Synopsis
Adapted from Len Deighton’s 1978 alternate history novel. A British detective investigates a murder in German-occupied Britain during World War II.
2017 Directed by Philipp Kadelbach
Adapted from Len Deighton’s 1978 alternate history novel. A British detective investigates a murder in German-occupied Britain during World War II.
SS-GB: Remontando a 2ª Guerra, Британские СС, SS - Британия, SS-GB: Hitler v Británii, אס.אס-ג'י.בי, SS-GB: Remontando a Segunda Guerra, 不列颠党卫军, 나치 영국 지부 SS-GB
SS-GB (2017) UK colour BBC 5xepisodes TV=285m.
Directed by Philipp Kadelbach.
Cast: Sam Riley, Kate Bosworth, Rainer Bock, Lars Eidinger, James Cosmo, Kaeve Dermody, Jason Flemyng ao.
In another dimension the german wehrmacht won the Battle of Britain 1941 and then occupied England. There was still no war with USA or the Sovjet Union and the Reich ruled most of Europe.
This is a DARK and UNGLORIOUS tale of unrest and occupation, shown as contrafactual, or alternative history, in a low-key way. The story is focused on the rivalry between Wehrmacht and SS in occupied Britain, and Rainer Bock and Lars Eidinger steals the center of attention frequently.
It must be at least 25 years since I read the 1979…
An intriguing concept that plays to my love of noir but leaves me flat, owing to a cast lacking in charisma and a production lacking in identity.
If only HBO had gotten their hands on it first.
6.5
What if the Germans had invaded Britain.
For Scotland Yard Detective Superintendent Archer it's business as usual as he investigates the murky waters of German SS and German Army rivalry.
Starts out solid and intriguing thanks to its premise. The German support cast is really strong, too, but overall it does all feel a little wooden and slow. It takes until the middle of episode 3 to finally get into gear and to form some sort of excitement and urgency, which leads into the really good episode 4, that sees the stakes heightened and the shit hitting the fan - only for the series to culminate in a messy, uneven and in the end kinda disappointing finale.
Ah, and Sam Riley and his impeccable black suit stand out of every scene like a sore thumb. Loved the guy in The Dark Valley, On the Road and other things, but him and this world simply isn't a match.
I hoped for more, but I gotta admit that I'm 180 pages into the source novel and it isn't exactly "Fatherland", either...
A moody, contemplative piece with the typical Len Deighton heavy touch. Riley is good, but the two German actors steal the show, Rainier Bock and particularly Lars Eidinger.
'SS-GB' takes as its source material one of Len Deighton's novels, certainly not his best but likely his, er, splashiest, conceptually (what if the Germans won the Battle of Britain?) and remains ~mostly~ faithful to the book for the first five episodes before making a series of plot adjustments, some for the better, others not so much.
I'm going to try and talk about this without spoilers, but I will say, at the outset, that one thing that having read the book *prior* to watching helps with is that the miniseries does not do a particularly good job explaining the internecine conflicts within this fictional world's German police, military, paramilitary, and political classes. I make no claims as to the…
Some great performances - step forward Lars Eidinger - direction and art direction, but with a both a miscast lead and love interest, they make a right horlicks of the plot…which should have been a kraftvoll im Korb versenken.
What if the Germans did invade England? Darn Nazis! So they're in charge, and there must be a local police force, so this is where it starts. There's something going on and it may be part of a resistance movement. Good show. Wouldn't mind a season 2.
Auf dem Papier spannender als in der Umsetzung: ein alternativer Weltentwurf, in dem Hitler und Nazideutschland den Krieg gegen England gewonnen und das Königreich besetzt haben. Vom deutschen Regisseur Philipp Kadelbach mit internationaler Besetzung wie Sam Riley inszeniert hatte ich mir hier eigentlich viel erhofft, aber sowohl die ständige Fernsehästhetik als auch das einfallslose Drehbuch führen zu einer Serie die mich eher "Meh!" als "Mehr!" sagen lässt.
Based on Len Deighton's 1978 novel, Neal Purvis and Robert Wade's SS-GB is a handsome and oft intriguing piece of speculative historical fiction, buoyed by decidedly excellent production values, but hamstrung by a laryngitically flat central performance.