Hi, all. I've just been down to the local DVD store and spotted a boxed set of the Brit TV series Ultimate Force. The blurb on the back claims that the story revolves around an SAS team on ops from Northern Ireland to Bosnia. Was a bit skeptical as the cover pic shows that the team includes a woman.

Has anyone seen this series, and is it worth buying? This set's obviously a pirated run as it's going for about US$24.

BTW, they've also got 'Over there'. Worth buying?

No one??????

Ah ha!
I made a thread regarding this series here about 3 weeks ago.
I saw the first 3 episodes, and i LOVED it, then, as happens with all televison series i happen to like, they pulled it off the air, i suppose it just wasnt popular enough.
My question was asking if anyone had seen the whole series, and if it was worth getting on DVD, i was told it stays consistently good throughout series 1 and 2, so thats good enough for me!
Then again, another let down, it's not available in Australia :-)
Anyways mate, in short...buy it, i wouldnt pass it up!
Cheers

LoL. I've seen it too, and HATED it. I guess we all have different taste :-) . As an entertainment show I guess it is ok, but for realisme...

Erik

Alot of it t is a bit far fetched i'll give you that, and i only saw 3 episodes :-) but why i liked it so much is, we have 5 television channels here, and compared to anything else that was on, it was a godsend plus the 3 episodes i saw, especially the first, were quite good, the first one was very realistic.
Cheers

Thanks for the feedback, guys. What I really wanna know is is this really about the SAS, or is it just another military action series labelled with an SAS tag. Erik, what's unrealistic about it?

And what about 'Over There'?

It was a load of old hoop!! The acting was awful, the plots far fetched, the characters unbelievable, it was just garbage!!

My point exactly...

Erik

Guess that's sorted.

Ok, heres the deal, how many of you have seen the first series?

The third series was terrible, really, really bad.

But the first one was very good. The woman, Caroline, was not a member of the team but a HQ staff officer, who did get quite involved in the story, but wasn't in the SAS as such. After all, they needed a female in the story somewhere, and having her as the HQ intelligence officer was plausable enough.

If you see the first episode where they assault the bank it is quite well done, explosive entry and all. The CQB looks pretty authentic as well.

However in the third series they lost the plot (and all the actors bar three...). After building up each character's story for two seasons, they killed off all but three of them in the first minutes of the third series. I'm not quite sure what went wrong with the production, but clearly they couldn't get the original actors to sign up for a third series, except for Ross Kemp. Clearly they couldn't get the same writers either, certainly Chris Ryan, who wrote some of the first episodes, had nothing to do with it!

The second series was not quite as good as the first, but was not exactly terrible.

So no, I'd advise you stear clear of the third series, but by all means check out the first two.

Thanks, Phil, good to know.

I've just watched the first seven episodes and it seems pretty ok, if you close one eye and squint with the other But seriously, it's not bad. Just feel that most of the scenarios would've been handled by the cops in real life.

I think Ryan probably pulled out a list of training scenarios and made them into stories.

BTW, did anyone notice that he also acts in the some episodes? As the Blue Troop sergeant, Johnny Bell.

Oh man that was a bad series using an Actor from Eastenders MISTAKE. It was filmed at my place of work one day and they turned it into a airport terminal and one of my work colleagues was in the show and got £100 for ten minuets doing nothing so he liked the show from then :-)

redleg

OK, I've got to (what I assume is) episode 1 of the 3rd series (no indication of series on box), and I'm not going any further! What a load of crap. The fact that it features an aircraft assault gave a depressing comparison to the building assault in the first series. What a sad contrast. Frontal daylight assault with no respirators, balaclavas or flashbangs. And the SAS stands in the doorways exchanging fire with the hijackers. I've actually watched an aircraft assault exercise, and while the building assault wasn't 100%, it came close. But this? No effort even made. And let's not even start on the script

It had got a bit soapy in the 2nd series, and I should have taken the hint.

Even SWMBO refused to watch anymore, and kept pointing out what the SAS was doing wrong!

Yep, that's the third series. You'll find an awfull lot of standing still exchanging long inefective bursts of fire with the bad guys...

waste of time, I'm not sure why they even bothered after doing a good job on the first series and a fair job on most of the second.

Well, Phil, some people never know when enough is enough I guess. Did I mention the tits-out female taking selection who's then pulled out halfway to take part in an aircraft assault?

That is a typical example of 'milking the story dry'..
The problem is that the SAS don't lend themselfs to long running series. Afterall there's not that much explosive action that they are involved in (and that was used up in series one..), and deep cover surveillance does not exciting TV make. Hence the long exchanges of fire... people want to see that sort of thing when slumpped on their couch, and really think that a 10 inch magazine holds 600 rounds of ammo...
And Ross Kemp, nah, he'll always be a Mitchell from Eastenders.. :-) .

Cheers
Henk

I agree with you on that. Season 1 went off with a bang. Too bad the producers could not sustain the momentum.

In fairness to the show, I believe its far-fetchedness would benefit the SAS. As the world's premier CT unit, they would prefer to keep their real tactics and operations secret.

I've only watched a few of these episodes, I agree some of the acting is rubbish and some parts are a bit far fetched but as a bit if TV entertainment with a bit of action I didn't think it was too bad.




The last episod I watched had a woman in the team not just at HQ. She showered with the blokes and went on the mission and took a full part in it.

I asked myself the same question as Spooky6 about women being in the SAS. I don't think they are but then the SAS don't advertise such things.
Like a former boss of mine who was ex SBS said, "women can make the best agents or spies just because they're women."

Vic

There are no women in the SAS. And it's no secret. Criteria for the SAS selection course is freely available to all members of the British Armed Forces. I think it's even available on the Army website.

Some women have been attached to SAS units for ops, particularly from what was 14 Int. I think it's called MRF now.

The woman in the shower is in the third series, Vic. The HQ officer mentioned was dropped from the cast in the second series.

The latest series got pulled off ITV after the first episode when they wiped out some FARC clones single-handed.

Ross Kemp lost any pretentions to being macho last christmas when his wife got nicked for beating him up (didn't get charged though). Then she is a tabloid editor....

Damn I missed this thread. For anyone who doesnt know Ultimate force served one purpose-the entertain 18-21 year old males who read fast car mags or mens mags like loaded. Its just far fetched 'Macho' SAS action for the sort of people who dont ahve ahope in heel of eve getting into the SAS but would like to believe they are pretty tough, who may watch it with their girlsfriends (the guys who watch this call girls 'birds' by the way) and tell them the names of the submachine guns to look cool. Its just testosterone filled action.

By the way I watched Ultimate force and loved it! :-) :-) hahaha Its just pure entertainment-like James Bond, I mean is the secret service actually like that.

AS TO OVER THERE

I am probably one of the few guys that liked it. Most are wanting a bang-shoot em up PVT Ryan type show then this won't do it. Deals mainly with how the guys in a squad (not combat infantry but a truck group with a couple of female drivers) deal with the Iraq situation. There is ample combat situations, also shows what is going on back home with the families.

So did I.