The person who has impressed me the most after three episodes has been Karine Vanasse, who plays Colette. She got more to do in last week’s episode than she did in the pilot, and was very charming in the episode. This week, she gets a much more serious plot and is outstanding. From the onset of episode, it’s clear Colette has some issue with Germans and landing in Berlin. This culminates when she sings the Nazi part of the German anthem in the embassy, sending a message to everyone in there.
It’s refreshing to see the writers not shy away from these issues when one would expect them to amidst the arrival of JFK. The sixties are a turbulent time, after all, and while the Cold War is going on, there are still deep wounds from World War II. Colette embodies this, as a victim of the German occupation. The joyful, almost-naive attitude towards Kennedy’s arrival are not going to wash away old wounds.
The rest of the episode is a little bizarre, with Maggie going crazy over JFK. Christina Ricci is very good, but the scenes felt too wacky.
Score: 8.8/10
