All The Light We Cannot See - General Discussion

[BetterButter]

 

[BetterButter]

 

[Snazzy Daisy]

When a great source material falls in the wrong hands of show creators… 

Some reveals are rushed. The series prefers to TELL rather than SHOW us.

Nell Sutton as little Marie is a much better actress than Aria Mia Loberti as young Marie.

Should have hired French actors for the prominent French roles.

Only watching this because of Louis Hofmann. I like him in Dark.

 

Edited November 4, 2023 by Snazzy Daisy

[chediavolo]

I wanted to like this, but there’s just something about it. That makes me think this is such BS. Some of the actors don’t seem to fit the parts. Just something that it’s not compelling to watch. I turned it off after 2.5 episodes. 
And with the United States  in its current incarnation, it’s scary to be reminded of what might be in our future. Probably more like handmaid‘s tale though. 

[xander874]

I've not read the book so I can't compare. I've watched the first 2 episodes and I'm mostly enjoying it.

I'm not sold on Mark Ruffalo's accent. The Nazi's seem cartoonish at times (that doctor at the academy was way over the top). I'm also not sure we need the big cliffhangers each episode as it's only 4 to begin with.

But, it's an interesting story and I'm excited to see where it goes.

[meep.meep]

Don't watch this and World on Fire on the same night.  I've got the two sets of plots intertwined.

Ruffalo is miscast.  We had a whole discussion of what younger English actors could have handled the role.

[Renee in CA]

I binged watched yesterday. The Nazis are all over the top. The violence too. Little suspense when needed. All the WWII tropes appear.
 

Younger actors and Hugh Laurie are very good. What was Ruffalo’s accent supposed to be?  Apparently there’s a lot of characters that are left out, and it felt like it. Meh.

Edited November 7, 2023 by Renee in CA

[xander874]

Finished this last night. Not much more to add from my previous post but I will reiterate that Mark Ruffalo was miscast and a lot of things were dragged out for suspense that didn't need to be.

I also read about the book to TV differences and there were some significant ones that made me question some of the TV choices. Although now I want to read the book so I guess that's a good thing!

[iMonrey]

Well I liked it. I found it both compelling and captivating. I have never read the book and hadn't even heard of it until this week so apparently that helps.

Not without its flaws, of course - I agree with the consensus that Ruffalo was miscast and can't figure out what his accent was supposed to be. But more than that, I thought the subplot with the diamond was unnecessary and kind of silly. There was plenty enough story without it, just from the standpoint of the occupation, Marie broadcasting coded messages to the Allies, the Nazis searching for her, and all the backstory for both Marie and Werner. I assume it was in the book though so it can't be blamed on the adaptation. 

I take exception to the criticism that the Nazis were over the top. I don't need nuance in Nazi portrayals. 

Of course, the inherent problem with these kinds of stories is that half the characters are French, half are German, but everyone is speaking English. The alternative would be subtitles but even then I don't know how the French and the Germans would be communicating with each other, unless they are all versed in both languages. 

On 11/3/2023 at 8:29 PM, Snazzy Daisy said:

Only watching this because of Louis Hofmann. I like him in Dark.

That was my initial draw as well. There is something eminently watchable about Louis Hofmann. And he hasn't lost his ability to drip that one tear down his face on command. 

Edited November 10, 2023 by iMonrey

[Paloma]

On 11/3/2023 at 9:29 PM, Snazzy Daisy said:

Only watching this because of Louis Hofmann. I like him in Dark.

So that's where I've seen him before! I rewatched Dark at least 3 times but somehow didn't realize this was the same actor.

[pasdetrois]

On 11/5/2023 at 10:39 AM, chediavolo said:

Some of the actors don’t seem to fit the parts.

Mark Ruffalo and the adult Marie. Like a bad school play.

I almost didn't watch past the first episode because of the sing-song script and line readings. The novel was exquisite but trying to replicate its prose-style in scripted conversation was a mistake. 

I thought Eidinger was good. Lots of physical bits to try to do something with a trope character. Hofmann good in stretching his character from child to young man. Laurie - always good.

The action sequences helped move the story along and four episodes were enough.

 

Edited November 11, 2023 by pasdetrois

[Snazzy Daisy]

2 hours ago, Paloma said:

So that's where I've seen him before! I rewatched Dark at least 3 times but somehow didn't realize this was the same actor.

Yupp, that's Jonas Kahnwald without his yellow windbreaker.

 

19 hours ago, iMonrey said:

That was my initial draw as well. There is something eminently watchable about Louis Hofmann. And he hasn't lost his ability to drip that one tear down his face on command. 

There's something un-Hollywood about him...😍

[MJ Frog]

On 11/10/2023 at 3:53 PM, iMonrey said:

I take exception to the criticism that the Nazis were over the top. I don't need nuance in Nazi portrayals.

Exactly. And knowing what I know about Nazis and WWII, it really wasn't over the top. This was a regime that attracted the worst of the worst, and brought out the worst in those who weren't already terrible. They really were that bad and more. I have many of the same objections others do, but not to that.

Speaking of, a younger Colin Firth would have been great in the role of the father, or any number of other distinguished male British actors, but not Mark (love you buddy, but no).

