GranHotellover

My grandmother was around 11 at the time of occupation in holland. Before she died I asked questions about her time there. The biggest thing for her as a child was the extreme poverty of the country and heavy restrictions. She laughed at the idea of healthcare and told me people couldn't afford to bury dying babies in a coffin , healthcare was non existent. Seriously Iook up 'dutch famine'. This entirely fictional fancy friend in silks did not fit. Imagine you went into a developing nation and acted like that friend.

As for their Miep she's always yelling in public about hating the nazis and never gets arrested. The real Miep was timid and what's wrong with that. Quiet bravery is admirable. You don't have to make her a loud woman longing for her party days for her to be relatable to a modern audience.

Anyway this rant is mainly due to the fact that I think this drama is rated too highly compared to other similiar dramas. To be positive, the things that carried this drama were the varird depictions of the the struggles in being involved in the resistance and the superb acting of the guy who played Otto Frank. The actors who played Anne, the professor, Margo and Jan were decent as well.

As a frequent bus driver I've seen all sorts of interactions on the bus. None of these interactions on this film felt true to life.

No-one would actively tell an old man to go up stairs to the top deck or to stand. People rarely get kicked off a bus mid journey for not having the right fare, bus drivers don't have the time for that, they will usually ask you to pay the difference or let you off and say get the right fare next time. Most bus companies will take elderly people on the bus for free or a ridiculously cheap fare. I could go on but you get the idea..

This gets 3 stars because of the hard work of the costume designers, directors and production staff. We are now done with the positive aspects of the TV show. =============

In the same vein as shows like Riverdale that coin phrases like 'I beg your misogynistic pardon'. Producers continue to read a bunch of social media tweets, make minimal effort and then proceed to crown themselves woke.

I'm sorry but you don't make an inspirational woman by trying to make everyone around her act like apes and mindless drones. In this case you could show adept people skills or political understanding to show how she succeeded. But no we just say Catherine can read and is surrounded by fools and they more or less call it a day.

As is the trend these days they also cast a black actor in a side role as a white aristocrat and proceed to call it a day for showing diversity. Yes there were freed slaves that made it to the aristocracy but they had their own stories that ARE worth telling. Where is our show about Frederick Douglass or Ottobah Cugoano or any of the other black abolitionists that have stories of moving from African culture to being freed only to find you are never quite equal to white people? But no that is too much work so you cast a white side character as a black man and call it a day. This is not only a lazy way to show diversity, it erases history. It is clear to me that even the most sympathetic members of the white aristocracy never fully saw black people as their equals, perhaps they felt sorry for them but that is not the same as seeing someone as your peer. This aspect of black history is gradually being erased by these fools. You think with the racism existing today white people wouldn't bat at an eyelash if a black man dressed in finery walked past them? You think the society that had rules about dressing for your station would act this way?

As for the humour, it's the same kind of humour you get in crude British comedy designed for teenagers / young 20 somethings. Once I saw the show it became clear to me why they cast Nicholas Holt in the role, they want his skills from working on the teen show 'Skins'. This is a shame because I think the actor is capable of more.

It's a shame because with such a great production they could have been able to make a beautiful abstract painting of the key players in this historical period with intelligent humour. I completely understand why Russians take offence to this 'interpretation' of their heritage. This show feels like English University students broke into a BBC costume drama and started messing around based on what the bits that caught their attention in the cliff notes of a historical book.