PowerSwitch

UKTV Docs is showing Oil Storm ( http://www.fxnetworks.com/shows/origina ... /main.html ) at 9pm tonight.

It's build as the first showing in the UK.

Channel 564 if you have Sky.

I meant to post this, but it would appear that you beat me to it .

It's 2 hours long, so it had better be worth the watch

It's really worth watching but you just have to keep telling yourself it was finished in March 05 and not shown in the US until June, i.e. pre Katrina/Rita!

I know it won't be ground breaking TV; personally, my main reason for watching it is cos so many US peak sites compare to it, us it as a reference - now I'll know exactly where they're comng from!

When I heard Fox were making this show, before it was finished, it did make me think "well, how about that, it's almost like someone wanted to get a load of info over to the american public in a format they could digest......"

fishertrop wrote: When I heard Fox were making this show, before it was finished, it did make me think "well, how about that, it's almost like someone wanted to get a load of info over to the american public in a format they could digest......"

Funny, I thought the same thing about '24'. Conditioning the audience kind of. And to some degree the same thing about 'Band of Brothers'.

MacG wrote: Funny, I thought the same thing about '24'.

Me too, esp the blatent sections where the audience "learns important lessons", such as
1) A "weak" president is very very very bad thing
2) Sometimes it's "right" for the prez to authorise very nasty things like torturing suspects

Did we all learn something in class today?..........

I didn't see the same angles in Band of Brothers tho, which aspects are you referring to??

If we didn't know better we'd be forgiven for thinking that such "teach the ignorant public important key facts about the future via storytelling" was part of some coherent strategy

fishertrop wrote: I didn't see the same angles in Band of Brothers tho, which aspects are you referring to??

Nahh, mainly the pure heroic warrior stuff. Giving a picture of the soldiers as still acting in a way we could relate to. The truth is that soldiers in war quickly turn into behaviour we cannot relate to.

MacG wrote: Nahh, mainly the pure heroic warrior stuff. Giving a picture of the soldiers as still acting in a way we could relate to. The truth is that soldiers in war quickly turn into behaviour we cannot relate to.

Right yes I see.

For realistic truths on modern soldierly behavior, have you seen A Company of Soldiers ( http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/company/ ) ?

I believe you can watch the whole show online.

fishertrop wrote:UKTV Docs is showing Oil Storm ( http://www.fxnetworks.com/shows/origina ... /main.html ) at 9pm tonight.

It's build as the first showing in the UK.

Channel 564 if you have Sky.

For those who missed it last night (as I did) it's being repeated today - at 1000 hrs + 1400 hrs (and via UKTV Docs + 1) at 1100 hrs and 1500 hrs.

fishertrop wrote:

MacG wrote: Nahh, mainly the pure heroic warrior stuff. Giving a picture of the soldiers as still acting in a way we could relate to. The truth is that soldiers in war quickly turn into behaviour we cannot relate to.

Right yes I see.

For realistic truths on modern soldierly behavior, have you seen A Company of Soldiers ( http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/company/ ) ?

I believe you can watch the whole show online.

Not seen - will watch tonight. Thanks!

I watched the "show" and thought it was pretty good assuming it was a drama made to tell American people what is coming. Quite creepy the way it predicted a CAT5 to hit New Orleans on Sept 5th, called Julie(te) as well - just one from Katrina. Spooooooky.

The build up to the middle of the drama was good and it showed the repurcussions of oil shortage and the knock-on effects very well.

The ending was poor and totally unrealistic (imo) it should have shown things as going from bad to worse as PO digs in, but as far as I could see the drama did not really acknowledge the downside of PO and the diminishing nature as it depletes at all. It just said oil was a fossil fuel and was limited in supply.

But overall I would give it 3 out of 5 and 4 out of 5 for attempting to raise awareness.

MacG wrote: Not seen - will watch tonight. Thanks!

I found it to be excellent - great TV and very educational.

I was personally disappointed with Oil Storm.

It started well, covering a temporary oil crisis brought about by environmental disaster, political turmoil and human error. However, its failure was in the depiction of 4 super-tankers, each carrying 2 million barrels of oil, turning around a depression of the US economy. I suppose, however, that's the failure of 90% of the disaster movies ever made - that the american spirit overcomes, and everything goes back to normal at the end, whether its "The Day after Tomorrow" or "The Simpsons".

For what the film called a "depression" to be overcome within 12 months of the start of that depression is, at best, extremely superficial.

Oil Storm did do well, however, in showing how Global Warming, political incompetence and the War on Terror could combine to cause real problems.

One can only hope its the first of many films raising earth's real problems to the public conscience before reality hits.

YossarianUK wrote:I was personally disappointed with Oil Storm.

It started well, covering a temporary oil crisis brought about by environmental disaster, political turmoil and human error. However, its failure was in the depiction of 4 super-tankers, each carrying 2 million barrels of oil, turning around a depression of the US economy.

Unlike many of the viewers those on this forum would probably conclude that those 4 tankers would meet US oil demand for the sum total of 9 hours, hardly enought to turn American economy around.

Personally, I thought that the programme was terrible. That's about 2 hours of my life that I'll never get back.

I would agree with the points YossarianUK made.

I just thought that it was too heavy on the drama, and too light on the potental widescale problems that would be faced.

In the end, the Americans pulled through, and the 'American dream' lived another day, once cheap petroleum was back inthe country.
Then again, it could be because the American voices really grated at me.


I was however under the impression that the Russian oil industry didn't have enough reserves left to increase the pumping to fit the needs of America while it recovers. I was under the impression that Saudi Arabia is the only country really able to increase supply by a reasonable amount,or am I mistaken?