme.

I know it's not like real life obviously! I just wonder HOW cringeworthy they think it is. Tbh I wish they'd tried a little harder to portray what it's like for a woman in the military. I think it's much harder than OG makes out. I recall a colleague whose dh is an officer saying to me a couple of years ago that he didn't think women should be in active combat so I suspect sexist attitudes may still dominate. Remember how awful CJ was to Molly at the beginning eg 'stags only'? Yet somehow with Georgie she's fully accepted and never gets any sexism.

Eliza in the first series of OG, I decided I didn't like CJ initially as I was basing my view on the number of current and ex military officers I used to work with and for in my job. I was going back 15 years or so but there was definitely more than a whiff of chauvinism around at that point. I even requested a move from when I worked for an ex-army major. He was definitely the worst. An ex-RAF wing commander was the best to work for.

A friend of mine worked for a retired group captain and I remember her telling me that if he'd had his way, they would have all been on parade at 8.30 every morning!

Thinking about sexism, do you remember in episode 1 of series 2 when Monk called Georgie 'sugar tits' and she threatened to deplete his manhood? On that occasion CJ told Monk off and we all thought how much Molly had changed him. Now I'm wondering if he was worried about his own manhood.

To be honest, there are many real Army issues that the series could have explored without running off constantly to exotic locations and jumping off cliffs. Sexism is a good example of one.

I think the first series, third and second had more credibility because they were a bit more rooted in Army realism. Don't know if that's the right word for it as it's a drama but it felt more real. Also the wider cast seemed to have a stronger role to play. That seemed to get lost a bit in the forth like the little bits of their story were fillers until Georgie appeared. To be honest Maisie and Rab and Monks home life got to be more interesting at some points.

I will admit I enjoyed Nigeria out of all of series 4, Bones dynamic and slapping Georgie back into line worked for me.

I thought the article in the Express in which they spoke to Olly Rix about the demise of his character was interesting because it implied that there might have been a change of mind about the storylines which then resulted in him meeting his end. I have no idea in what order the episodes were filmed but it's interesting to contrast the Bones in Nigeria with the one in Bangladesh. From what we saw at the start - the way he told Georgie he quite liked her despite messing up his undercover mission and the bottle of whisky chat-up line, I did think he might feature more in the story with Georgie and start to develop as a character. I also thought it might be an interesting little side issue once he was put in charge of two section and cause some awkwardness between them but it was never mentioned. Actually, by the time he appeared in the jungle it was as if he hated all of them without exception and there was no other human side to him (bar one quick conversation with Fingers). By the time he was blown up I didn't care. Horrible as it sounds, he just didn't seem like a real person to me.

I quite enjoyed the Jungle story from a tension and danger point of view. I thought the action was well done and I do think MK does a good job of looking messy and sweaty when needed. I felt hot just watching them dragging CJ on that stretcher. I can't fault the location shooting - they definitely pushed the boat out on that. The one thing that seems missing from the series is actually....soldiers. I rewatched series 1 last week and it was noticeable how many extras they had. There were hardly any other soldiers bar Two Section in any of the stories and I have to say it is now looking very sparse indeed!

Oh to see Nude Nut, Bas Vegas and Mansfield Mike back with Two Section eh?

Dangleberries and Kinders too!

Sadly my 4 year love of OG seems to have melted away after the last episode! Hated that CJ and Lane got together and was expecting some twists and turns from TG right up to the last moments hoping that his love for Molly would triumph. Hated that ending too! Sure I will get over it!

Hi Wycombe! I think decompression has started to manifest itself?? Do you reckon there will be a fifth series?

Rhu I was never a huge fan of Kinders really. I much prefer Kingy.

Yes ilove I like the character of Kingy and I like the contrast between him and CJ as he's a family man and talks about his kids a lot and he's great with the section - I felt so sorry for him when Bones was in charge. However, Kinders was quite fit!

ooh and hello wycombe

Just a thought - Kinders was a corporal wasn't he whereas Kingy is a sergeant. Are there any corporals besides Georgie?

