The Narrow Road to the Deep North

You can rarely see a good series or movie from the australian perspective. It's a short series but keeps you engaged at almost every scene. The brutality of the japanese or the POW struggling for survival really comes through the screen on an emotional level.

I would say it's a unique World War 2 series, can't put it in a category. It's not really about the war but how we humans sometimes lack the humanity, emphaty or the communication so we could understand each other. When we can't communicate or express ourselves then we just move on instead repairing the thing that brings us the most joy or even who brings us the most love.

A must watch for anyone who enjoys war series with less action and more emphasis on the emotional and personal struggles for both the character and You, the viewer.

My Spanish grandmother was under house arrest during the Japanese occupation of British North Borneo during the war. She told me stories of the treatment of Australian soldiers held captive. This show is serious television. It is part English Patient, Tree of Life, Thin Red Line, and Bridge over River Kwai. It is haunting, erotic, intimate, brutal, humanistic, and historical. This was a show made to honor the fallen and to preserve memories and experiences and is unflinching. It is the kind of series that will penetrate your dreams, make you feel small, and humble you. These kinds of series are not often made. The showrunners are owed gratitude and respect for having pursued this undertaking. It is unabridgedly effective.

The wartime scenes were done well, in particular the POW scenes really did get across the dirt and horror of the situation in a way not many shows manage.

However, the constant change in timelines flipping back and forth from wartime, to pre-war, post-war then present day disrupted all natural flow. Character development (other than the main character, who was rather one demential) also suffered due to this.

In particular the present day scenes added very little despite taking up a significant portion of the runtime.

I would still recommend watching this for the wartime scenes. It could have been great if it focussed on these and constructed a more fleshed out script around them.

This miniseries just creeps up on you. The love entanglements and pre war backstory can be a bit confusing; Then episode 4 drops on you, and you are just blown away.

This should be one of those success stories of a little known, under marketed miniseries that came out of nowhere. But the right people take notice and it spreads like the virus it deserves to be.

It is a story about how humans can treat each other, and how the lead characters traumatic experience haunts him later in life despite his clearly major success. While it's fictional I'm sure the atrocities are based on fact. Episode 4 is truly harrowing. If you enjoyed the Pacific or Band of Brothers for its exposure of the inhumanity and futility of war - this will be a real treat.

It's haunting and makes you think. It sticks in your mind. My hope is that in 6 months from now people will be raving about this and it will garner the awards and recognition it deserves.

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.