On April 7, a Netflix original was released called ‘Transatlantic’. The show is based on the book called “The Flight Portfolio” by Julia Orringer. The show follows historical figures Varian Fry, Mary-Jayne Gold and Albert Hirschman as they attempt to get refugees into the United States as the Nazis begin to occupy France. 

I like the history aspect of this story. This really brings light to the good Varian Fry and his crew of people did. Varian worked as a journalist before joining the Emergency Rescue Committee, where he traveled to France with a list of people under immediate threat of being arrested by the Gestapo. I loved the light they brought to this and his inner turmoil about how he couldn’t save everyone. This story doesn’t really have a happy ending. It has good moments where they save hundreds but it ends with a majority of them having to flee France as the Nazis advance. As much as I dislike when stories end sadly or bittersweet, I can appreciate that they didn’t have it end happily because truthfully their story didn’t. All three of them were forced to run away to avoid being deported and arrested. To do more good, they needed to leave it behind.

The casting is brilliant. I originally watched this for Cory Michael Smith of “Gotham” because I knew it would be acted really well, but I had underestimated how well he would play this role. We also have Gillian Jacobs as Mary-Jayne Gold and Lucas Englander as Albert Hirschman. They all sell their roles extremely well, truly understanding who they are. On top of really selling it acting-wise, the use of language in this show makes my heart sing. There are four different languages used by everyone on a regular basis. Everyone speaks French, German, English and Fon. I know it’s a little thing but I’m glad they didn’t have everyone being monolingual.

The show mainly takes place in France at the Villa Air-Bel, a real safe house used by Fry and his associates. The entire setting of the show is beautiful. They actually filmed in Marseille France and used a lot of the real places used in history. Co-creator, Anna Winger stated, “Everything in Marseille. The hotel in the film is the real hotel. It’s now an administrative office. We shot at the real internment camp. The prison is the real one where they kept the inmates.” 

They used the beautiful land to their advantage and every shot is a treat. 

This show turned out really well. The only nitpick I have is that the episodes are long. I’m not a fan of the new trend of having seven-hour-long episodes, it’s not as easy to process information as opposed to the old 22-minute episodes. I would highly recommend this show and I really like the story. It’s available on Netflix and I would consider it one of the best Netflix Originals (Even if I don’t like Netflix very much).