Entertaining action series that demonstrates how misinterpretation of data can lead an intelligence agency down the wrong rabbit hole... I like the setting of the show, Cape Town is not a setting often seen in US shows. A short series definitely worth watching.
37 Reviews
Well written by todays standards
jens-2572 July 2020
Reminiscent of The Wire but with a different setting and very different cast of characters. Slow paced by today's standards but it allows the actors to actually act rather than running around with lots of jump cuts to make every scene seem hectic, don't get me wrong there is a decent amount of action but its used for effect in the story telling rather then being the main course.
If more writers and directors aimed at producing something like this then we would see more exceptional shows rather then the drudge we are currently witnessing. Hopefully sometime soon people will realize that relying purely on spectacle has a diminishing return on investment but good storytelling is eternal.
Surprisingly Good Start
pietclausen20 June 2020
A series produced in South Africa with superb scenic scenes of Cape Town and the natural beauty of South Africa, makes a most entertaining and thrilling complex movie. Though not difficult to follow it has many interesting angles to keep one guessing where it is leading to.
Beautifully filmed with excellent lighting makes it so much different from the run of the mill American productions. Worth a watch!
Update: Having now seen all 6 episodes, the latter installments ran out of steam and the conclusion was a bit muddled, influencing reduction of the series rating to 6.
Beautifully filmed with excellent lighting makes it so much different from the run of the mill American productions. Worth a watch!
Update: Having now seen all 6 episodes, the latter installments ran out of steam and the conclusion was a bit muddled, influencing reduction of the series rating to 6.
A good series in an interesting South African Cape Town setting.
johnfpfallon6 March 2021
A good series in an interesting South African Cape Town setting. Racial stereotypes in general are avoided i.e. not all black people are good and not all white people are bad although the Muslim fundamentalists seem to get a bad rap yet again.
My criticisms are that the pace needs to be slightly picked up. I would also sincerely doubt whether a South African gangster would speak to the South African police in such a threatening manner I find that very difficult to believe especially regarding South African police.
All in all a good series to be recommended; I look forward to finishing it.
Good script but oh, the acting!
Garnham4 December 2020
Good script, good action but the acting was dire. Great twist at the end, in fact several twists throughout. Seems to be left to enable a second series. I hope so because I can forgive the awful acting because the script was so good.
Great interpretation and SA fkavour
stephan-sparrius24 August 2020
Great interpretation of the Deon Meyer genre, and authentic non-US based action drans (ie not trying to be one of the nany many many US clone spy-series).
Great scenery in new locations for tv shows, and good character development.
My only criticism is a suggestion to up the pace slightly, to keep attention.
Look forward to more Deon Meyer work.
It's OK
sidevercontent25 January 2021
Wow! Just Wow
MajorBob1714 June 2020
First saw this series on mnet a few months ago. At first I was sceptical hence I only watched like 20mins and that was it. HBO picked it up so naturally I was intrigued. Damn!! Africa's own blacklist. . Can't wait for more
Good
jordanespinosa-807417 May 2021
It started off ok, but deteriated rapidly.
crumpytv15 December 2020
Warning: Spoilers
The acting was pretty awful, especially within the PBI unit and the terrorist family/cell.
Specifically, Milla who was totally unconvincing and implausible and Dr. David Masutha who was awful.
Janina was unconvincing as the boss and her stunt double in the shootout was laughable.
What was Ed Stoppard doing in this? Was Lucas Becker CIA? If not who was he working for? If he was under cover then why was he driving around in a bright yellow convertible? Whose was the money he was trying to retrieve? Who was he talking to on the phone when he said he would pay it back with interest?
Were we suppose to feel anything but horror at the last scene when the vile Flea walks away after sacrificing her cousin's life for money/diamonds.
And as for pushing drugged rhinos into a container ... really?
The whole thing was riddled with plots holes and inconstancies.
The only thing going for it was the not often seen setting of South Africa.
Great storyline.
tiaanv-969788 June 2020
A couple episodes seem missing
markdolph16 March 2021
Its pacing kills it
TheTruthofItIs9 October 2020
I wanted to like "Trackers" (S01, 5 eps, 1hr, Cinemax) but it's just too slowly paced and its few action scenes just don't pay off. The actors aren't attractive and their characters are dull/boring. And though this was an unusually short season of only 5 eps, I couldn't make it through #2, just couldn't. The story isn't great but it's not bad, but its execution is just so lacking. This is a South African production with subtitling at times for its contorted variant of English. The director of all five eps is an unaccomplished S African tv director, so meh, whatevs.
