Attackers. The Last Fight.

Following on from the events of the first Attackers series, Major Bestuzhev is promoted to Lt Colonel and given command of a newly-formed fighter regiment. He is given the latest Soviet fighter, the Yak-3, but with no veterans to draw upon he has to rely on green pilots straight out of training. It's a tough assignment, made tougher by adversaries at Army headquarters, cunning German opponents and personal tragedy.

I really enjoyed the first Attackers series. A gritty, realistic portrayal of the air war on the Eastern Front complete with some interesting themes and sub-plots, good character depth and coverage of the war from many angles.

However, the first episode of this, the second series, is a bitter disappointment after that. Plot is all over the place, acting is hammy, melodrama is laid on very thick. Even the special effects are worse, despite this series being made two years later. It was so bad I thought of giving up then and there.

It's a good thing I didn't. The series gradually gets better as it goes along, to the point that after 6 episodes or so it's almost as good as the first series. Some intriguing plots, again, good character depth and some interesting relationship-based sub-plots. Plot can be a bit holey at times: certainly not as tight as the first series.

Quite uneven too: it veers from some really silly, implausible scenes to some wonderfully deep and profound moments. It's as if there were two teams of writers at work, a good one and a bad one, and they took turns on the scenes. (The bad team wrote the entire first episode!).

Overall, engaging and entertaining.