Review of Firestorm: 72 Hours in Oakland

It took me ages to watch this film which I expected to be worse than what it really was. The introduction of the primary characters was not well scripted at all. It was rather embarrassing. Two-time Oscar Nominee Jill Clayburgh does give a good performance considering the script she had to work with which was not that great. Why she was in a wheelchair wasn't revealed until the end of the film. The three family stories were interwoven clumsily and their actions of evacuating their homes didn't seem all too realistic. Still, after I got engrossed in the scenes of the real fire scenes, I came to like the film. LaVar Burton provided a good performance along with Jill Clayburgh's. I don't think it was as bad as some reviewers have written despite inaccuracies. I am giving it six stars because of the footage of the real fire and for the performances of Jill Clayburgh and LaVar Burton. I've seen far worse TV films than this one.