Atlantic Crossing - the finale

[question everything]

What a perfect program.

This is not a spoiler that the Germans surrendered and that FDR died several weeks earlier and then it was time for Martha and the children to return to Norway.

But this episode was really full of many emotions, by many characters.

The subtitled integrated perfectly. (Perhaps because we use Closed Captions for everything).

I hope that the program and the actors will be recognized. While, obviously, never met FDR, I think that Kyle MacLachlan really channeled him.

Oh, and the haunting song "When" is still playing in my head.

[Doc Sportello]

1. Very good but not perfect

I really fell in love with the production. Very good acting - especially MacLachlan - and premier production values. But I tend to check out certain things while watching just because I'm a history buff. I didn't want any spoilers so I was careful but boy what I found out was this show took a lot of liberties with the truth. One historian really took it to task with some criticisms I thought were petty but some were justified because they just made things up out of whole cloth. I understand every historical movie does that, with some more and some less, but some major parts of it were untrue. So that took some it away for me but still thought it was a very good series.

Also, watching that and World on Fire again just shows you how much the world looked to the U.S, to save them and democracy. And now here we are in 2021 where the biggest threat to democracy is coming from inside the U.S.

[question everything]

2. Some was based on known facts, some was added

I liked the details of the known history

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/specialfeatures/atlantic-crossing-what-you-need-to-know-before-you-watch/

I did go in search of history - about the queen, Olav's mother. She was Queen Maud, British, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria who died in 1938 before the story started.

[Doc Sportello]

3. More accurate to say some facts, much more fiction

PBS is of course going to give a more positive take. Here's a take from historian and journalist Oskar Aanmoen:
"having watched the show, I discovered so many errors that I could have discussed around 100 of them, but I have selected 15 which I think highlight why historical drama series shouldn’t be treated as fact."


https://royalcentral.co.uk/europe/norway/opinnion-atlantic-crossing-is-a-series-full-of-mistakes-many-will-believe-are-facts-159628/


Like I said, I did enjoy the show and know that any historical drama is going to take some liberties with the truth. But this was a bit much, especially the overblown relationship between FDR and the princess, and the role she played in Washington. And that formed the heart of the series.

Like you, I also liked the actual historical record the show brought me to. It's interesting that the little prince is not only still alive but reigning today as King of Norway.