New Delhi: Tom Hanks revisited the Second World War this year with a 20-part documentary series for the HISTORY channel covering the conflict from Germany’s invasion of Poland to the aftermath of the US atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Narrated and executive-produced by the actor, World War II with Tom Hanks premiered on 25 May. New episodes were released every week until the final two aired on 27 July. An audio version was later released as a podcast.
The series uses archival footage and interviews with historians to revisit the Blitz, Pearl Harbor, the Holocaust, Stalingrad, wartime espionage, D-Day and resistance to Nazi occupation. The series also examines the war across Europe, North Africa and the Pacific before ending with Japan’s surrender and the emergence of the Cold War.
Hanks has returned to the period throughout his career. He starred in Steven Spielberg’s 1998 film Saving Private Ryan and executive-produced the limited series Band of Brothers (2001), The Pacific (2010), and Masters of the Air (2024). When asked earlier this year whether the documentary would be his final word on WW2, Hanks said that every book he read gave him another idea for a film or miniseries.
Reviews differed over whether the series could do justice to the scale of its subject. The Wall Street Journal called it “highly ambitious, informative and entertaining,” while the Decider said that even viewers familiar with the war might learn something from it. The Guardian gave it three out of five stars. It praised the archival footage but found the treatment too basic for such a vast subject.
Viewers had a similar debate. In a Reddit discussion, one user said that the series was compelling and easy to follow and had prompted them to read more about the war. While another argued that enthusiasts might already know much of the material, the documentary had introduced his wife to several parts of the conflict.
But one called it “very surface level.” Another found it “kinda all over the place,” although they said it could introduce younger viewers to the war. One Reddit user criticised its focus on the US and said that Canada’s contribution had been overlooked.
The series currently has a 54 per cent critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes, based on four reviews. It has an IMDb rating of 8 out of 10.
(Edited by Insha Jalil Waziri)