Undoubtedly, one of the worst TV programmes I have watched in recent times. It is a sanitised and superficial portrayal of 'innocent' young people travelling to the so-called caliphate to fulfill their religious destiny in 2015 (a time when Daesh's atrocities were already known)! There are no back stories, which if accurate would have portrayed the protagonists as consuming violent rhetoric, promises of sexual fulfillment and horrifying videos online as part of their radicalisation before going to Syria to commit, support or facilitate war crimes. We are supposed to believe that inherently decent people would choose to follow a brother to 'martyrdom', to run away from home to marry a random assassin, or to offer medical services to people that brutalise civilians. We are supposed to believe that all the characters were unaware of how violent and cruel IS was going to be, which is an insult to us as viewers, but also to the victims of this death cult. The absurdity peaks in one grotesque storyline where an isis fighter, in order to protect her, buys a Yazidi woman who's husband has disappeared, who's small daughter has been raped and who herself has been raped and tortured by multiple men. She is won over by his 'goodness' and later seduces him in gratitude! The failure of this drama to 'own' the presumptive repulsiveness of the characters' decisions to go to Syria is too great a hurdle and no amount of light portrayals of isis violence later in the series makes up for such a gaping omission or the distortion it creates.
Review of The State
