The Same Sky

I was actually quite enjoying it and was looking forward to see how it ended and I realized when there was about 20 minutes left of the last episode that there was no possible way the story could be wrapped up that quickly. I then assumed there must be a second season, but lo and behold, there is no second season and from what I could find out there won't be one. This isn't the first time this has happened watching a series and I can't believe I haven't learned from previous mistakes. If you want to see what life was like in East Germany during the Cold War (I can't even attest to how accurate it is) and a bit of suspense here and there I would recommend watching. If it drives you crazy to be left with all the story plot lines hanging and knowing you will never find out, then don't bother. I'm annoyed I invested almost 6 hours to be left hanging permanently.

Excellent reconstruction of 1970s Berlin. They must have had an immense budget for vintage cars.

Only three weaknesses:

First, the American / English characters. There are several of these. Unfortunately, they are German actors putting on very poor American accents - which is distracting and often completely incomprehensible (there are no subtitles to help). Sadly, when you can understand what these characters are saying, you realise that the English dialogue has been scripted by someone whose level of English high-school exchange at best.

Second, it is not labelled "season one". That may gives the impression that this is a complete show - but when you get to the end of the last episode, it becomes clear that this was intended to be only the first season of several. But it didn't get renewed. So don't expect any closure at all, on any of the stories.

Living in the states as a German immigrant I am always excited to find intriguing mini series like "Generation War" on platforms like Netflix. This one started of extremely promising with wonderful cinematography, great costumes, interesting characters and great acting performances. Needless to say that Tom Schilling's talent adds to any production. When I watched the last episode everything began to shatter for me. None of the character's story lines were finished, no conclusions given. If this was a continuing TV Show I could deal with this a whole lot better but so far a second season has not been confirmed. The ratings on German television were rather mediocre so I doubt we will get the answers the viewers and the show deserved.

This decade, Germany has produced dozens of good films and series about life and habits during Cold War around FRG/GDR/West-Berlin, with versatile and intertwined plots, good character actors and apt understanding of environment and way of life. Der gleiche Himmel is another good brick in this wall, where focus is not entirely on one family, enabling to provide a broader picture of repressve, yet tragicomic life in socialist parts of Germany. The events seem realistic, perhaps the last episode rounded them up a bit hastily and "by halves" - apparently according to the filmmakers´vision. As mentioned, the cast is good as well, but here, I would like to spotlight the Swedish actress Sofia Helin as Lauren; for comparison, just watch here in "The Bridge" (Scandinavian version) and you will find out how talented and varied she is! Recommended to all those interested in German lifestyle prior to unification.

I just watched the series on netflix (until episode 4) and I am really hooked by the series. Essentially the main story is how much the former German Democratic Republic (communist East Germany) invested time, resources and talent to keep their crumbling regime alive. In order to silence any opposition, they employ this network of informants, whose main job is to accuse someone of being a subversive (even jokes about their leader was a crime), and they would arrest and probably torture any person caught trying to emigrate.

Despite so much oppression, life goes on, and we can see the contradictions of a communist life, where everyone is supposed to be from the same class, but families are ambitious, materialistic and competitive just like their compatriots in capitalist West Germany. There is a mother who's watching her daughter's life being ruined by the regime (they are giving her hormones and steroids to enhance her swimming performance), but she hopes that that sacrifice will Be worth if they get a larger apartment as a reward for her daughter success in sports.

My main criticism is that we have a few American and British characters, but they don't behave like either American or British and they speak German with their own children (normally you speak at home your mother tongue), besides anglos are notorious for being monolingual. Their flawless German is just not plausible.

The secret police from East Germany creates this ruthless program of strategic seduction, where agents infiltrate West Germany, and have manipulated affairs with American and British women who work for the military, and they discard them once they get all "intelligence" necessary. Watching that series makes you see how much communism relied on destroying people's lives in order to keep the system alive, but we don't see anybody happy in that country, nobody can have a normal life, and every neighbor and coworker might report you to the secret police, where you would be tortured despite being innocent.

It is very educational, I recommend the series.