The Hot Zone (2019-2021)

Like so many series, it starts very strong. A realistic sketch of a course of events that took place around the turn of the 1980s and 1990s. The movie Outbreak has many landmarks with this series, based on actual events.

As fearful as it is, an outbreak is not a myth and can no longer be ignored during our phase of Corona in which we find ourselves today. Now another virus that has been responded to quickly, fortunately that people have learned something from the Sars epidemic and as a result a vaccine was almost already on the shelf. We'll get away with it this time.

And that's what the series shows very clearly in the first episodes, hard how we can screw up with each other by being naive about things. I was really glued to the tube and was really impressed. The switching between the here and now and the late 1970s in Africa were really well chosen to explain the story well.

Unfortunately, the series is once again carried away by deliberate drama and action. Something the good story didn't need at all in my eyes. It started so realistically, so directly in your face which made it so good. No, the series had to have a commercial slant again, such a shame.

And the latter was pretty much pushed through, especially in the last two episodes. A good cast (except Topher Grace, who I don't choose for this role at all) and a good direction, everything neatly done. Three stars for me because the poorly written, overprinted drama and action at the end of the season left me a bit disappointed. Unfortunately.

Translated from Dutch · View original

Reasonable film adaptation of Richard Preston's book of the same name, about the origin of the Ebola virus in the central African rainforest and its first arrival on American soil in 1989. The flashbacks set in Africa are actually more interesting and, above all, more convincing than the events on an army base in the US. There things are repeatedly a bit unbelievable and dull, but the whole thing just stays on track. Solid playing from the always reliable Liam Cunningham and a woefully converted Julianna Margulies.

Translated from Dutch · View original