Many have compared Our Mothers Our Fathers to Band of Brothers but apart from set against WW2 the two features have nothing in common. This is definitely not the German counterpart to BoB. Contrary to the latter, the German series has not a single character I could like. The nurse is dumb, the singer a slut, the mandatory Jewish friend just always at the wrong moment and at the wrong place, and the character development of the two soldiers just... confusing. I mean, what to think of a cast where the (apparently also mandatory) evil SS-Whateverbannführer is the most memorable character? Apart from flawed character development it's bad screen writing ruining the series. The first part was promising and perfectly watchable but around the second more and more things happened which made me ask myself "wtf?" ***SPOILER*** For example, the transformation of the younger brother from weakling into die-hard soldier happens from one scene to the other, the Jewish doctor betrayed by the nurse and dragged away by the Gestapo suddenly appears as a highly decorated Russian officer (who, to add insult to injury, delivers a sickeningly didactic speech when saving the nurse from being raped - the makers probably didn't dare to show what usually happened in reality wherever the glorious Soviet army went), characters escaping from a moving train to Auschwitz (where else, of course...) sleep between the tracks until it gets conveniently bright enough to shoot the next scene. ***END OF SPOILERS*** These are just a few examples of flaws in the script which ultimately make the whole story unbelievable, even annoying at parts.
It appears to me the German makers didn't have the guts to show the real face of Nazism and war; about the former we don't learn anything new (for example why on earth is everyone except the protagonists an ardent Antisemite? why did everyone hate the Jews?), and from the latter, we only see grunts PTSD-d by events that are only mentioned, not explained. It's apparently still not a time to show the cruelty of the Soviet army and the partisans, which would have psychologically explained many of the protagonists actions and their slide into cruelty - as it happened in reality.
The series attempts to give a bitter look to the transition of Nazi Germany into the BRD too; without giving away more spoilers, I can only say that this was done much, much better in "The Life of the Others" where there's a very similar scene.
So, in the end what could have become an epic TV drama ended up as a didactic lecture on typical German self-chastising with a flawed script and unreal protagonists. Probably there were better chances to find an unopened bottle of brandy in a trashed Berlin pub after the siege than for Germans to make an honest and well-realized feature about WW2. Maybe in a hundred years. Until then, if you want to watch a truly good German film about WW2, go for Das Boot and forget this one.
It appears to me the German makers didn't have the guts to show the real face of Nazism and war; about the former we don't learn anything new (for example why on earth is everyone except the protagonists an ardent Antisemite? why did everyone hate the Jews?), and from the latter, we only see grunts PTSD-d by events that are only mentioned, not explained. It's apparently still not a time to show the cruelty of the Soviet army and the partisans, which would have psychologically explained many of the protagonists actions and their slide into cruelty - as it happened in reality.
The series attempts to give a bitter look to the transition of Nazi Germany into the BRD too; without giving away more spoilers, I can only say that this was done much, much better in "The Life of the Others" where there's a very similar scene.
So, in the end what could have become an epic TV drama ended up as a didactic lecture on typical German self-chastising with a flawed script and unreal protagonists. Probably there were better chances to find an unopened bottle of brandy in a trashed Berlin pub after the siege than for Germans to make an honest and well-realized feature about WW2. Maybe in a hundred years. Until then, if you want to watch a truly good German film about WW2, go for Das Boot and forget this one.