A French Village is a slow burn. The first two seasons have a lot of set-up and world building before they add the layers of the later seasons.
Like other masterpiece level shows, e.g. The Wire, it shows every aspect of it's story. You see every situation through the eyes of rich, poor, teacher, postal worker, and shopkeeper, police officer, criminal, collaborator, resister, communist, anti-communist, Gaullist, and enthusiastic Vichy-ists.
You see both deep heroism and deep hypocrisy. And no character is fully good or fully evil as the show adds layer after layer.
One truly outstanding storytelling feature is the way that main characters will become side characters, side characters will become main characters, someone with a cameo in one season might play a main role in a later season, like life.
Also like The Wire, some seasons will have have season long sub-plots to illuminate some aspect of life under Vichy. So as not to spoil the story, I won't name any of these, but they're all presented with care and feel organic to the story.
And don't judge anyone too quickly, they'll surprise you, often while staying perfectly within character.
Word of warning, you won't understand the show by watching one episode or even two, or even the first season. It's only once you reach later seasons that you understand what they did in earlier seasons.
It's an investment to watch, but so so worth it.
Like other masterpiece level shows, e.g. The Wire, it shows every aspect of it's story. You see every situation through the eyes of rich, poor, teacher, postal worker, and shopkeeper, police officer, criminal, collaborator, resister, communist, anti-communist, Gaullist, and enthusiastic Vichy-ists.
You see both deep heroism and deep hypocrisy. And no character is fully good or fully evil as the show adds layer after layer.
One truly outstanding storytelling feature is the way that main characters will become side characters, side characters will become main characters, someone with a cameo in one season might play a main role in a later season, like life.
Also like The Wire, some seasons will have have season long sub-plots to illuminate some aspect of life under Vichy. So as not to spoil the story, I won't name any of these, but they're all presented with care and feel organic to the story.
And don't judge anyone too quickly, they'll surprise you, often while staying perfectly within character.
Word of warning, you won't understand the show by watching one episode or even two, or even the first season. It's only once you reach later seasons that you understand what they did in earlier seasons.
It's an investment to watch, but so so worth it.