[JTM45]

Did anyone else watch the first episode of this show last Tuesday night ? I read a short synopsis which really didn't make it sound too interesting but i decided to give it a try anyway and was surprised by how much i enjoyed it.

It's quite a controversial tale about a fictitious factional war-torn Middle Eastern Country called 'Abbudin'. It's not claimed to be a particular real Country but it is obviously intended to represent a mixture of Syria, Iraq and.........well, just your general Anti-American middle eastern style "these are bad men!" type of place!

The show's main character is Bassam "Barry" Al-Fayeed. He has been living in self-imposed exile in Los Angeles for nearly 20 years since leaving his home country of Abbudin and his birth family, the Al Fayeed's, which is headed by his father Khaled Al Fayeed who happens to also be the President of Abuddin and a mad, bad and dangerous to know tyrannical dictator to boot. Khaled is married to Amira Al-Fayeed, Barry's Mother and matriarch of the Al-Fayeed clan and of course the first lady of Abbudin.
While Khaled is still officially President he is in his latter years and his next in line is his first Son and Barry's older brother, Jamal Al-Fayeed.
Jamal is your stereotypical super-ruthless, 'crazed with power', 'Dictator in waiting' kind of son who's a very, very naughty boy! If you've seen "The Devil's Double", the 2011 Film about Uday Hussein, Sadam's eldest son, then that should give you a good idea of who they obviously based the Jamal Al-Fayeed character on.

So, while second son and the show's main character Bassam (or "Barry" as he now likes to be known) Al-Fayeed has, by his own choice, been living in the US for the last 20 years he's become Americanized, going on to become a successful pediatrician in the LA area where he's married Molly, his blonde-haired 'typical American' wife and the couple have two teenage children, Sammy and Emma. He’s spent most of his life attempting to escape his family ties, privately disgusted by the atrocities committed by his father back in his homeland.

Against his better judgement and to please his wife and Children who have never visited Barry's home country he reluctantly agrees to take his family home to Abbudin after his father invites him to bring his family to his nephew's lavish wedding which is being held at the family's Palace.
He refuses his father's offer of a private jet to fly the family to the wedding but on boarding their commercial flight at LAX Barry is less than pleased to discover that his father's representatives have bought up the tickets for every seat on the plane and they have an entire commercial jet-liner to themselves.
Although Barry's obviously fuming about the situation it's kinda' too late to call it off now and the family take off and are headed for the Middle East!
You can tell later on that this was the point where Barry should have thought better of the whole situation and got the hell off that plane with his family........but he didn't (silly Barry!).

They land in Abbudin and sh*t get's kinda' real!!!!

So on-screen that's just the opening couple of minutes of the Pilot episode but i tried to give a bit of a synopsis of the whole family situation and a very brief break-down of the characters just to try and give people a better idea of what the show's actually about than the official two line synopsis did for me.

There's lot's of stereotyping, cliches and "yeah right!....OK then" moments going on but if you can look past all of that and avoid the urge to think "there's no way that would happen!" for a hour or so i'd recommend at least giving the Pilot Episode a viewing. Just think "Well i know this is all highly unlikely but what would happen IF it did happen ?".
It had me pretty much gripped for the whole episode and i'm definitely interested to see where they go with the next few episodes at least!

The show is produced by Howard Gordon who was also responsible for (amongst other things) 'Homeland' and '24'.

The Pilot episode aired last Tuesday the 24th of June and the second episode (titled 'State of Emergency') airs this Tuesday the 1st of July.

As i side note i must point out that there are a few incredibly beautiful Middle Eastern/Arabic women in this show! Knowing American TV though they're probably not actually Arabic/Persian/Middle Eastern at all. They were beautiful though regardless!

If you do watch it or you already have let me think what you thought of it!

[JTM45]

Episode 2 was on yesterday!
It's definitely an interesting (if somewhat far-fetched) storyline and i'm curious to see where they go with it.

[Slevin]

i watched the pilot last week and im interested. will likely watch the series.

[JTM45]

Originally Posted by Slevin

i watched the pilot last week and im interested. will likely watch the series.

It's quite out there but with gay muslim flings and attempted penis removal by biting it's caught my attention enough to keep me watching for the time being at least!

I wish they'd give the daughter something of a storyline though! She's got potential but she hasn't really done anything yet. Beautiful girl though!!!

[Bluerang1]

I keep thinking this show is about Tyra Banks

[JTM45]

Originally Posted by Bluerang1

I keep thinking this show is about Tyra Banks

That would be pure HORROR!!!!! Far too frightening for me.