A surprising bit of television history comes to us from the folks out at Acorn Media, who sent over a copy of a thirty year old British drama called Enemy At the Door series two, which is pretty much, from what I gather, the same thing as saying “season” over here in the States. And you’ll be pretty pleasantly surprised by what you’ll see here, even if it isn’t all you might like.

Enemy At the Door series two takes us three years into World War II, where the Germans are currently occupying the Channel Islands, as they were back in series one. Local commandant Major Richter is trying to keep a shaky peace between the inhabitants and the elements of the German army in place. But between the active resistance on the part of the islanders and the treachery of infighting subordinates like local SS officer Hauptmann Reinicke, Major Richter has a lot on his plate, and none of it will get along well together. Can Richter keep the islands together, or will the tensions boil over into a full-blown conflict?

Sounds like fun, doesn’t it?  Well, it’s not as much fun as you’d expect. See, you’re going to have to first get around the fact that most of the German officers speak with English accents. This is weird enough by itself, but it’s also not easy to get along with a World War II show that doesn’t feature a lot of explosions or anything.

But there is a lot to like here in the well put together drama: once again, you’ll get to see the Brits do what they do better than most anyone else, and that’s a drama. The various twists and turns the season will take (there’s about eleven hours worth of footage here) will also prove impressive and well worth your time to watch. A drama generally depends on its cast putting in a solid performance more than it does a clever script or great effects, and the folks they have handling the roles here are just terrific.

Enemy at the Door series two can get a bit dull sometimes–it’s heavily based on people talking–but there’s also a lot to keep your attention, and considering, as I said, that there’s about eleven hours of footage here that’s no mean feat in and of itself.

The Screenhead Ten Scale gives Enemy at the Door series two a seven out of ten for being nicely done, if a bit on the dull side. It’s actually pretty rare to see a World War II anything turn out dull–after the various outings Steven Spielberg took us on, it’s a wonder that a World War II drama can be substantially people talking.