Les Secrets de Noël

And I like dark and slow. Very good actors. Lots of yanking back and forth in timeline, which mostly made sense but you can forget who is who. Alma's was a story I wish we'd heard more about. I'd give it 7.5, and hope others will try it. A 'Netflix original' so watch it there.

This is a very well directed mini series technically speaking. The scenes are very smooth, the location is nice, the fashbacks etc - everything is very well managed. However, I cant be saying the same thing for the script. It is just a loosy version of American TV movies. Actually, instead of watching this one, go and watch Terms of Endearment if you are into mother daughter relationships. It has great international stars at least and great acting that empowers you. If you lived in Germany and you are exposed to the German language and the German culture, you will also feel like me. This mini - series for me reflects the German attitude towards popular arts. It tries, it achieves with a degree of confidence but it does not deliver. You turn your eyes off saying "na ja". Somehow on the creative spectrum Germans are very origional think of Klaus Kinski, Wim Wenders etc. But when they will do something that is popular, they beat the creativity for the sake of technicality. My verdict - this series has no soul, no character. There is a script, directing and acting. All very technical, all risk averse. Leading everything to be quite average.

Nice photography and color pallete nice direction very cold and tragic humor.

No good ideas, normal to good performances.

Bit boring too. I cant see 2nd episode.

This series touched my heart. The cinematography was marvelous and I was never confused about what was going on, even with the time jumps. Highly recommend this gem!

Since it's a German series, my expectations were very low. Being presented all the BS on the public channels. So I have to admit that I was pleasantly surprised after having watched that mini-series. Watching only US/UK/AUS-shows for the last 10+ years this one could keep up with some of them.

The scenery is beautiful. I was born and raised in the northern part of Germany so the coast was always close to me. Maybe that fact has biased my opinion. Nontheless, Christiane Paul and Corinna Harfouch do their jobs very well when it comes to acting.

The plot, however, lacks here and there some refinement. Throwing slang and being "super loose" in a family conversation doesn't make up for a weak content.

Is it believable, somehow yes, and somehow no.

It's overall a good series where you find yourself saying "na ja" (engl.: "Oh, well..." with a condescending undertone) quite a lot, so I have to back up that one previous review.

If you have time for 3x 30-40min and do not want to think a lot and being well entertained, just give it a shot. You won't have the feeling that you wasted your time.