‘We Were The Lucky Ones’ Limited Series Review – A Story Of Powerful Resilience

It’s been nearly thirty years since we last saw a series like We Were the Lucky Ones. The Hulu series is the finest since The Winds of War and the universally acclaimed War and Remembrance. These historical dramas began exploring the darkest side of the human condition regarding what Adolf Hitler called the final solution.

We Were the Lucky Ones is expansive, ambitious, and often epic in scope. The miniseries is a throwback to grandiose storytelling that may lack the creativity of The Zone of Interest and the grit of Band of Brothers. However, it doesn’t lack the visceral and unsettling raw power of human suffering and overwhelming resilience when faced with one thing: hate.

The series follows a Polish Jewish family, the Kurcs, months before the start of the Second World War. Led by the patriarch, Sol (Golda’s Lior Ashkenazi), and matriarch Nechuma (Deadwood’s Robin Weigert), they have built a legacy of five children. They are raising their Jewish family in the quiet town of Radom. The oldest, Genec (Henry Lloyd-Hughes), is in love with Herta (Moran Rosenblatt) and is set to take over the family business.

Their other son, Jakub (Amit Rahav), is an aspiring photographer. Their eldest daughter, Mira (Fill the Void’s Hadas Yaron), is raising her infant child with her husband. Sol and Nechuma’s youngest children, Addy (Hunters’s Logan Lerman) and Halina (Joey King) are very close. Addy, an engineer and composer, lives in Paris, and Halina meets him at the train station as he comes home for the Jewish Passover.

These scenes establish the importance of family as well as a sense of culture and community. A year later, Hitler’s German forces began to invade Poland and march into the Kurc’s hometown. They bring a sense of antisemitism that becomes infectious across Europe. Soon, the family is broken apart as the Kurc men are sent off to war, and Addy becomes a Polish refugee in France.

We Were the Lucky Ones is an adaptation of the nonfiction book by Georgia Hunter. Some scenes in the film possess a devastating power that is hard to shake. Most of these moments do not stem from bombs raining down from Axis forces or German soldiers unleashing pure evil upon the Jewish race. Instead, they arise from ordinary Polish citizens.

These people displace their fear and hate onto their Jewish neighbors and refugees. Last year’s Origin exemplifies this phenomenon. Hate brewed in the area through propaganda, profoundly affecting and intensifying emotions. You will watch ordinary people sneer at racist stereotypes. Often by hunting Jewish citizens through the streets and into “ghettos” for segregation from everyday society.

The series also works as a spy thriller, as Joey King’s Halina works with resistance that can be suspenseful and exciting. However, often those scenes are brutal. Yet, they do not come close to a film like Netflix’s film Will, which is probably far more accurate. The result is most atrocities are kept off-screen. Still, as a story that touches on themes of unity, family, identity, and belonging, the show works as a work of sweeping entertainment with sobering humility.

We Were the Lucky Ones is an instant classic of traditional mainstream television. At times, the series can be devastating and heartbreaking yet uplifting and joyous. It can even be poignant and overwhelmingly moving, then truly horrifying and unnerving. King embodies gallantry, demonstrating bravery and temerity, while Lerman portrays empathy, tenderness, and stoicism.

By comparison, these lead performances show the perspective of fighting such atrocities with staggering results. Along with award-worthy turns by Ashkenazi and Weigert, We Were the Lucky Ones is an unbelievable, epic true story about the incredible and powerful fortitude of the expectation of one other intimate human desire: hope.

All eight episodes of We Were the Lucky Ones will be available on Hulu on March 28, 2024.