Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Soso Review: Enemy at the Door


The British government decided the Channel islands were of no strategic value so when Germany decided to occupy them during the Second World War, no one lifted a finger to defend the land. These two miniseries depict the life of the Britain inhabitants that decided to remain in their homes.

Mostly we see the story of a doctor and his closest friends try and carry on under mainly German rule. Yes they have their own government, but it's highly ineffectual. They show a minor amount of resistance with painting V over the occupiers signs and printing news from the BBC in an underground newspaper.

While quite an interesting topic, I found the series generally dreary and depressing. I do understand that generally was the point, to show such an occupation realistically, but I think they could have done it with fewer stories.

They also showed the Germans as half sympathetic. I'm not sure it worked showing basically all the Brits being "good" and the German's only being half bad. We either needed less sympathy for the occupiers or more "bad" contrast within the native population. It felt lopsided.

Even though I do think most of you wont care for this, I'm glad I saw it. I like learning new bits of history. Find yourself curious about a topic not often covered in school? Take a look. Bandon has both series.

IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0122818/

Buy the series from Amazon: Enemy at the Door Set 1
Enemy at the Door - Series 2

No comments: