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Reviews (20)
Oct 22, 2017
A Tale of Collaboration, Resistance, and Everything in Between
Having watched all 65 episodes (seven seasons), I'm overwhelmed by how the scriptwriters not only confronted French viewers with all the gray areas involving their parents or grandparents' collaboration with the Nazis during the time of the Vichy government but also created such complex characters that we sometimes find ourselves booing and hissing the alleged "good guys" and cheering some characters who have behaved in an abominable fashion. But then, the "good guys" can turn out to be more evil than we supposed, and some "bad guys" can readily accept responsibility for all their actions, no matter how monstrous. Some of the most corrupt characters are also the most pragmatic survivors.
Those who stick with the series until the end had better get their hankies ready for the final, completely heart-wrenching two episodes.
The actors are uniformly exceptional in this ensemble cast of hundreds. Most of all, I will never forget Nicolas Gob as Jean Marchetti, a French cop who obeys every command involving the rounding up of Jews or Communists for execution and deportation until he falls for a Jewish woman, Rita (Axel Maricq). But by then, he has acquired the nickname, "Butcher of Villeneuve."
Then there are Robin Renucci and Audrey Fleurot as Dr. Daniel and Hortense Larcher. Dr. Larcher finds himself unwillingly thrust into the position of town mayor whose scruples are comprised one by one until he finds himself compiling death lists with another official, Servier (Cyril Couton), to quench the Nazi thirst for blood in retaliation for Resistance violence done to them, an action that will later have dire repercussions for both men. As for Hortense Larcher, she finds herself attracted to a Nazi leader, Heinrich Muller (Richard Sammel) and is ready to forgive his every sadistic cruelty.
Then there's Lucienne (Marie Kremer), a schoolteacher who falls for a handsome German soldier, Kurt (Samuel Theis) but when he's about to be transferred to the Russian front and she finds herself pregnant, she agrees to marry the the headmaster, Bériot (François Loriquet), who is willing to adopt her child as his own.
Finally, there are the major Resistance fighters: Larcher's brother, Marcel (Fabrizio Rongione) and his mistress, Suzanne (Constance Dollé); and Marie (Nade Dieu), a farmer's wife, who is involved with the married owner of a sawmill, Raymond Schwartz (Thierry Godard), who initially is apolitical and gladly sells his product to the Nazis, but ultimately joins the Resistance. Then there's the young Resistance fighter Antoine (Martin Loizillon), who shamefully is forced to leave four buddies behind to be slaughtered by Nazi troops. Finally, there is Schwartz's wife, Jeannine (Emmanuelle Bach) who is determined to survive and prosper, no matter who rules the country.
For me, this is the finest, most engrossing series I've seen since the Spanish "Gran Hotel."
Sep 27, 2011
Irish style black comedy
This Irish black comedy's major strength is the casting of Andrew Scott as Tommy, a slacker whose girlfriend, a genuine spawn of Satan, dies under mysterious circumstances. (How she lived as long as she had without someone killing her is yet another mystery.) Believing himself somehow responsible, Tommy buries the body in a spot coincidentally occupied by yet another murder victim, and things rapidly go from bad to worse, with unexpected twists and turns along the way. Although the movie seems to detour off-course toward the end, it still manages to be entertaining and unpredictable along the way.
Mar 15, 2022
Good show, POOR Disc quality.
1 of 1 found this helpful I've only been watching Season 1. My major problem is not with the storyline or the actors but with the poor disc quality. Each of the four discs are only single layer 4.7 GB's when they should be double-layer 8.5 GB's. (Yes, I checked this out.) Thus, the viewing quality is inferior since nearly 3 HOURS (4 episodes) is squeezed onto EACH disc. Frankly, quality-wise I'd be a lot better off by having downloaded pirated versions than having squandered over 50 bucks on this set. (Or perhaps, this set itself is pirated from better quality DVD's)