The Narrow Road to the Deep North

One of the hardest things I watched yet one of the best things I watched.

Do yourself a favour and press play. Photography is just alluring, poetic and yet so descriptive that you just can't look away. Storytelling is compelling and keeps you constantly engaged, its tragedy and mourning, and romance, and longing and suffering and friendship and companionship. All together, all at once.

Despite being a short series, you get to know every character in such a way that it becomes personal, you suffer with them, you laugh with them and you miss them when they are gone.

It's a shot straight to the heart but oh such a lovely one.

I'm not up to scratch on the history of the POW during WW2, but this programme has made me look into it. The actors/actresses are amazing and deliver their characters perfectly. Some of the true stories I have read on the internet are unbelievably horrific, and these are reflected in the programme.

Parts of the programme made me feel sick to my stomach during the torture scenes, and I like to think I am pretty desensitised to TV brutality (long time horror watcher).

If you come away from watching this series without feeling affected in some way, maybe you are a robot, because the emotions it evokes are so strong.

In response of some critics about... The cinematography is one of the best I've ever seen. Mist, darkness, murkiness... it feels like material heaviness... rain, mud, humidity... It's so rare to 'feel' the visual in contemporay cinema... It is the meaing of the supersensible, synaesthetic overtones that Ejzenstejn spoke of, perfectly reproduced with digital tools. As for the plot: the first two episodes are absolutely solid and convincing. Kurzel proves to be one of the most prepared directors, in the name of a certain incandescent naturalism that borders on material evocation, as already underlined. TV at its best.

Yes, this series suffered from a lack of lighting and nonlinear storyline, but for me these served to exentuate the enderlying tones of this dark story.

To those seeking entertainment, I cannot recommend this series. Knowing that it's grounded in actual events it was a painful experience to watch this pretty much from beginning to end. The cruelty, the suffering. No attempts were made here to sugar coat brutal realities or wrap them up nicely with a classic hollywood happy ending. But it is precisely this that made it so compelling and important tp watch.

I also appreciated that the main characters weren't wholly good or bad, but complex - as often is the case in life.

Bottomline: not for the fainthearted, and have a box of tissue nearby.

I agree with comments by other reviewers about the dark murky lighting on parts of the series. I know the intent is to create atmosphere but possibly taken too far. The three timelines were also a bit confusing especially as the two main female characters resembled each other in the early episodes. However, those are small quibbles. This is one of the better series I have seen. A compelling story which stays with you for a long time. The acting was superb. There are scenes which are difficult to watch because they are brutal. Not for the squeamish. An important time in history which poses questions relevant today.