I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

Reading some reviews of The State, it seems some have completely missed the point of this mini-series. Far from glamourising IS this excellent series lays bare the lie that is at the heart of the death cult of Daesh. That lie draws impressionable, idealistic young Muslims across the west into a situation way out of their depth. Some argue that all who join IS know exactly what they are doing, which seems to leave some viewers unable to find anything sympathetic about the four young Brits portrayed here. Frankly, being unable to experience empathy for these characters says more about the person reviewing than it does about the situation itself. Far from idealising and glamourising IS this remarkable mini-series shows the brutality and evil at the heart of it in a way nothing else I've seen quite does. Several scenes are incredibly difficult to watch, clearly intentionally so, and I found the changes of focus from the young jihadis experiencing the terror of battle and the brutalisation of witnessing torture, to the stories of the women and children equally brutalised and adapting (or not) to an almost alien culture, incredibly compelling. This was brave television and for the most part well done. I feel it would have benefited from more time given to the ending, as this felt rushed and uncertain, but otherwise an excellent and compelling story.

I am amazed at the scathing reviews of 'The State'. Trust me, as a man who has been on the front lines against daesh in Iraq, this is worth the watch. I think this show did an amazing job of showing the realities of living under a daesh state of power. All while doing it without crossing the line and keeping it clean enough for a younger audience. As someone who has actually been there, it is mind-blowing to me that this show is portrayed by other reviewers as wishing to be sympathetic to the recruits. It shows the brutal reality which those in areas under daesh rule face. This show does an amazing job of captivating while educating on the beliefs of daesh and their twisted views of Islam. I am very disappointed in seeing how the masses received this show and hope it doesn't lead to Nat Geo closing the books permanently on the mini-series.

The premise is simple so I will skip that. The Muslim Jihad is a call to arms for all Muslims regardless of one's life in the false world. Those who have been called are fed propaganda by the previous waves of fighters who answered the call to jihad. We learn that each person truly wants and believes in their faith. They each want to believe in the struggle and participate in their own way. We also learn that the Mujahadeen or soldiers know this is a losing battle. For them it is a path to shaheed or martyrdom. This is the ultimate gift from God.But what each person thought they were seeking in their faith or even their own personal lives cannot be had in the caliphe or Islamic State. Each person has a different challenge that defies the teachings of the hadith or prophet. They each learn that it isn't the lies but the truth that scares them.

This mini-series has received a lot of criticism, with good reason it appears after my viewing of this abomination. You can all argue the toss abut how 'evil' the west may or not be, but surely even the extreme leftist, Komminsky, could not make light of ISIS recruits and their motives? Komminsky wants us to believe that British citizens who went out to Syria in 2015 to fight for ISIS were simply misguided as to ISIS's actions. Of course, in 2015 and in the year or two leading up to this, the whole planet watched the news with horror at the mass beheadings on the beach, of the aid workers beheaded live on social media, of the people burned alive in cages and of the (mostly Yazidi) children sold into sex slavery after having their fathers and brothers slaughtered in front of them. We all knew this.Is Komminsky really trying to tell us that ISIS recruits were not salivating over the thought of beheading non-believers? Did he really expect us to swallow that a Yazidi sex-slave would be saved by a disillusioned ISIS fighter? Really? What a horrifying and disgusting way to address the treatment of the Yazidis under ISIS. This is not a good way to treat such horrors. If you are female, imagine if it were you being passed around by filthy ISIS thugs like a piece of meat after having your family killed in front of you. And imagine then, if one of your nations most popular TV stations made a drama on such things and had an ISIS thug as some kind of anti-rape superhero? It's disgusting.Not only that, Komminsky manages to pull at the heart strings and lingers for some time at the aftermath of a missile strike on a baby hospital. Yes, a baby hospital. Most of them in incubators, so really sick babies too. Komminksy lingers on babies under rubble and baby body parts all over the place. However, with ISIS's atrocities, he offers nothing like the scale of graphic horror.Komminksy has pushed the boundaries for some time, but with this, he has over stepped the mark. I asked if Komminksy expected people to swallow his nonsense that ISIS are all happy-clappy, intelligent and generally lovely guys and girls who were duped into joining. Sadly, I know quite a few head in the sand liberals who will buy this hook, line and sinker.Disgusting.