Nancy Hall

This has a depth and complexity unrivaled, in my experience, except by The Wire. It is similalrly multi-layered, and it is also about an embattled community. Instead of Baltimore during the War on Drugs, this is about a small French village during the German occupation of World War II. As a kid growing up a few years after the end of the war, I was aware of much of the history of the time and place. This series helped me connect various disparate events and gave them context. It does a terrific job of defining and interweaving the various influences on the life of the community from the German occupiers to the collaborators, who did what was necessary to protect citizens and to stay alive, to those who resisted in big ways and small. The dialog, character development, acting, cinematography, sets, and costuming are superb. They convey a sense of authenticity.