Review of Deutschland 83, Episode 1 ‘Quantum Jump’

Review of Deutschland 83, Episode 1 ‘Quantum Jump’

I would urge you to go watch Deutschland 83, it is primarily a spy thriller that premiered on US cable television channel Sundance TV, then the German commercial broadcaster RTL.  It was available in the UK on channel 4, branded under Walter Presents.

Deutschland 83 includes generic elements of romance between Annett and Martin, political satire aimed at both East and West Germans and particularly the Americans, and family drama concerning Martins family.  Deutschland 83 is about the 1980s where a 24-year-old East German native go undercover in West Germany, where he enlists in their army to glean secrets concerning NATO military strategy.

The key characters consist of  24-year-old East German soldier, who is played by Jonas Nay (Martin Rauch). Recruited by the Stasi and  his mission is to spy on the west by imitating Mortiz Stamm.  Their plan is to get hold of American plans for attacking East Germany. Lenora is played by Maria Schrader is Martin’s’ aunt, cultural attache of the East German Permanent Mission in Bonn. Annete Martins girlfriend is played by Sonja Gerhardt.  Tobias (Alexander Beyer) a sleeper agent, a university professor in Bonn, and Martins’ handler. Kramer  who is played by Godehard Giese a fellow spy at the camp. General Edel played by Ulrich Noethen who is a West German General who liaises with Americans.

Deutschland 83 is interesting as includes many themes, it has a lot to say about the world we live in themes are inclusive of Capitalism and Communism, Freedom and control, Wealth and Scarcity, War and peace. Which have all been explored in one way or another within Deutschland 83. The story teases subtle differences between the east and the west. In West Germany we see that the lifestyle seems better due to certain aspects; within the east coffee being a luxury and the fact that Rauch ends up in a Bonn Supermarket, and he is astonished by the range of food on offer. So you as the viewer already have a subtle feeling that he was already beginning to doubt the superiority of the East, just at the sight of grocery shelves, fully stacked with all that he could comprehend and more. Within the first episode, we see that this programme is rich in period detail.  As the programme titles include Cold War footage, and end with an atomic bomb. Ronald Reagan also makes an appearance making a bellicose speech which included an excerpt from his 1983 famous evil empire speech, where he talked about Russia being the evil empire in which he used a reference from Star Wars one of the greatest sci-fi films of all time. Already interested? Well that’s great because second series is planned for 2018.