gasmando123 Unbelievable. How can something this good go under the radar for so long. A brilliant "view from the other side" story from the cold war, more to the point than Le Carre. I'm just blown away by the quality of the acting, directing, production, and writing. Sure, much of it is subtitled, but the crafting of the tale is true to the times. The only glitch...no US officer would EVER leave classified documents in an unattended room. But honestly, that was the only major screw up in an otherwise well written story.

landapa I almost wanted to give it a 10 but what held me back is that they had to push the homosexual agenda on its viewers as is today all so common in our politically correct world.This being said, the series is plain amazing. I was born in 1960 and immigrated to America in 1991. So I lived through that whole time era in my twenties. Sure, there is some fiction but that fiction may be only concerning the family of young Martin Rauch and the possibility that Amble Archer could have almost elicited a pre-emptive strike by the Soviets. Other than that, this is all very real. The threats East Germans, actually it is DDR and it stands for Deutsche Demokratische Republik (German Democratic Republic) had to undergo is very real. And if you wanted to get ahead, go to University, get a good job you better enlisted for the Volksarmee (People's Army). I made the acquaintance with one of the first East Germans crossing over to West Germany in the early days of Perestroika via Hungary. If he wanted to become a vet he had to be in the Volksarmee. Also, what Americans never will understand, even so there was the fear of a nuclear first strike by the Soviets, West Germany lived with the fear that they could be invaded in a night raid by Soviet tanks which would reach the French border by next morning and we would wake up in a Soviet occupied country. Also, seeing all the old news anchors and people like Willy Brandt, Kohl, and ultra communist, green party member Petra Kelly, and Heinrich Böll, even though a highly acclaimed author of many books and Nobel peace prize recipient was also a staunch socialist and gives the series authenticity. As background music throughout the series are all the popular hits of what has been labeled "Deutsche Welle" (German Wave). A kind of music that truly broke out of the former Schlagermusic and became popular not just among the German Youth but ended up in the Top 40 Charts like Nena's "99 Red Air Balloons." All in all this series stays true to the time period, the news events, the fear that existed on both sides, the emotions, and the plight of East Germans who dared to buck the system in favor of Western attitudes.

Tardis I love Euro TV and have no problems with subtitles...except when they are not done well. Not sure if there are multiple versions, but the version I am watching (or trying to watch) is almost useless unless you understand German.The letters are white, usually on a white background and the font is incredibly small. And I know Germans speak fast, but struggling to find the subtitles on the screen and with the speed at which they change, means the only way to watch it is to pause and go back numerous times.Not sure I can make it past the 2nd episode. The only reason I marked it low, otherwise it looks like it is great.

justincward D83 is the story of an East German mole in the West German Army in Berlin at the height of the Pershing II crisis, when apparently the Germans were feeling much like the Americans did when the Soviets had missiles in Cuba. It seems that West Germany was riddled with East German moles, too, if D83 is to be believed. The recreation SEEMS authentic, which is good enough for me. Lots of action, thrills and suspense in the first seven episodes anyway. Episode 8 is a clunker, I'm afraid.'Deutschland 83' has a lot going for it (I used to own a Mercedes 230E of the period so all that was fun). There's also a lot for people who rightfully expect female and/or gay characters to be fully realized. The only dodgy characters for me were the bigshot American general Jackson who would scare nobody, and the neurotic Alex (whose name is hard to remember, a sure sign of flawed characterization). He's way too flakey to be holding the senior military position he does for very long, especially as his general Dad wants him to have no 'special treatment'.What begins to eat away at the suspense of wondering whether Moritz Stamm (the mole) will be discovered is the extremely far-fetched character arrangements and the way they take over the actual plot, which is simply Stamm's infiltration of West German high command and the fact that only he (and us, the viewers) knows whether the ep8 exercise is an actual attack or not. Let's see (spoilers): Stamm's father is (unbeknownst to him) the chief of the East German intelligence operation and his aunt's boss. He carries a torch for Stamm's mother. Stamm's pal Alex's father is the chief of the army base. Alex and his father don't get on either. Nor do his mother or sister. Shades of Luke Skywalker twice over.Stamm's Rosa Klebb-style aunt is the chief of the Stasi operations department in Berlin. She ruthlessly plants him in the West, then at the end runs away to Mozambique for no apparent reason.Stamm has a fling with both the secretary of Mayer, the head of West German Intelligence (or something) AND the daughter of the senior general on the army base whose aide-de-camp he is. Nobody mentions this much, perhaps because the operations director on the base is an East German mole too. Still with me? Said West German general's son Alex turns out to be a closeted raving pacifist, who then has an AIDS-tainted fling with the university professor who's running the anti-Pershing campaign. Oh wait, the professor's an East German mole as well.Said West German General's daughter, that Stamm hooks up with after helping to murder the girl he cheated on his girlfriend with, is a leading light of the peace movement and lives in a Buddhist commune. For no apparent reason, she becomes a backing singer with a rock band that happens to be playing in the East on the very night that the US security operation kicks off. This is so Stamm's actual girlfriend, who's working for the Stasi, can hold her hostage so that Stamm can rush to her rescue. I have no idea at all why this matters.Stamm's Stasi father breaks Stamm's finger so he won't be asked to play the piano like the man he has taken the place of. Once his hand is healed, the West German general forgets about the piano skills he so keenly wanted to hear demonstrated. His house doesn't appear to contain a piano anyway.In the middle of all this intrigue Stamm has time to donate a kidney to his mother - who (unbeknownst to him) runs a forbidden literature network in Bonn.This is 'Dynasty' territory and completely unnecessary to keep your interest - and it isn't all of it, with drunk sisters and marriage breakdowns going on. The writers must have got through about ten million Post-Its and several large walls keeping track of all these dynamics.While the suspense is maintained it doesn't matter, but the trouble is that the Wingers (the writers) do a big loose-end tie-up in the last episode that means our hero Stamm does has nothing to do but run home from West Berlin to Bonn while the side dramas crash around anywhere he isn't. Vince Gilligan totally nailed the six-season tie-up in Breaking Bad. The Wingers totally screw it after eight episodes. They tried to cram way too much in.