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World War II has been the setting for many television shows over the decades, including action dramas like “Combat!” There are also miniseries such as “Holocaust” and “Winds of War.” Oh, and cartoony comedies like “Hogan’s Heroes,” which I don’t know about! About why it was created.
In recent years, World War II has received renewed attention on television, with a modern emphasis on big-budget production design, moral exploration, and timely parallels. We are looking back at wars fought against fascism and other evils, and revisiting a time not long ago when this country had a clearer identity as a democracy.
The current resonance is irresistible for some screenwriters, with projects ranging from PBS’s “Masterpiece”‘s “World on Fire,” Netflix’s “Transatlantic” and “Invisible Light” to the Hulu miniseries remake ” I got it all, right down to “Catch.” -22 inches, and the terrifying alternate history of Amazon Prime’s The Man in the High Castle and HBO’s The Plot Against America. The dangers and fears that nearly engulfed Europe and threatened the United States in the 1930s and 40s remain.
Even “All Creatures Great and Small,” the PBS “Masterpiece” series that is a gentle lullaby for television, has entered wartime, with two of its central characters currently serving in the military. World War II did not suffer from ambiguity like most wars. It fits well into the show’s simple, honest approach as we see all of the town’s young people line up to fight Nazi Germany. The treatment of war in All Creatures Great and Small is, in some ways, the third miniseries in the ongoing trilogy that began with Band of Brothers and The Pacific. It overlaps with “Masters of the Air”. On Apple TV+. Both are old-fashioned tributes to the Greatest Generation and those who fought against Hitler, the men and women who fought mightily for what they believed in.
I think one of the charms of depicting the air raids on Europe is the sophisticated CGI. This advanced CGI gives “Masters of the Air” an adrenaline-fueled, giddy, nauseating experience. Like the video games, the series spends a lot of time in the air during gunfights and bomb drops, with the crew staggering around to maintain control. But unlike “Top Gun: Maverick,” another recent airfare, the recipient of the attack is clear: the Nazis. Bold and Daring, his two-season Amazon Prime series Hunters also focuses on that target, tracking Nazis as they regroup in 1970s New York with flashbacks to events during the Holocaust. It depicts a vigilante group. This is a revenge drama that deals with the complexities of generational trauma and the “never again” mantra.
One of the most recent additions to the World War II TV canon is the powerful miniseries “A Small Light,” released last year and available to stream on Disney+ and Hulu. The film follows Miep Gies, aka Bel Powley, who helped hide Otto Frank, his family (including his daughter Anne) and four others in a secret annex during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. It follows her friends in Amsterdam. Miep and her activist husband Jan aren’t trying to be heroes. Their disgust drives them. After all, the series asks viewers to consider what they would do if their neighbor was robbed, humiliated, and sent to a concentration camp. Would you like to do the same as Miep and Jan?
Apple TV+’s “The New Look,” which premieres Wednesday, also tells the parallel stories of fashion designers Christian Dior and Coco Chanel in German-occupied Paris, prompting viewers to look inward. Would you make a dress for a company whose customers included Nazis? Would you help the Nazis if they helped you get your beloved relative out of a concentration camp? Many of the best TV shows do it. It forces viewers to think, imagine themselves in a similar situation, and question their own moral attitudes.
Ken Burns’ three-part documentary series “America and the Holocaust” spends six and a half hours delving into the country’s moral attitudes, depicting the period during which Europe’s Jews were systematically rounded up and murdered. illustrates exactly what we did. The series, set to air in 2022, will chart the country’s varied reactions, some surprisingly calm, and the fear-mongering by public officials that continues to this day.
“The Light We Cannot See” is a mediocre four-part adaptation that oversimplifies the people of a French town under Nazi rule. Evil becomes almost a caricature, but good is too good to be true. Let’s hope future film adaptations of the best-selling set of the time are even more layered and compelling. In May, Peacock will premiere “The Tattooist of Auschwitz,” a six-part miniseries set in the death camp. I wish you success. The more often we look back with fear and regret in the wake of powerful stories told on television, the better.
Matthew Gilbert can be reached at matthew.gilbert@globe.com.follow him @Matthew Gilbert.
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