There is My Girl and New Girl already out there, and now I present to you: Our Girl. What started out as a British one-time drama in 2013, is now a full 5-part series on BBC One. Just like in previous posts, I will do a little review on the pilot episode and tell you what I think, and it even seems like I can do this close to spoiler-free again.

To be honest with you, I didn’t know about the movie before I started watching the show. The promo for it was always played before the new Doctor Who episodes, and I was just immediately intrigued. Now, the storyline isn’t that difficult to explain: Molly Dawes (Lacey Turner), a young woman who joined the British Army as a medic, goes on her first mission to Afghanistan. Being the only woman on the platoon, she has to prove to her team and herself that she can do the job right. That pretty much sums it up, so here are my reasons why you should watch the show:

• It is almost physically painful to watch Molly underestimate the situation. Of course the real thing will never be the way you imagined it, but she just seems massively unprepared for what’s ahead of her. Yet, she gets it together and thrives under the harsh circumstances – those transformations are always great to watch!
• Iwan Rheon is in it! I’ll grant you that this might not be a reason for everyone, but I am a huge fan. I loved him in Misfits, laughed with and about him on Vicious and loathed him on Game of Thrones – I even wrote a whole post about him sometime last year (click here to read it). I’m not entirely sure what I think about his character Smurf now, but I’m looking forward to finding it out!
• Sometime during the first episode I fell in love with Ben Aldridge, who plays Captain James. There’s so going to be a love story between him and Molly and you know how much of a romantic I am.
• The whole theme of the show is compelling and also thought-provoking. In my opinion, it doesn’t just glamorise the actions of the army, but also questions them.

I am a little sad that the series isn’t longer, but I understand why they chose the format of a mini-series. I am definitely going to tune in again next week – how about you? What do you think about the show?