Linbeymusol Wonderful character development!

Mandeep Tyson The acting in this movie is really good.

Deanna There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Jenni Devyn Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

lesuarez Either I'm out of my mind or this was the stupidest TV series of all time. I really try not to watch movies whose plot is surrounded in an historical context cause most of the time I end totally disillusioned. This time, instead of a good German Cold-War movie I ended watching an idiotic TV series. It is obvious that nobody involved in the production of this show knows absolutely nothing about East and West Germany during the Cold War. What a waste of time and money.

dromasca Once, half a life ago, I stood in front of the Brandenburg Tor on Eastern side of the wall. The year was 1980 and I was visiting East Berlin and the DDR, one my two only trips in 'friendly socialist' countries that I was allowed while I lived in Communist Romania. The local guide preached us about being at the border between the 'new' socialist world and the capitalist hell that was starting behind the wall. It was maybe 100 meters far away, and a different universe. The same evening, at the hotel, the same guide showed us how to switch the TV set to the West Berlin stations. It was then that I first saw the Rolling Stones in concert, live, they were on tour in West Berlin ('the hell'). Everybody seemed to know that they were living a lie but the power of the Stasi secret police was too frightening, and most people were afraid to speak up. Now, this interesting TV series brings back some of the aspects of the last decade of the Cold War, in the huge chess board that was divided Germany in the confrontation between the two systems.Deutschland 83 is a spy story, it could have been written by a Le Carre, it just happens to be seen from the perspective of the other side. The eight episodes of the German series build in quite an interesting manner. At first we become familiar with the methods of recruitment of the East-German service, who were enrolling using a combination of idealism (or what was left) among the naive ones in the young generation and blackmail for such supposed crimes like homosexuality or reading forbidden books. It's quite well written and succeeds to be in tune with some of the true histories that became public in Germany in the years after the fall of the wall. Although the final is quite well known from the history books, the last two episodes succeeded to reach a level of suspense which eventually caught up with me.Using documentary footage and period music helps recreate the atmosphere of the decade. The series benefit from the presence of a few wonderful actors. Maria Schrader is a star in Germany and her rendition of a master spy who does not hesitate to use members of her family to reach her goals, but is not free of hidden and dark secrets of herself is just stunning. Young actor Jonas Nay gibes a very credible performance of the rookie spy who learns the tough ways of the profession in parallel with the culture shock encountered when traveling to the west and his own process of awakening as realities slowly disperse the curtain of lies.It's a good and entertaining series doubled with a real documentary value for the generations that were lucky enough not to live through the times of divided Germany and Europe.

Ang Weisberg Only the BBC would hail something like Deutschland 83 as cutting edge etc...Growing up at the time of the StaSi and the political situation during this time, it saddens me to see that the characters, although well acted, are stereotypes of bad party members and poor East Germans, good and innocent soldier and of course the obligatory west German fat cats.There are much better German dramas and series dealing with this subject matter and thankfully I receive German TV and can watch them but, I can't help feeling that once again it's playing safe and encouraging the current "continental opinions" of the BBC and it's obvious programming choices. I did however notice that for once the BBC didn't get the chance to show a series with the episodes back to front or the middle at the beginning and series three episodes in the middle of series one.....not forgetting putting the prefix "New" to a series that is over twenty years old.As mentioned it contains some very fine acting but an oh so predictable story line and quite frankly a very tiresome and well chewed political theme. It is easy on the eye, ear and brain for the US and UK market and should for this reason sell well .....so I wish the producers, writers and actors good luck but please "must do better" with the next project! It wouldn't hurt the BBC doing likewise either.

professorskridlov How on earth has this series been so heavily promoted and enthusiastically reviewed?I'm truly baffled. I confess to have watched only the first 40 minutes of the first episode (I was too irritated to bother with any more) but that's quite enough to see just how crudely this has been made. Anyone who can believe the central proposition - that a young East German border guard could be recruited as a substitute for a West German aide-de-camp of a top general, trained in barely a few weeks, and parachuted in after the "real" candidate is assassinated - might possibly miss the innumerable wildly implausible plot elements which occur one after another. The core of the plot crashes in without the slightest delay for character development. Cliff hanger scenes - "will he manage to get the documents photographed before the generals barge back into the office and catch our hero in flagrante delicto?" - follow one upon the next without a break. Absolutely ludicrous and totally unbelievable. I've seen primitive television drama with no pretensions to plausibility that were better written and directed than this load of total junk. Offensively bad.