The Narrow Road to the Deep North

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.

One of the hardest things I watched yet one of the best things I watched.

Do yourself a favour and press play. Photography is just alluring, poetic and yet so descriptive that you just can't look away. Storytelling is compelling and keeps you constantly engaged, its tragedy and mourning, and romance, and longing and suffering and friendship and companionship. All together, all at once.

Despite being a short series, you get to know every character in such a way that it becomes personal, you suffer with them, you laugh with them and you miss them when they are gone.

It's a shot straight to the heart but oh such a lovely one.

I agree with comments by other reviewers about the dark murky lighting on parts of the series. I know the intent is to create atmosphere but possibly taken too far. The three timelines were also a bit confusing especially as the two main female characters resembled each other in the early episodes. However, those are small quibbles. This is one of the better series I have seen. A compelling story which stays with you for a long time. The acting was superb. There are scenes which are difficult to watch because they are brutal. Not for the squeamish. An important time in history which poses questions relevant today.

Had high expectations, but was very disappointed. The misty, murky photography made it hard to watch and I gave up. The lead actor mumbles his way through the episodes and Ciarin Hind's Aussie accent is even worse, and he too mumbles. The producer should have hired someone who knew how Aussies spoke in 1941, because they certainly did not call a dinner jacket , a tuxedo, nor say hi in a formal setting. I know the series is based on a book, which I have not read, but the movie, Bridge on the River Kwai was better and if you want to know about the hardships suffered by Aussies in Japanese POW camps, read about Sir Weary Dunlop.

I'm not up to scratch on the history of the POW during WW2, but this programme has made me look into it. The actors/actresses are amazing and deliver their characters perfectly. Some of the true stories I have read on the internet are unbelievably horrific, and these are reflected in the programme.

Parts of the programme made me feel sick to my stomach during the torture scenes, and I like to think I am pretty desensitised to TV brutality (long time horror watcher).

If you come away from watching this series without feeling affected in some way, maybe you are a robot, because the emotions it evokes are so strong.