A Small Light: Complete Miniseries

January 24, 2024 12:39 PM - Season 1 (Full Season)

[TRAILER] Follows the true story of Miep Gies, a Dutch woman who risked her life to shelter Anne Frank's family from the Nazis for more than two years during World War II.

Starring Bel Powley, Liev Schreiber, Joe Cole, Amira Casar, Billie Boullet, Ashley Brooke, Ian McElhinney, Sally Messham, Andy Nyman, Noah Taylor.

Created by Joan Rater, Tony Phelan.

100% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

A historical drama series made for the National Geographic Channel, but now streaming via Hulu or Disney+, depending on where you are. JustWatch.

posted by DirtyOldTown (7 comments total)

This is pretty riveting. Bel Powley's portrayal of Miep is fascinating: a sort of shiftless, inherently unserious person who snapped into action, becoming a clever, bold facilitator of the plan to save the people hiding in the Annex. Basically, faced with an unbelievably precarious situation, the moral clarity of her choice seems so stark to her that she wills herself into being the person needed. It's a good story.

It's so well done that I'm finding myself really rooting that she's able to save everyone when... you know.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 12:41 PM on January 24 [2 favorites]

Not that it matters to anyone but me, but the word I intended to use above was "aimless," not "shiftless."

Anyway, you should watch this if you like a BBC-ish kind of well-made World War drama.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 2:23 PM on January 24

I might have to give this one another shot; I watched the first couple episodes and just found it very...corny? Which like, I'm not saying the world needs a dark gritty Anne Frank reboot or anything, just that the dialogue was more Gilded Age than The Crown; too speech-y, too on the nose. Which is a shame because the actual plot points are fascinating, especially about her pre-war life.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 8:34 AM on January 25

It does get better as it goes. The setting-the-scene episodes have a different rhythm than the Miep-deals-with-things-in-the-moment episodes.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:51 AM on January 25 [1 favorite]

We're still watching this. It's slow going because it's hard on your heart.

I really hope I do not have to be strong enough to live through times like these.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 5:14 PM on February 4

It really is Miep's story, of which the Franks are one part, and not at all another straight retelling of the Anne Frank story.

It's about the ongoing series of dangerous and horrible choices Miep Gies has to make as someone trying to help people hide and escape. Not just the Franks.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 11:34 AM on February 5

This was often rough to watch, but it's a fantastic show.

I got Miep Gies' book after watching it, although I haven't read it yet. (In an interesting connection, she co-wrote the book with Alison Leslie Gold, the niece of Mary Jayne Gold, whose work getting Jewish and anti-Nazi artists and intellectuals out of the hands of the Nazis during World War II was fictionalized in the TV series Transatlantic.)
posted by kyrademon at 4:30 PM on February 6