nikarkham I loved Thunderbirds as a child and this new series which I watch each week with my three young sons is the perfect representation of the original ideas for a new era. There are homages to the past aplenty while giving us some new surprises... The Thunderbirds craft all launching together at the end of the series was such a buzz that the boys and their friends and cousins watch it repeatedly. Having such a strong female role on the team is important too - they admire Kayo and quite rightly so. Absolutely fantastic production all round (including the music, which my youngest son sings at full volume!) - sets, cartoon CGI, most of the plotting, voice acting... All high quality and a fitting successor to one of the most phenomenal children's shows of last century.

terry-202-609204 Really hope they make a second series. Like others here the pacing holds no tension and I am sure that kids today can handle some quiet before the action hits home.I was a little unsure of the CGI characters to start with but got used to them as well. The addition of Kayo is good, although would be nice if they can use her some more.Really like the Thunderbird Vessel CGI, the little touch of zooming in on Thunderbird one and seeing its fins wobble...awesomeThe Thunderbird two launch sequence, although good, I don't feel it matches the suspense of the original...it used to be the thing I was waiting for every episode.Finally though, from the nostalgic goosebumps I get at the front titles, I'm hooked right until the end.Still can't fathom why ITV didn't maintain a 5pm family slot though!

Rob_Taylor Then this is what you would experience! Don't get me wrong. It isn't awful. In fact, it is way better than I would have expected. The character, Thunderbird, Tracy Island designs are all decent iterations of the originals and the rest of the world feels to fit quite nicely too.Where it falls down quite alarmingly is in the pacing. There seems to be a belief among the purveyors of children's programming that faster is better. It isn't. Here, the show whizzes by so fast that you don't have time to fully appreciate the effort that went into it. Rescues are accomplished a little too quickly. Discussion of what to do and how to proceed is rushed. Everything moves too quickly to properly enjoy it.Just because psychologists/psychiatrists would have us believe that every child suffers from ADD/ADHD does not make it true.Additionally, or perhaps because of, the pacing, there are some scenic jumps that cut out moments during the rescues. Instead, there is a jump due to editing constraints on running time. It is like they are trying to cram too much into too short a timeframe.There is a decent kid's show here, based on the old classic, but it suffers badly at the hands of people who "know what kids want". It's almost as if they decided the content itself was irrelevant and focused instead on shiny action that, ultimately, feels hollow and unrewarding.You might think I'm being a little harsh, but just ask yourself this question."What movie/TV series remake have I watched recently that is better than the original?" I have a feeling that your list will be a very short one.SUMMARY: Too fast, too loud. Designed and made by people who think all kids are Methamphetamine freaks who won't sit still for more than a minute. Ulrimately a bit of a failure.

Floy Joy Having now seen a number of episodes including "Fireflash", which is a partial remake of the very first Thunderbirds episode "Trapped in the sky" I feel this is a good series which could get better, with some adjustments.Firstly there needs to be more background to the characters and to the world they are living in (this could well happen over time as there are still many episodes left in season 1 and season 2 has already been given the go-ahead). But this needs to happen soon, so that we can grow to like the characters and have an understanding of their (future) world. It's all too vague at the moment and is really just 5 boys whizzing about (loudly) in great looking machines. Yes, the original was about that too, but you were given info. right at the start, that Father Jeff Tracy had been an astronaut and that he had set-up the International Rescue organization. In this remake we are not told this. What we are told is the year, that there is a Global force which has col. Casey as one of its leaders and that the mysterious, villainous "Hood" is the Uncle of Kayo, and was somehow involved in Jeff Tracy's disappearance. Hopefully this will all be expanded upon in upcoming stories. And hopefully we will also learn more about Lady Penelope and how she became involved with the team, as this has not been explained at all yet. We don't need to know everything right away of course, but we do need some more information if we are to become involved as viewers. As it's not a continuation of the original series (Brains could not suddenly be Indian!) more info. is needed. And on that note about Brains I have to be honest and say I'm not in favour of the change to his character. As David Graham is back doing the voice of Parker, as he did in the original, I feel he could so easily have also reprised the voice of Brains as well. It seems very silly to change a beloved character, for no good reason. All it does is upset fans of the old series. The remake of "Battlestar Galatica" did a similar thing, by turning Starbuck into a woman! It seems the producers of these things do this on purpose just to make it a talking point to generate publicity! It does them no favours as fans of the old series are already against them from the start! And to say they just wanted to appeal to a new audience is incorrect, otherwise they wouldn't have taken so much trouble to keep it as close to the original as they have done. So it's clear they wanted old fans to come onboard also. Not the best way to go about it! Also questionable is the "Fireflash" episode which is a remake of the very first episode of the old series. I'm not sure why this was done-and so soon-was it a homage to the original? Was it a way to tell old fans that although Brains and other things are different, this is still Thunderbirds as they knew it?!! I have no idea, but as a lover of the original series it was nice to see Fireflash again, albeit in re-designed form.what isn't as nice is the new score. The opening intro, with the same countdwown as the original, is welcome, but the music is missing the power of the original, bombastic Barry Gray theme. And, yes, of course there is too much music in the episodes and too loud. But this seems to be the norm now with shows aimed at a young audience-don't let them get bored with too much dialogue just boom-out the music as much and as loudly as possible! No thought spared for the adults or parents who have to reach for the volume-down button on the remote! The look of the series, however, is very good. The CGI is mostly extremely well done, although the characters are a bit clunky in their movements at times. But that is a minor point and it could improve in time. The machines and environments all look great, which is probably the most important thing. (I have to say, though, that I did wonder where on earth Lady Penelope & Parker were in the opening episode. It was, presumably, meant to be an English country lane that they were driving on, but it looked more like they were driving around and around on a snow-globe type diorama!) So, although I feel there is promise for the future of this series, it depends on how quickly the producers start injecting more background info. into it, to get viewers more involved. Seeing all the machines flying around is great but that isn't enough-otherwise we could just play with the toys! Whoooosh!