The State - Channel 4 Sunday 20th August 9 PM.

bodhrandude · 17-08-2017 8:41pm #1

I seen this advertised on channel 4 and looks to be interesting about four Brits who decide to join ISIS and examines the harsh reality and consequences for the people that decide to join. I think its in four episodes.

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-state

Harry Palmr · 20-08-2017 5:34pm

Bump for tonight

B.A._Baracus · 20-08-2017 10:15pm

Good first episode.
Couldn't help but keep thinking to myself "you're all idiots!"

Harry Palmr · 20-08-2017 10:24pm

ha! I'd be interested to read feedback about The State from those who went and got back. A quiet enough opening, the most interesting thing was the gender demarcation and the way the women who were already there had a *shrugs*, 'yes we can see the double standards' attitude to it all and the number of apparent converts.

cdeb · 21-08-2017 7:14am

It's based on a lot of research with people who did go over and who escaped, so I'd say they'd recognise quite a lot of it.

Quiet first episode alright - but to be expected; that's just luring everyone in. The viewer and the four. I'd say it'll start to get a bit tougher to watch from tonight's episode.

The number of westerners was interesting alright.

Found the sound quality wasn't the best - or maybe it was the accents - but hard to hear what was being said at times.

volchitsa · 21-08-2017 9:35pm

Just watching the second episode now (on C4+1), finding it very believable. Well, for all I know of ISIS, TBF. Maybe I'm thinking of the Handmaids Tale.

AMKC · 22-08-2017 8:42pm

I think they should have showed it over four weeks and they would have got more interest in it. Showing it weekly is also more flexible as you know its going to be repeated another day maybe at the weekend and if you don't have the time to see it the first time it can be viewed then. People just don,t have the time to watch a show done over four consecutive days and it can put them off.

Beechwoodspark · 22-08-2017 8:45pm

It's a bit predictable tonight. The "good nazi" plot device.

Spider Web · 22-08-2017 9:15pm

Half watching it - too frightful to focus fully on it. Considering it's on Channel 4, there can't be allegations of rightwing propaganda.

The treatment of women is under the spotlight on this episode - vomit inducing. Makes me so angry when women in the west pretend we are really oppressed, even saying The Handmaid's Tale is like real life (in the west). What an insult.

B.A._Baracus · 22-08-2017 9:48pm

Feels like the show is making isis come off in a good light. Then every once in a while makes them out to be monsters.

AMKC · 22-08-2017 10:26pm

I have to say it is very well done. Almost like it was actually filmed there. Some gruesome scenes in the latest episode including some headless bodies and a whipping of one of the women but its well done. Looked very sore after.

_Whimsical_ · 22-08-2017 10:26pm

Is it very violent or graphic? I would like to watch but really would not be made of strong enough stuff for beheadings etc?

wfdrun · 22-08-2017 10:56pm

_Whimsical_ wrote: »

Is it very violent or graphic? I would like to watch but really would not be made of strong enough stuff for beheadings etc?

Very violent? Yes IMO.

Characters focus on foreign jihadis growing disillusionment. I think it is enlightening. Sad religious civil war.

La_Gordy · 23-08-2017 3:38pm

So far, ahm really enjoying it. The characters are believable. Also, it can be very difficult to watch.

silverharp · 23-08-2017 3:46pm

its worth watching, nobody really to root for so I kinda hope they all get taken out by drones

Spider Web · 23-08-2017 6:57pm

B.A._Baracus wrote: »

Feels like the show is making isis come off in a good light. Then every once in a while makes them out to be monsters.

That's the problem though - normal people, not monsters, can be seduced by them.

cdeb · 23-08-2017 10:45pm

Well that was...bleak.

Certainly felt authentic; excellent sets in particular.

There was a couple of plot holes though, I thought. The "lioness" was missing almost entirely tonight I think? One scene at the start, and then nothing else. I don't know what the intention of leaving her story at a loose end is? Also, what was Jalal's dad doing out in Syria? I didn't get that. He was introduced as a spy, but then he went into a rant about how he didn't understand how his two sons could travel out to Syria and leave the mother in tears, but he was there himself. I also didn't see Ziyaad (was that his name?) transitioning from "up for adventure" to suicide bomber in the earlier episodes; maybe that was just me though? Thought it could have been explored more; seems an important issue.

But the portrayal of, effectively, up or out was fairly chilling. You're either 100% here for the ride - the party line on Islamic theology, the decapitation, the beatings, everything - or you're expendable. There's no in between. The kid's "education" too was fairly brutal. I guess that's what extremism is - and it's probably necessary for the level of bull**** they espouse to stick. I imagine North Korea's not too dissimilar.

What the hell you do about it, I don't know. For me at least, it reinforced the view that we can't risk letting the attitude into the country at all. And it's a worry that it's maybe too late for that.

Certainly thought-provoking stuff. Enjoyable is the wrong word, but well worth watching I think. A kind of Threads for the present day in a way.

La_Gordy · 24-08-2017 12:58pm

I felt it ended too quickly but also very well done.

I also read that very few of the people that return from Syria are put in jail, which when watching Shakira's story end was a bit where I was thinking "now THIS is farfetched" - http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/only-14-400-british-isis-9010088

The State - Channel 4 Sunday 20th August 9 PM.

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