The actions stuff are pretty great !
nonsensefans21 June 2020
If you just follow one character called Lemmer played by James Gracie, it would probably be it. The rest of the people or stuff you can just ignores or skip..Lemmer goes trough actions most of the times and James Gracie plays the character well enough that makes me wanna watch this show. He somehow resemblance Nathan Drakes or something on his own adventure. I hope this guy get cast as lead for a better film or series in future.
CRACKERS
MadamWarden3 September 2020
A good fun series with a complex fun plot and lots of great locations across across Cape Town which I know extremely well. Some of the characters are excellent but others are really really bad. Rolanda Marais' character is terrible. And unbelievable but I guess we can't blame her. Stoppard is unlikely as American hero, but the rest are pretty good. Really liked Henna. He was terrific as the brooding, dangerous gangster.
An ok series and really a lot better than I expected but still only a 6.
An ok series and really a lot better than I expected but still only a 6.
Good
JonanthanNewOrleans8 July 2020
The plot is ok, but why English mixed with South African?
martin-65329 November 2021
The plot is ok, but when i started watching the serie, it was because Language: English, but that's not the case, yeah much of it is English, but a big part is South African, so there are NO half watch while you do something else. Or you will miss a lot of the plot, they switch so many times the language, starting in English and then jumping to South African, then back to English, and then back to s.... And i have NO clue why, cause every one does speak English, like mentioned, they can start a sentence in English then jump to South African language...
So why why ???
So why why ???
Great show! Worth a watch.
darrel07622 July 2020
If you only want dim viewers...
steveo12213 June 2020
...this is the way to do it. Scenes with people talking to each other only for the purpose of explaining things to the audience is remedial script writing. It is also bad script writing. Excellent thriller set up spoiled by lazy or amateur writing/directing.
Best series for a while
vanalugen9 July 2020
Dreadful
walkercory15 December 2020
This is terrible. It's days were numbered as far as I was concerned when the Police were able to insert a camera into the suspect's home at just the perfect location, obtaining a pin-sharp picture & record perfectly every conversation which the bad guys just happened to conduct directly in front of the camera. Then in ep 2, there was the laughable standoff where our unarmed hero manages to outwit & fend off about 8 diamond smugglers armed with AK47s. Add to this some poor acting and clumsy exposition, and I gave up before ep 2 ended. I assume the high ratings are from people connected to the production.
Great mini series
kaylene-esterhuizen14311 August 2020
I want more S African thriller-dramas like this!
jql_longhurst7 February 2021
Where was Claire Danes? Sure, this lacked the smooth that you get with US peers but this mini series delivered great writing, superb showcasing of S African dynamics, and a credible plot. Casting was very sound, with some breakout performances. When's the next series?!
Another subpar series on Cinemax
mzand-751-5395727 June 2020
For the past few years we have been fortunate to be in a new golden age of Television or "peak TV" where we had a bounty of terrific new content. As with all ages this one has come to an end and a show like "Trackers" is the proof. Set in South Africa with bare bones production values Trackers is a laughable attempt to cash in on the Jack Ryan genre. The acting is uneven ranging from competent to amateurish. The pilot script was boring and mediocre with every cliche in the book, but the biggest sin of this community theater tv show was the directing -- which was a surprise because the director, Jyri Kähönen's credits include the excellent Finnish series Bordertown. Maybe the low budget didn't allow him to correct the most basic mistakes: Like an actor, who is supposed to be walking away from a bad job interview anticipates her cue and stops before she is called back. Skip this dog. There are much better shows out there for you to enjoy.
Better than the sum of its parts
theovosse11 February 2021
As other reviews point out, there are cliches, the plot is not 100% watertight, and the acting is somewhat stiff, but the plot is pretty good, more a tangled web of grudging cooperation and unforeseen consequences than a two crossing straight lines with good and bad guys, and has a decent mix of surprises, red herrings and ordinary life; the underscore is a bit simplistic, but it works. The whole is mainly well paced, and kept me interested until the very end, and that doesn't happen too often.
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