Paradise; The Last Musician of Auschwitz

“Paradise isn’t your average political thriller – it’s a more ambitious, conceptual series that is unafraid to take big swings, most of which pay off. The intriguing opener sets up a show that raises the stakes as high as possible, delving into what might happen when the fate of humanity is on the line as Xavier uncovers one secret conspiracy after another.”
Rachel Sigee, The i

“By the end of the first episode, the delicious and compelling concept will have you hooked – but the greatest achievement of Paradise is to keep the psychology of the inhabitants as its prime concern. The premise may be essentially ridiculous (or is it?) but the people are real and there is an unsettling air suffusing the atmosphere from the beginning. The series gradually becomes – amid the well-wrought whodunnit-and-why plot – a thought-provoking interrogation of what the life-changing decision the town’s inhabitants made would have on a community.”
Lucy Mangan, The Guardian

“Creator Dan Fogelman is US TV royalty, being the brains behind the adored schmaltz-com This Is Us (which also made a star of Brown), but his brand of maudlin, all-American, emotion-drenched storytelling sits awkwardly with the high-concept action and one quickly grows weary at each character treating every interaction as an impromptu therapy session. Julianne Nicholson does her best as a brittle tech guru, and Sterling K Brown has charisma to spare as the befuddled hero, but the whole endeavour is as superficial and glossy as a Super Bowl half-time ad.”
Chris Bennion, The Telegraph

“The role of music in the Holocaust might initially seem a somewhat marginal topic. Is the fact there were orchestras at Auschwitz really that important in the grand scheme of things? Yes, as it turns out: because by examining the presence of music in the camp, The Last Musician of Auschwitz is able to give voice to a wealth of ideas about the function, value, inherent ambivalence and weaponisation of art and culture.”
Rachel Aroesti, The Guardian

“The statistics came at you as they so often do when considering the Holocaust, and bare numbers can be cold, desensitising even. What consistently jolted you were the human stories; the vivid descriptions of the stench; the sound of scratches from those dying in the gas chambers; or the piles of bodies. A bitter, brutal idea also reeked throughout — that of a nation that saw its music as a sign of superiority and still wanted these sounds in a world where the chimneys belched out the smoke of human remains.”
Ben Dowell, The Times

“On the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, documentary-makers have a difficult challenge – how can they make us look at and think again about the Holocaust? The Last Musician of Auschwitz found a way that was so stunning and so profound that once you have watched it, you will never forget it.”
Chris Bennion, The Telegraph