Let me start off saying that they've done a good job reviving the Thunderbirds series. Like many others I started off skeptic, especially because of the CGI. But let me tell you, it looks great. Apart from certain movements from the characters (the puppets from the originals moved awkwardly as well, so perhaps it's intentional) , they've done an amazing job.The cinematography looks great.Certain (re)design choices look good and are well thought out. They give a realistic feel to the world. Such as the ships and the suits. However, other designs were left out, such as the caps for the Thunderbirds and Parker and the music (much of the music is not on par with the original). It would've been a nice nostalgic nod.The focus on the different characters is more balanced (e.g. Thunderbird 5 has a much bigger role). And the female cast has a bigger role to play as well. Plus, Brains is now Asian (so hurray for diversity I guess ;) )My biggest criticism concerns the pacing. Perhaps kids these days like hyperactive TV and/or movies, but what I loved about the original Thunderbirds was its rather slow pacing and attention to (single) details. By pacing things up, scenes lose their tension and sense of urgency. Especially with the bombastic music playing in the background (the original Thunderbirds had lots of silent moments). They want to shove as many action as possible into a single episode. I think today's kids would be just as appreciative of slower pacing as we were back in the day (but perhaps this is nostalgia speaking)

Then this is what you would experience! Don't get me wrong. It isn't awful. In fact, it is way better than I would have expected. The character, Thunderbird, Tracy Island designs are all decent iterations of the originals and the rest of the world feels to fit quite nicely too.Where it falls down quite alarmingly is in the pacing. There seems to be a belief among the purveyors of children's programming that faster is better. It isn't. Here, the show whizzes by so fast that you don't have time to fully appreciate the effort that went into it. Rescues are accomplished a little too quickly. Discussion of what to do and how to proceed is rushed. Everything moves too quickly to properly enjoy it.Just because psychologists/psychiatrists would have us believe that every child suffers from ADD/ADHD does not make it true.Additionally, or perhaps because of, the pacing, there are some scenic jumps that cut out moments during the rescues. Instead, there is a jump due to editing constraints on running time. It is like they are trying to cram too much into too short a timeframe.There is a decent kid's show here, based on the old classic, but it suffers badly at the hands of people who "know what kids want". It's almost as if they decided the content itself was irrelevant and focused instead on shiny action that, ultimately, feels hollow and unrewarding.You might think I'm being a little harsh, but just ask yourself this question."What movie/TV series remake have I watched recently that is better than the original?" I have a feeling that your list will be a very short one.SUMMARY: Too fast, too loud. Designed and made by people who think all kids are Methamphetamine freaks who won't sit still for more than a minute. Ulrimately a bit of a failure.

I'm such a hard marker I'm annoying and I just gave this a 10. I actually cannot see any valid reason to give it less. Actually, maybe Grandma should bring it down a couple of points, but I'll stick to a 10 even with her. I grew up on the original (yes I'm that old) and was totally hooked as a kid. I'm still hooked (on the original) and force the re-runs on every child in the family as an important part of their basic education. The movie was a nice idea but the less said about that the better. *Because* of the movie, I had low expectations of this latest. Watched the first episode ... after 5 mins I was feeling disappointed. Modern language, no strings attached, blah blah. By 15 mins I was thinking "Damn if I don't think I might like this." By the end of the second episode it's all over ... I'm sold. This series is outstanding and I can't wait for each new ep. Sure the language is 'modernised' .. remember that they have to be all things to all people with this series; children of today won't sit through the dialogue that accompanied the original version, delivered by cgi characters. The balance they've achieved is stunning. The 'remake' eps (e.g. Fireflash) are just as exciting, maybe more so, as the originals. And as much as I might try to get kids to love the originals as much as I do, they .... don't. Times have changed. The kids do love this new series; they love the scripting, they love the action, they love the speed at which it moves, they love the fact that they don't really understand a lot of what just happened. They just love it. And so do I.

This comment is not meant to be a racial slur on the person who plays the voice of brains but I grew up watching the original series just like Richard Taylor from Weta workshops who said he was going to get as close as possible to the original, well the original Brains didn't have an Indian accent and he had a stutter (the stutter was even reproduced in the movie version played by Anthony Edwards)Why oh why did they have to get rid of the name Tin Tin, I realize that was just an alternative name and her real name was Tanusha "kayo" Kyrano but Tin Tin was what she was always called even by her parents.Lastly where is The father Jeff Tracey ?? Have they retired him because John is no longer in school ?I feel these are critical errors for die hard fans like myself. Richard Taylor also said that he had full approval from the creators to do this series in cgi format, he also stated that he wanted it done in cgi because it would make the characters be able to do things like abseiling down a cliff which was hard to recreate in the puppet version. Maybe I just need to get with the times, but when you promise to get it as close to the original as possible then I feel you should honor that promise.Episode 4 has just played in New Zealand and to be honest I'm forcing myself to watch it in the hope I'll start to enjoy it but so far that's not happening.