User Reviews

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

...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.

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?!

"Trackers" - Cinemax (+Germany+South Africa) - 2020 TV show is disjointed trashy spy Series with boring and mediocre script that hit every cliche in the book, surface-level dialogue and with some quite bad acting (Rolanda Marais, Sandi Schultz even James Gracie) directed by Finish director Jyri Kahonen. Suspense - for a spy show - is underwhelming with basic police-work scenes that don't generate much tension. Ultimately, it has that generic feel of a TV series with its familiar mix of cops, criminal and terrorists - who BTW come off as broad stereotypes complete with questionable-looking fake beards. Logic wise, what intelligence agency will look for analyst via adv. and then hire her/him without background checking, not to mention including such a rookie in international spy team from day one of her job?? At the same time, in just several episodes or whole season 1, there are too many sub-plots/stories and characters, but not enough time to give them all the proper storytelling space they need. Everything feels rushed and flat, except some stunning South Africa scenery. At the end, at the moment there are much better shows out there for you to enjoy, so you can conformable skip this one.

Rating: 5-/4+

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.

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.

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.

Great story line and great mini series. We want more

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.

If you are someone who has exhausted all the classics and struggling to find quality thrillers, then this one is for you.

The closest comparison is Homeland.

The South Africa setting further adds to the charm.

The acting, characterization, pacing, action, and writing, everything fits well. Even so, expectations should not be too high, it is not a documentary. It is gripping and binge worthy.

The dark lighting adds to the eerie. The director of photography needs a special mention. Good plots involve dovetailing of subplots, the ending was perfect. Even good stories get that wrong.

There is a lack of X-factor though.

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.

First time I watched a South African TV serie and I liked it very much. Thrilling till the end. Dark and realistic, no Hollywood heroe stuff. Great acting, very nice cinematography and appreciated very much the soundtrack from Brendan Jury.

Hope to see a new season.

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.

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

All I can say is that I want more. This could roll on and be very popular.