TV Show Review – Bomb Girls

Rating:  3 (out of 5).  Meeting to largely favorable reviews, Reelz Channel’s six-part, Canadian show Bomb Girls stars Oscar-nominated Meg Tilly. A “Rosie the Riveter” style soap opera, Bomb Girls’ WWII-era factory milieu lays the scene for stories that grapple with discrimination, sex, and even disfigurement. Some critics found the show too simple or cartoonish, but overall, Bomb Girls seems to strike a chord as a kind of feminist answer to Mad Men.

Impressed with the story and characters, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette concluded that Bomb Girls is a “well-plotted, smartly written soap that doesn’t shy away from, shocking, even gruesome, plot turns in showing the dangers of working in a bomb-making factory.”

As Bomb Girls’ second season was renewed in Canada, The New York Times hoped for “less hokum this time around,” observing that the show’s “strained ’40s-speak starts to recede in the third episode … and … what looked like community theater acting in the pilot suddenly seems more natural.”

The Huffington Post immediately commented on the show’s striking look, saying Bomb Girls “has the look and feel of a ‘Mad Men’ – ‘Pan Am’ hybrid … the producers took special care to capture the war vibe of the ’40s, and the intricate details will be impossible to miss.”

“Bombs away” declared Variety, describing the show as “indifferently acted, tritely plotted and kind of chintzy looking.”

While the Minneapolis Star-Tribune said it was “nice” to see Meg Tilly “re-emerge,” it questioned the prudence of debuting “something called ‘Bomb Girls’ on 9/11.”

Described as a “hidden gem” by the New York Daily News, Bomb Girls “tackles the larger, thornier issues of the time, like the mistrust of immigrants, the resentment of blacks and … the hurdles women had to clear to be taken seriously, or even to be heard.”

The Hollywood Reporter said “listen for the boom.”

TV Guide was excited about a show with “dynamic characters, action, gore, love and plenty of mysteries that need to be figured out.”

Pegging Bomb Girls “thoughtful escapism,” MSN noted its “provocative … evocation of the personal toll war takes … and … its frank depiction of sex.”

According to Real Style Network, the show “does a great job of pulling you in, and when it ends you can’t wait for the next episode.”