I agree with many comments about unnecessary thread with extramarital affairs and sex life, but there is a skip forward control for that. Some reviewers are very harsh about historical omissions and I see their point. Despite of a disclaimer of fictionalized and composited aspects of the story, when producers use a significant amount of real footage, they consequently set the historical accuracy bar pretty high. But this is not a documentary, so they can focus only on some aspects of the story and downplay the others. I think they succeeded in portraying destructive intra government agency rivalry and petty office politics, which was one of the main contributing factors in 9/11 failure. Acting and storyline are good, worth watching, especially considering preponderance of crap being produced these days.

The series is packed with action, suspense, and violence. It is centered on trying to understand 9/11 based on what was revealed by the various auditions and investigations afterward. But the film is very brutal as for the reality of the incompetence of both CIA and FBI, but particularly CIA, in dealing with Al Qaida and Muslim extremism and terrorism. The CIA knew about the attack, knew that some Al Qaida operatives were on US soil some fifteen months before the attack and taking flying lessons in many training centers, and this very CIA did not inform the FBI who could not intervene and arrest the said Al Qaida operatives. The series is brutal in its showing how the rivalry between these two agencies led to criminal attitudes that directly enabled 9/11 to be successful. The CIA, including in the post-attack investigation, kept their lies and stuck to a false version of what they had done, covering their back more than trying to bring the truth out. It is true the truth is that they were absolutely criminal and no excuse or penitence will erase that guilt. At the same time, the FBI was often brutal and in no way diplomatic or conciliatory. They love duress and use it all the time, including with top security personnel in top-secret meetings. That's always the result of some individuals who at times have been in the job too long.At the same time the series does not show as much and as well as necessary the monstrous imperialism to which the Islamic world is submitted, and as for that nothing has changed since 2001, far from it. It thus only shows the fanaticism and the extremism of the Muslims but not the exploitation, condescendence, and hatred it has to suffer from the West and in this case from the USA. Then the anger of these Muslims is not explained and it will continue recurring. All together this series sounds too often like Chopin's little dog running after its own tail. The main question though has to do with why Americans need today to go back to this episode of their history? It is obvious this episode was the last straw that broke the camel's back and, at times based on fake information and lies, the USA started sending troops everywhere in the Middle East: Afghanistan, then Iraq, then Syria, then Yemen, and some caress the idea of sending some in Iran and maybe Pakistan too. These wars have been going on for nearly twenty years, more than twenty years if we consider the first Gulf War. And it is still going on and there is no sign of an end. Recently the Americans have espoused and expressed the idea that they have to get rid of some leaders and regimes here and there. It is obvious that they had a far more far-reaching arm in the 1950s and 1960s when they got rid of Mosaddegh in Iran, Lumumba in Congo and so many others. Going back to these methods will not make the USA great again but it will nurture the hatred against the USA and the West for many decades to come. The series is interesting but at the same time, it does not explore the real problem of imperialistic policies imposed onto this region of the world by essentially one country with at times the opposition and at times the timid support of some allies. There is a lot to do in the future and learn for example that only Arabs speak Arabic from birth and that the majority of the people concerned in the Middle East speak Indo-European languages: Kurdish and Farsi for two simple examples.Dr. Jacques COULARDEAU

I found the series overall to be done well and answered many questions I've had since 9/11, however there are so many characters it is difficult to remember who everyone is. I had to keep stopping and going to cast list (if I recognized the actor) to see who he was and looked up several of the people whose lives they were playing. That made it difficult to see the underlying idea of the competition between the FBI and CIA being the cause of the failure of both because I couldn't remember who was FBI and who was CIA and who was White House, etc. Instead of wasting time with characters' personal lives, I wish they had spent more time making sure we knew who was who.

I had to watch the whole series twice, mainly to identify the "good" and "bad" players. It certainly doesn't speak well of the CIA. Amazing performances, by all players, but Jeff Daniels and Tahar Rahim were outstanding. Curious about Ali Soufan, I watched several interviews with him, and Tariq nailed his accent/speech totally. We all know how it ended, but this series adds to the human element, the frustration and ultimate sadness.