Deutschland 83

This show is just awesome! They capture the feel of the 80's in a great way. I was not in East or West Germany but the older guys I worked with were and this show is as described. A people on the edge....

I really like the German actors and actresses, but especially the younger ones. The star, Jonas Nay, is awesome. A sense of innocence, youth, determination, and bravery even though he is the EG spy. It is great! Nikola Kastner is really great too. She conveys my memory of an 80's woman, from wherever so well.

The intrigue is great. Reminiscent for me of The Americans...kind of places a stress on you to watch as you get involved with the characters.

I think the only drawback for some viewers would be the subtitles. I don't mind at all.

You know, I want to know the model of that EG car that the mother drives!

I may be biased as reading, movies, and artifacts from the cold war era are a hobby of mine.

They really place you in it.....a good feel for what happened I think.

Like most fiction, there are several logical, factual and dramatic flaws but that does not detract in any significant way from this series.

If you like history, are interested in Germany or specifically Germany in the 80s and most of all, if you need your TV drama to be smart and complex, you will love this series.

Yes it is extremely unlikely that a border guard with a fake identity would be accepted as an assistant to a West German general, but the characters and dramatic themes are extremely compelling. The attention to detail in terms of East v West Germany and early 80s vibe are outstanding.

I only wish that a "season" was more than a mere 8 episodes!

Refreshing to watch the beginning of this series on Sundance Channel, a foreign language entry that catches a moment in recent German history without the usual quintessential archetypes and funny accents of any random American production involving Germans. The tables are turned in fact because it is the American characters speaking German who seem a bit less than convincing. English subtitles are no major distraction, because the script is terse and direct.

As in most German cinema, nothing is left to the imagination. If a character is destined to be a hero or a saint (or something in between) that element is telegraphed in advance by the director's emphasis on a frown, an arched eyebrow, a look of confusion, or a surreptitious stage movement. We know where the series is going by the end of the first episode, yet we identify with the young man at the center of the story irrespective of his opening attitude. There is none of the ambivalence or inchoate suspense found in one of John Le Carré's filmed spy novels.

I am looking forward immensely to viewing the remainder of the series in spite of not believing, really, that many of the easy coincidences, arch villains, clandestine meetings in the woods, and other stereotypical story devices could have actually happened.

It is exaggerated, it is pretty dramatic. But thats what we usually expect today. On the other hand it were pretty dramatic times, the cold war was no fun at all even if we might think so today. This is what happens if you do not communicate.

For me personally it's one of the best German TV shows of the last decades - speaking as a German. Our movies and TV shows are usually totally crap (especially today I would say). American readers might think that's a sad fact that is also true for American productions, but believe me, it's not the same. But that's a different topic.

The series has its weaknesses, sometimes its pretty much a cliché but don't forget it's a comprehension of these times, it's not a documentary, it's a drama series. And there were in fact a lot of stubborn and blind people in high-rank positions, who even thought they were „smarter" than anyone else.

I've been born in West Germany. 1983 I was just 7/8 years old and I do remember that my father (a teacher) was somehow upset at this time. I didn't understand the whole stuff, the TV was sometimes full of it, but this made me grow up with the idea that the whole world is pretty close to destroy itself in an instant. Strange times - I hadn't really a clue what was happening and was watching and doing a lot of different stuff. Geez, I was a kid, kids are always optimistic although I did have one or another nightmare of „some big war". The American culture had a deep and massive influence on Western Germany at this time, I do remember this quite well and it's not so obvious in this show but it's still noticeable. Like the GDR was under massive influence of the soviet union. Till today it's burned into my brain, indelibly. (Keep this is mind if you're an American and talk to Germans today - this whole cold war thing has pretty much messed up everything in the aftermath - till today.)

But I'm loosing my point. For me the series captures the feeling in Germany at this time pretty well, the characters are spot on, the actors do an awesome job, they really feel „80s style", only the budget limit obviously stopped it from being better overall. But for this it's pretty impressive and for German standards pretty brave. It could have a bit more teeth but not to much since it's fairly trying to find a balance without punching into faces, it gives both sides a fair share of the story. We are smarter today - aren't we?

Kudos to the producers, the writer, the director and the actors. Great job, it's a remarkable show I really wish it would go on and become even better. It were pretty difficult times but I believe Germany today is in an even more delicate situation and this story is not over yet. Unfortunately.

I was in that business around that same time, in West Germany. The details in this production are amazing, right down to two Trabis on the same street in the East, and no Mercedes in the Stasi parking garage. I love the fact that Americans speak with a slight American accent, and use English words -- though not necessarily the ones a German would use. This takes me back, to the uniforms, buildings, concerns of a different time. One I sincerely hope will disappear forever.

The problems of sending an East German to the West reflect the problems we had sending a Westerner east. The 1,001 ways to be tripped up brings back memories of complex plans that felt good, but you knew had huge holes in them no one had noticed. The risk to the actual agent cannot be downplayed, and this series (after only seeing #1) seem to lock in tight on that vital element of spy games.