I looked forward to seeing KaDeWe on the BBC. I've been to KaDeWe in Berlin and I have happy memories of going to the record department. The acting was very good, especially Joel Bassman as Harry and Damian Thüne and Tonio Schneider in the difficult roles of Georg Karg and Rüdiger Hartmann. Tonio gives the odious Rüdiger more dimension than just the bigot who becomes a successful Nazi. The first episodes presented Georg as a good natured, uptight and clueless schmuck but as the titles at the end of the final episode described, Karg fired all Jews working at the store after he took over and after the War, reached a settlement with the Tietz family as compensation for the Nazi expropriation which forced them out, but the settlement was peanuts.
I really didn't believe that Harry, Fritzi and Hedi would speak to Georg after the Jandorf family discovered how pulled the wool over their eyes about the Nazis wanting to force Harry, his father and Tietz out to put the non Jewish Georg in charge. But the scene of them together on the roof of KaDeWe on the eve of Harry's departure for America was a symbolic ending (I would have liked to see Georg's reaction to the three of his friends smashing up the store in one final spree). I actually liked the street shots with contemporary cars and buses in the background. It emphasized how the issues from 1920s Berlin are still very much with us. The scenes with the appearances of Harry's dead war colleague rang false and were too gory. The nudity and drug usage may be a little excessive but I thought KaDeWe explored how gay women like Fritzi and Hedi sought independence and the right to live as they wished fairly sensitively, without being heavy handed for the benefit of modern viewers- aside from the scenes of Fritzi being subjected to shock treatment (which I had to fast forward through). The poverty and desperation of the lives of working people were also strongly shown. The hatred expressed in the final episode towards Harry, Adolf and Teitz was chilling.
I agree with other reviewers however that it seemed like wishful thinking for Hedi and Fritzi to survive the Nazis in a same sex relationship (even if Fritzi had false papers). And where did their 2 other children come from? It was also a little confusing about when some of the events actually took place. I had to look up the history of KaDeWe to be clear as to when the Jandorfs had to sell the store and when Harry and his family had to leave for the US.
I really didn't believe that Harry, Fritzi and Hedi would speak to Georg after the Jandorf family discovered how pulled the wool over their eyes about the Nazis wanting to force Harry, his father and Tietz out to put the non Jewish Georg in charge. But the scene of them together on the roof of KaDeWe on the eve of Harry's departure for America was a symbolic ending (I would have liked to see Georg's reaction to the three of his friends smashing up the store in one final spree). I actually liked the street shots with contemporary cars and buses in the background. It emphasized how the issues from 1920s Berlin are still very much with us. The scenes with the appearances of Harry's dead war colleague rang false and were too gory. The nudity and drug usage may be a little excessive but I thought KaDeWe explored how gay women like Fritzi and Hedi sought independence and the right to live as they wished fairly sensitively, without being heavy handed for the benefit of modern viewers- aside from the scenes of Fritzi being subjected to shock treatment (which I had to fast forward through). The poverty and desperation of the lives of working people were also strongly shown. The hatred expressed in the final episode towards Harry, Adolf and Teitz was chilling.
I agree with other reviewers however that it seemed like wishful thinking for Hedi and Fritzi to survive the Nazis in a same sex relationship (even if Fritzi had false papers). And where did their 2 other children come from? It was also a little confusing about when some of the events actually took place. I had to look up the history of KaDeWe to be clear as to when the Jandorfs had to sell the store and when Harry and his family had to leave for the US.