JDorama Review: Five

Title: Five (also known as Five Spies)
Broadcast date: 4/19/97 - 6/28/97
Number of episodes: 11
Genre: Spy
Cast: Tomosaka Rie, Suzuki Sarina, Shinohara Tomoe, Endo Kumiko, Chinen Rina, Karato Ryo
Plot: Five teenage female prisoners break out of prison and become spies for the man who helped them escape.
What is good: Some of the acting wasn't terrible.
What is bad: Everything else. The writing was horrible, the sets looked like someone put them together in their free time and the camera work is jerky at best. Even the opening sequence is difficult to sit through.
Letter rating: F

Overall: There was definitely some potential here. I went into this thinking maybe it was like some Japanese A-Team or something. Far from it. There were a few bright spots with some of the actresses. This was Fukada Kyoko's first series and while she has a very small part, her acting is still much better than some of the main actresses. Tomosaka Rie wasn't too bad either. However, Shinohara Tomoe was just unbearable to watch. The rest of them pretty much blended together to form some rather bland group of girls that I had to force myself to try to remember who was who. This is one of the few series I've watched that I tell people to stay far, far away.