This is the first of 10 episodes in this new series on World War II, presented by the History Channel, and airing as I write this. The first two episodes, actually, were run together for a two-hour opening night.
The first thing you notice is the color. Most footage of WWII is in black-and-white so it's always a bit startling to see it in color. Most scenes in this opening night were black-and-white but there was still quite a bit of color. Right off the bat, we see parades in Germany with the bright red Nazi flags flying as the soldiers march down the street in front of thousands of spectators. It's kind of sad to see all the smiling little kids, but they love a parade and had no idea of the ideology behind this kind of military display.
I think the things that stands out most in this first episode are the amazing bombing scenes over England in which Germany really did a lot of damage. and the comments about the Nazis taking almost all of Europe while we (the United States) still just stood by and watched. It was amazing to me how much territory Germany won without much resistance. It's scary to think what could have happened. Along that idea, narrator Gary Sinise is very somber, but that's certainly understandable considering the topic of this horrible worldwide war.