This series is very slow moving, ends less than half way through the war, has a soap opera feel to it, but it is also well written and I wonder if it was based around published war time letters and journals. The show highlights nuances which are often abandoned in war dramas and captures wel the tell tale sign of ALL totalitarian regimes be them fascist or communist, giant stiffling mind numbing bureaucracies to deal with where you do everything they tell you to do to get what you ask for and in the end, it doesn't come.
I never considered there was much disparity between the German army and the SS. In a strange way, virtually everyone is humanized instead of appearing as good guy versus bad guy caricatures. One German soldier befriends a mother and her son likely missing his own family he left behind, another falls in love with an islander and seeks to marry her despite it being illegal. Another German spent most of his adult life in London but returned to Germany to tend to his ailing parents just before the war and was subsequently drafted into their service. Indeed, Even the sadistic head of the SS, played unforgettably by Simon Cadell (it is hard to imagine him in anything else after this but I want to see him in other things just to get this role out of my head) includes an episode where he is confronted with seeing his ex lover becoming a prostitute. That is not to imply this series shows sympathy for his character or the Germans frankly. The SS are portrayed exactly as they were, racist sociopaths at best who think all degrees of brutality are justified to achieve their goals. They murder an African maid, mercilessly beat a boy for painting Vs, beat an escape prisoner to death. There is nothing sympathetic there. Often the conflict in the story is between the regular German army and the head of the SS who is constantly seeking extremist measures of punishment for virtually everything assuming all infractions are a direct assault against them and Hitler.
Probably the most interesting aspect of the show is how well mental illness is documented from both sides. Another reason I feel this show was inspired by letters and journals. I've read a few collections that have been archived. You won't find many that blindly spout party politics when theor human nature prevails in the end.
Alfred Burke and Bernard Horsfall share the lead roles playing characters seeking a common ground for what is best for the islanders. The task becomes more and more difficult toward the end of the short series as events occur more and more without their knowledge. The show documents some historical events like the start of occupation, the building of he labor camps, forced deportations, massive food shortages etc and that makes it a shame that the series didn't carry on to document further events like what happened when the island's supply chain was severed. One can assume how such things carried on but if it moved quicker, maybe they might have covered the end of the war sooner.
I never considered there was much disparity between the German army and the SS. In a strange way, virtually everyone is humanized instead of appearing as good guy versus bad guy caricatures. One German soldier befriends a mother and her son likely missing his own family he left behind, another falls in love with an islander and seeks to marry her despite it being illegal. Another German spent most of his adult life in London but returned to Germany to tend to his ailing parents just before the war and was subsequently drafted into their service. Indeed, Even the sadistic head of the SS, played unforgettably by Simon Cadell (it is hard to imagine him in anything else after this but I want to see him in other things just to get this role out of my head) includes an episode where he is confronted with seeing his ex lover becoming a prostitute. That is not to imply this series shows sympathy for his character or the Germans frankly. The SS are portrayed exactly as they were, racist sociopaths at best who think all degrees of brutality are justified to achieve their goals. They murder an African maid, mercilessly beat a boy for painting Vs, beat an escape prisoner to death. There is nothing sympathetic there. Often the conflict in the story is between the regular German army and the head of the SS who is constantly seeking extremist measures of punishment for virtually everything assuming all infractions are a direct assault against them and Hitler.
Probably the most interesting aspect of the show is how well mental illness is documented from both sides. Another reason I feel this show was inspired by letters and journals. I've read a few collections that have been archived. You won't find many that blindly spout party politics when theor human nature prevails in the end.
Alfred Burke and Bernard Horsfall share the lead roles playing characters seeking a common ground for what is best for the islanders. The task becomes more and more difficult toward the end of the short series as events occur more and more without their knowledge. The show documents some historical events like the start of occupation, the building of he labor camps, forced deportations, massive food shortages etc and that makes it a shame that the series didn't carry on to document further events like what happened when the island's supply chain was severed. One can assume how such things carried on but if it moved quicker, maybe they might have covered the end of the war sooner.