No, she's the only one. Odd that she was in on various meetings whereas I am sure it should have been Kingy in there.

I've just watched bits of the last episode again. I can't get my head round the fact that despite the connection between them now, he still calls her Lane but she calls him Charlie. It's weird.

Yes, I noticed that throughout the episode on Tuesday. I kept thinking, don't call him Charlie when he's obviously trying to keep his distance. It was weird, although on one occasion she almost did it as emotional blackmail. I think it was when she wanted SF to be called in to get the little boy. She started saying "Please Charlie". I thought that was a bit unfair of her.

It's a good job the 'romantic scenes' were wordless or we might have had breathy exchanges of "Oh Charlie!" followed by "Oh...Lane!".

Well, he didn't try too hard to keep his distance for too long! :)

That new SF boss is great. Not at all like Elvis or Bones. I googled him and he was apparently in The Go Between which I read as one of my A level set texts all those years ago. It was made into a drama two or three years ago. Can't say I remember him though.

Evening.
Just popped in to say, I'm married to a squaddie, with ptsd. He refuses to watch Our Girl, and so do pretty much all of his colleagues.
It's completely factually incorrect. Have you seen the recent FB post about Georgie's weapon having the sight on backwards!? They're supposed to have an 'advisor' on set... 🤦🏼‍♀️
Even I cringe at every episode. The soldiers I know all think it makes the Army look like a bunch of incompetent idiots!
I've watched every episode but this series will be my last (if there even is any future series). The storylines are so far fetched, it took a lot of imagination and willpower to watch it anyway but these last few episodes... I just can't take it seriously anymore!
Anyway, just wanted to offer a squaddie and his wife's view on it! 😁

Yes, I thought he was great, especially when he rode in on that motorcycle and declared himself to be "like f....ing Lawrence of Arabia". He had a nice attitude and great sense of humour. If we do get another series, I'd like him back for some light relief.

Thanks for that cheeses. I think we've all long since given up trying to see this as a thoroughly realistic portrayal of army life and have certainly had many a gripe ourselves over the years without having all the detailed knowledge of someone in the army. I guess any drama about any profession usually gets a lot of things wrong whether it's medical, legal or the police force. As you say it's a pity if there are technical advisers that some of these details are wrong. I think we've just taken it as character driven drama in which the army is a backdrop.

Hope your DH is getting the support he needs. We had a case of PTSD in my own family relating to military service, which took many years to manifest itself and it's been really tough for the person concerned, so I'm sorry to hear that.

Rhubarb, that's what I tried to explain to DH! The military aspect is just a backdrop for the story of their individual lives... but this series I've seen it from his POV much more... their advisor for this series was rubbish!😁 It really distracted me from the story.
I'd be interested to see a new series with totally new characters though, might convince me to watch again.
Thanks for your kind words, he's doing well. It'd be great to see a true PTSD storyline but I think, it's such an individual condition that it would be hard to do it well and cover everyone's perception and experience of it.
Also, the fact many people didn't realise there was a PTSD storyline is actually a lot like our real life. DH hid his condition from everyone except me for 13 years before he finally got help.

cheeses I'm glad he's getting help now and hope it gets easier for all of you in time. It was even longer with my relative but I understand that the army did step in and offer help when the problems really began even though he'd left the service a long while before.

I think from the little I do know that, as you say, it's very individual in how it affects people and probably hard to portray accurately. The only thing we have noticed is that CJ has definitely undergone a personality change over the course of several series and got worse at his job, decision making and his personal life is failing too - mind you how he's even physically fit to serve after two serious injuries to the same leg is beyond us! As we never really see the characters in more of a domestic setting interacting with their families and normal life I suppose it's harder to see what's going on behind the facade.

Who knows if there will be another series or who will be in it? I daresay we won't find out for a long time yet.

Thanks for your comments Cheeses. I'm glad your dh is getting help. There have been so many stories in the news about soldiers suffering when they return home. It makes me so angry.
The actor who played the new special forces guy has been in a lot of things but never gets a leading role. I think he may have been in Scott and Bailey.