Trackers (2019) User Reviews

Another great short series from Cinemax

[kfss264 · 8/10 · 5 July 2020]

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.

Well written by todays standards

[jens-257 · 8/10 · 2 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

[pietclausen · 6/10 · 20 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.

A good series in an interesting South African Cape Town setting.

[johnfpfallon · 7/10 · 6 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!

[Garnham · 6/10 · 4 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-sparrius · 9/10 · 24 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

[sidevercontent · 6/10 · 25 January 2021]

The show has enough redeeming qualities to keep you engaged but still has some week moments

Wow! Just Wow

[MajorBob17 · 9/10 · 14 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-80741 · 7/10 · 7 May 2021]

The first episode is borning but after in the next episodes start to be interesting and as each episode past gets better.

It started off ok, but deteriated rapidly.

[crumpytv · 3/10 · 15 December 2020]

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-96978 · 9/10 · 8 June 2020]

Enjoyed the series. Suspenseful, unexpected turns in the storyline. Highly recommended

A couple episodes seem missing

[markdolph · 7/10 · 16 March 2021]

Hopefully there're be a second season. Things got a little rushed in the end and a couple of the story lines were incomplete.

Its pacing kills it

[TheTruthofItIs · 3/10 · 9 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 !

[nonsensefans · 7/10 · 21 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

[MadamWarden · 6/10 · 3 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.

Good

[JonanthanNewOrleans · 8/10 · 8 July 2020]

I was quite surprised, good and entertaining thriller drama crime type of serie in the very original and unusual setting of South Africa.

8/10

The plot is ok, but why English mixed with South African?

[martin-653 · 6/10 · 29 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 ???

Great show! Worth a watch.

[darrel076 · 9/10 · 22 July 2020]

This is a well written series with great actors and a decent story. In only 6 episodes you actually come to like a few of the characters quite a bit. Give it a shot, you'll be glad ya did.

If you only want dim viewers...

[steveo122 · 4/10 · 13 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

[vanalugen · 10/10 · 9 July 2020]

I really enjoy this series. The acting is good and the plot as well. It's a big plus that the setting is in South Africa and not USA.

Dreadful

[walkercory · 1/10 · 15 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-esterhuizen143 · 10/10 · 11 August 2020]

Great story line and great mini series. We want more

I want more S African thriller-dramas like this!

[jql_longhurst · 10/10 · 7 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-751-539572 · 2/10 · 7 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

[theovosse · 8/10 · 11 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.