Also, in his first scene, the bad guy reminded me a little too much of Hans Landa (Inglorious Basterds), although that was mostly the writing. And I suppose Landa does cast a big shadow when it comes to movie Nazis.

One last thing is that it seemed a blind girl in a small town would be pretty easy to find. She was out and about enough that there would be a pretty good chance of just spotting her in the street. And failing that, a house to house search would find her in short order.

Apparently big diamonds can't get no love these days. People always throwing them in the Atlantic.

Otherwise, it was reasonably enjoyable. Good cast, minus a certain exception, and an enjoyable enough, if often implausible, story (the diamond thing felt like something out of a young adult novel). It's just that I am always up for a good WWII story, and I'm glad people are out there trying, I just wish they were trying a little harder.

 

Edited November 21, 2023 by MJ Frog
Word choice.

[Haleth]

I finished last night.  What the heck?  This was so different from the book it has no right to be called ATLWCS.  It was ok, I will have forgotten it by next week.

I totally agree Mark Ruffalo was a poor choice for Marie's dad.  

[Shermie]

On 11/6/2023 at 7:09 PM, Renee in CA said:

The Nazis are all over the top. The violence too.

No. My mother spent her teen years with regular German soldiers and Nazi officers in her house, and I can assure you that depiction of Nazi cruelty and violence is never “over the top”.

On 11/20/2023 at 11:52 PM, MJ Frog said:

Apparently big diamonds can't get no love these days. People always throwing them in the Atlantic.

Well, she didn’t throw it very far so it will probably wash up on shore a la the Jumanji game. She should have tossed it off a cliff.

We binged this tonight and it was compelling enough to watch to the end, but it was kind of B-grade. The old lady drops dead the minute her constant housemates finally leave the house? And I found the set decoration with regards to the bombing results to be kind of cheesy. A tidy pile of rubble with clean streets all around. Artfully unmanaged items like a brass bed propped perfectly on the top of a tidy pile of rubble. Seeing actually piles of post-bomb rubble on the news shows what it should look like. This was Hollywood rubble.

[bunnyblue]

I read the book last year and have been looking forward to the series. I'm reading lots of hate online for the series, but I liked it. I do agree that Mark Ruffalo was miscast. For the entire first episode I thought Etienne was played by Donald Sutherland - only to look it up and realize it was Hugh Laurie; dude was practically unrecognizable! Was HL even attempting a French-English accent though? At times he didn't even sound British and sounded American, lol. The accents of the "French" were pretty atrocious. 

Book and show spoilers ahead:

As someone who was completely gut-punched when Werner was killed by the landmine in the book, I'm totally okay that his death was not shown in the series. His fate can go either way in the show: we can imagine he meets his book fate later on or we can just imagine he'll stay in the custody of the Americans and be released with all the other POWs and will reunite with Jutta. I LOVED Louis Hofman as Werner, for me he was the MVP of the show. 

Marie was never my favorite in the book and in the series she was just there. I wanted her to STFU with all her radio broadcasts because of how many times she almost got Werner in trouble. I don't recall so many near-misses in the book. And how the hell did she not cut up her feet walking around barefoot in the attic with all that broken glass on the ground. 

Madame Manec called Etienne her "little brother" right before he went outside with Marie - was this a change from the book? Because I don't remember them being siblings; she was just his housekeeper, I think.

I was surprised Etienne died, because with his death Marie is completely alone. At least in the book after Daniel never comes home, Etienne takes her back to Paris and takes care of her. With Daniel, Madame Manec, and Etienne all dead how is Marie going to fend for herself in the ruins of Saint Malo? Is that why they left Werner alive: so we can imagine he goes back to her and takes care of her? 

I am forever grateful they omitted what happens to Jutta and Frau Elena at the hands of the Russians. I know the Red Army pillaged and raped in Germany, but I felt it was just too much by that point in an already dark book. While I was surprised that they also omitted Werner's school friend Frederick I also didn't need to see the abuse he suffers and his ultimate bleak fate either. I was surprised how briefly we saw the beefy friend who survives the book but died rather quickly by the collapsed ceiling in the series. That was a blink-and-you-miss-it appearance. 

The series had many flaws and wasn't as good as the book but I give it a 7/10.

Edit: The stupidest thing was Marie the expert marksman who killed Von Rumpel with a perfect head shot. Sweet Jesus what the hell was that nonsense?!

Edited December 3, 2023 by bunnyblue

[bunnyblue]

On 11/6/2023 at 4:09 PM, Renee in CA said:

The Nazis are all over the top. The violence too.

The violence was even worse in the book. It was unrelenting. The series toned it down a bit.

On 11/10/2023 at 12:53 PM, iMonrey said:

I thought the subplot with the diamond was unnecessary and kind of silly. There was plenty enough story without it, just from the standpoint of the occupation, Marie broadcasting coded messages to the Allies, the Nazis searching for her, and all the backstory for both Marie and Werner. I assume it was in the book though so it can't be blamed on the adaptation. 

Yeah, if they'd skipped the whole Sea of Flames nonsense, I wouldn't have minded. Having the Nazis searching for Marie because of her broadcasts is compelling enough, IMO. More French resistance, less silly cursed diamond. And then to just have her chuck the diamond into the sea (which will probably be washed back ashore as someone else pointed out) was too "Titanic" for me. 

Edited December 3, 2023 by bunnyblue