The Sleepers

I've been a teenager by the time those events occurred, but the depiction of the regime and the whole situation and uncertainty during the last days of the socialist era is impeccable. It's not overdone - it's not deliberately gloomy. Well done, HBO for portraying these cloudy times as accurate as possible. Every detail is just perfect - the vehicles, the sets, the manners. Bravo!

I used to go to Prague a lot at this time from the UK. I was mainly interested in the pubs and drinking cheap Prazdroj but one night met an East German girl while sheltering from the rain on Charles Bridge. She was one of the young revolutionaries from the DDR who frequented Prague in those days. I made several trips to East Berlin after that to visit her, and she was very worried that the Stasi were going to clamp down on them, so it came as a pleasant shock to see the Berlin Wall fall on TV. I accompanied a friend of hers to job interviews (people were anxious to get a good job while they could) and sitting in the waiting room he pointed out all the ex-Stasi, saying he could smell them! I then spent some nice weeks in Strbske Pleso, Vysoké Tatry with a Slovak hezka holka - eventually my visa expired so I went to the police in Poprad to get an extension. He noticed that I had no receipts for exchanging money (having done it on the black market, of course) and was going to refuse until I said "I thought everything was better now under Vaclav Havel?" - he relented and stamped my passport! These were heady days indeed and I am glad to have been there at that time, though of course I could never know all the torment caused by the StB and communism in general. This series should be required viewing for all the young people now in BLM etc. Who seem to want to bring communism back again.

Great sets and it captures the atmosphere of Prague in that era to perfection. But what was the point of it? There weren't many sympathetic characters apart from the wife, and although the plot twisted and turned a lot, which I liked, then by the end scene I felt let down and a bit baffled by what the producers were trying to achieve. As a "slice of life" type of production then it worked to a degree, but it could have been so much better with less characters and more background details. Above average so 6/10.

Interesting spy mini series which could have been one or two episodes shorter to tighten it up.

Well acted and the cinematography was spot on depicting the period.

It keeps you guessing to the end who are good and who are bad and even then there are question marks.

Jevgenij Libeznuk is particularly good as the menacing Soviet agent.

Not sure why this series has not gathered more attention. It is really god and has a good pacing. Also the photography is superb and the attention to details. Bravo!