ItIt doesn't take long for a date with a fateful destiny to roll into the lives of the Weiss family in the first part of the Emmy Winning mini-series. The marriage of the Protestant Meryl Streep to the Jewish James Woods brings on an element of happiness, but relatives of Streep's are clearly anti-Semitic. Woods' parents, Rosemary Harris and Fritz Weaver, have different views of the marriage, with Harris reluctant to show full acceptance until she gets to know her daughter-in-law better, but Weaver much more easygoing. He treats the wife of struggling lawyer Michael Moriarty, and later when Moriarty has been promoted to an attorney role within the SS, he pays Weaver a polite visit to urge him to leave Germany as soon as possible. Soon after that, the violence erupts, with the murder of a Nazi official blamed on the Jews and riots erupting. Streep longs to get out of Germany, but as long as Mama Harris has her way, they will stay put.
It doesn't take long to establish who is who in this powerful start to a classic mini-series. David Warner, always great at playing villains, adds much dimension to his role of a Nazi officer, admiring Moriarty's honesty over his claim of a neutral feeling towards the Jewish population, but obviously as he gains power, he'll be drawn into the destruction and thus starting the descent of the destruction of his soul. Deborah Norton, as his anti-semitic wife, is excellent playing an absolutely horrible person. Other members of the Weiss family are drawn into the drama with an innocent younger sister and the rebellious Joseph Bottoms dealing with the rising trauma. One of the greatest ensembles ever in a TV miniseries draws the audience in immediately with the arrest of Woods and Harris having to find strength upon realizing that she could have prevented this by getting the family out germinate earlier on. As the drama flows, the audience becomes aware that it will become very hard to watch certain segments of future episodes, but it will also be more difficult to turn away.
It doesn't take long to establish who is who in this powerful start to a classic mini-series. David Warner, always great at playing villains, adds much dimension to his role of a Nazi officer, admiring Moriarty's honesty over his claim of a neutral feeling towards the Jewish population, but obviously as he gains power, he'll be drawn into the destruction and thus starting the descent of the destruction of his soul. Deborah Norton, as his anti-semitic wife, is excellent playing an absolutely horrible person. Other members of the Weiss family are drawn into the drama with an innocent younger sister and the rebellious Joseph Bottoms dealing with the rising trauma. One of the greatest ensembles ever in a TV miniseries draws the audience in immediately with the arrest of Woods and Harris having to find strength upon realizing that she could have prevented this by getting the family out germinate earlier on. As the drama flows, the audience becomes aware that it will become very hard to watch certain segments of future episodes, but it will also be more difficult to turn away.