This documentary series' strong point is the use of only WWII footage, often colorized. A lot of it is rarely seen in other documentaries, some of it none at all. So it's very interesting in that perspective.
However, it's a French documentary and it's very French-centric and usually very biased. On several occasions I've caught it omitting important information/context or bringing up wrong information. For a documentary claiming to cover the whole of WW2 (which it does claim to do so), it's not a very good effort. It will mention several side-topics that are important for France (e.g. the politics of France before the war), but doesn't bother with important parts of WW2 that France had nothing to do with, e.g. the war in the Balkans.
Most egregious is that it tries very heavily to paint the Soviets as bad or worse than the Nazis. It tries to paint Britain as the major obstacle to Germany and their main opponent. Just to be clear, ideally it shouldn't be biased at all for either side. It should be presenting history and commentary on the footage. Instead it sometimes uses footage to present a version of history that is favorable to the makers.
Still, in the parts that concern Western Europe, it does a very good job on educating its viewers on important details that are not known by many. It gives a very good perspective of the civilian population. The footage taking a primary role, instead of a tool to transition between interview scenes (this documentary doesn't have any such scenes) keeps things interesting.
I'd recommend watching it, but bearing in mind that it only does the rudimentary minimum for anything else aside from French and British affairs. As far as the Eastern Front goes and the War in the Pacific, you can find many better documentaries.
However, it's a French documentary and it's very French-centric and usually very biased. On several occasions I've caught it omitting important information/context or bringing up wrong information. For a documentary claiming to cover the whole of WW2 (which it does claim to do so), it's not a very good effort. It will mention several side-topics that are important for France (e.g. the politics of France before the war), but doesn't bother with important parts of WW2 that France had nothing to do with, e.g. the war in the Balkans.
Most egregious is that it tries very heavily to paint the Soviets as bad or worse than the Nazis. It tries to paint Britain as the major obstacle to Germany and their main opponent. Just to be clear, ideally it shouldn't be biased at all for either side. It should be presenting history and commentary on the footage. Instead it sometimes uses footage to present a version of history that is favorable to the makers.
Still, in the parts that concern Western Europe, it does a very good job on educating its viewers on important details that are not known by many. It gives a very good perspective of the civilian population. The footage taking a primary role, instead of a tool to transition between interview scenes (this documentary doesn't have any such scenes) keeps things interesting.
I'd recommend watching it, but bearing in mind that it only does the rudimentary minimum for anything else aside from French and British affairs. As far as the Eastern Front goes and the War in the Pacific, you can find many better documentaries.