The Undeclared War (2022)

A fun series about a terrifying future.

A few years ago, the newspapers were regularly filled with stories of Russian hacks on everything - and usually there was no more evidence than that it happened during office hours in Moscow. Hackers who stick to office hours, it shouldn't get any crazier.

Nevertheless, this series gives a solid and credible picture of how that can work - because it is painfully clear that various countries, including the Netherlands, are certainly investing in digital warfare. I am absolutely not in favor of that, and apparently neither are the makers of the series, given their clear explanation of how that easily degenerates into a low-threshold entry into a real war.

Not that the narrative in terms of hacking content is so beautiful - with the highlight that at GCHQ you apparently need someone from the crypto department to discover that something is uuencoded. Yeah right. Still, the way Saara is working with her tool belt is nice, and in the story the hack content also works - and you shouldn't want to give the whole explanation if you keep the viewers alive until the last episode. want to take.

Khalique-Brown is a very strong choice for the lead role, she knows exactly how to strike the balance between social inept hacker, unaccustomed intern and ambitious Muslim woman. Credible in every way. Pegg stands out from the rest of the cast as the head of the department, Mark Rylance as the old fart no one wants to talk to, and Ed Stoppard who earns the Oscar for Biggest Asshole of the Year.

It is also nice that quite a lot is spoken in all the right languages. That adds something.

Translated from Dutch · View original

The six-part The Undeclared War is an exciting cyber thriller based on the premise that Russia will carry out a cyber attack on the United Kingdom in 2024. Current subject, nice and mysterious and filmed reasonably believable. The good leading role of Hannah Khalique-Brown as Saara Parvin is empathetic, and Khalique-Brown acts alternately naive, vulnerable, talented and driven. Where deep fake, hacks, troll factories and cybercrime mainly take place online - not very interesting for the viewer - Saara visualizes her investigations for GCHQ, the headquarters for government communication in London. With tools in her waist bag. A great find. The British touch of humor is of course not missing.

The Undeclared War is nicely constructed and in that sense resembles a 1960s Cold War spy thriller. There are also references with The Capture and Homeland. But there are negatives. Quite a few storylines end abruptly, including that of Saara's colleague Kathy, played by Maisie Richardson-Sellers who bears a striking resemblance to our Joy Delima. The trend is that viewers want shorter series. Streamers respond to this; in this case 6 episodes of 45 minutes. The Undeclared War could have been an absolute top series if more space had been taken in the screenplay for character development. What remains is an excellent thriller that, without Hollywood exaggeration, puts its finger on a frightening place.

Translated from Dutch · View original