Yesterday We Were Still Children

Acting is ok at best. Cheque collecting otherwise. Writing though is horrible. So many improbabilities so many holes and more wooden dialogue than you can throw a stick at. Series tries hard to impress but fails on every level. Why can the Scandinavians and the British do this so effortlessly but the Germans fail miserably? Sky produced The Pass is an exemption as is Babylon Berlin but this, sorry, is glossy thrash. I'm sure the producers haven't spend as much time on this dribble as I have trying to come up with ever more and different ways to tell you just how bad it is. Oh and the soundtrack is the opposite is subtle. In your face emo ding dong.

ZDF goes Netflix again. And this time they succeed. Starts well, sucks you in and gets actually better from episode to episode. The two timelines are briliantly interwoven. Very good acting, with Rieke Seja (young Anna), Maria Simon (grown-up Anna), Julius Nitschkoff and - surprisingly - influencer and dance contestant Julia Beautx standing out. My complaint: This is absolutely tragic and serious stuff and sometimes the slick construction does not quite fit. For example, when a teenage suicide is just another ooops-detail. So nine stars only. But give it a try! Since this was a phenomenal success, a second season will certainly happen.

I am an international viewer yet I speak German and I watched this one on the ZDF. The first episode was so good, I was instantly hooked. But by the second one, it was already sliding down the hill and very quickly it became a B rated thriller with mad people, prom nights etc. All the cliches, that ever existed was sprinkled here and there. To be honest it does not feel like German, they successfully created scenes that look like the UK or Canada. If dubbed it may get modest international attention. Unfortunately, the script is very weak, though. Germans cant put together an eye catching story - there are always holes here and there. One exception was the Billion Dollar Code - which was a hit last year. I hope that German story writers learn to pull out stories that dont sink so fast. Watch it if you wanna kill time with something that is so - so. Did remind me of the American series, Revenge. Not as grasping as that - but still trying.

The storyline is interesting and the acting is good especially from young Peter played by Damian Hardung whose emotional moments really stand out. I particularly enjoyed ep 2 where you could see how he was struggling under the guilt of having killed the family and going through fits of jealousy. The direction could be better. It ends in a thrill as well which scared me.

Plot: When Peter snaps his actions cause his family ties to be broken forever, catapulting his three children into turmoil. His past finally catches up with him, also affecting the intertwined fates of three associated families.

The plot is really interesting and intriguing but the horrible acting and cast is ruining everything.

The best part is, honestly, some of the music throughout each episode...

I watched it in OV - and that's my mother tongue - but I don't think that it gets better when one would watch it in the dubbed version in other languages (don't know if there are other languages available).

I'm not sure what the online hype is all about, but apparently in Germany one of the (very bad "actors") is a Influencer...

Throughout the series there are a quite a few twist-worthy moments which are really great from a screenplay writing perspective but could have been portrayed much better. The very terrible, horrible and sad acting remains, however, and takes away all the great twists and unforeseen, of the - as such - good story.