A good quality production, solid cast, and intriguing story will allow you to enjoy this series for what it is. But first you will have to leave your emotional baggage behind.
You all know exactly what I mean by "emotional baggage", but let me spell it out for you:
In the 1981 movie, Wolfgang Petersen tells a story of comradery in the face of the terror of war. It is an anti-war movie in showing this terror, but at the same time it glorifies the sailors who stick together to overcome it. Morale on the U-96 is always high.
In comparisson, morale on the U-612 is always low. Those guys don't overcome the terror of war with their comradery. They break. And reveal a deep, Pervitin induced rupture in their souls.
If you hate them for that, you might hate them for the wrong reason, and love the U-96 crew for an equally wrong reason.
Fact is, in the real war there were more than a thousand submarines of different types on the German side alone. There were crews like the U-96 and other crews like the U-612. German sailors, and sailors of every other nation, raped women and got away with it. That is a cliché of war, and it is also true.
Believe it or not, every second person on the planet is a woman, even in 1942. So for an accurate portrayal of war, it makes sense to show their story as well.
The goal of this series is clearly to strenthen the "Das Boot" franchise and profit from it, and they could have done this by making a "G.I. Joe with German U-boat sailors." Instead, they took Petersen's work seriously and expanded on it. Petersen took a risk in 1981 and so did they in 2018. That's how I see it.
The plot is good, but not perfect. Often "larger than life" in ridiculous ways, and clearly geared towards a second seaon. So I give it 8 of 10 stars, +1 extra star, because I love submarine movies and want them to do more.
25 out of 36 found this helpful