My wife and I were engrossed by the first series of "Das Boot" and were happy to dive into Series 2 for the continuing adventures of the German sub-mariners in World War 2. Perhaps our expectations were too high but this series seemed less successful than that stellar Series 1.
For a start, we lose early on the brave heroine of the first run but at least her story of assisting the Resistance is carried on in the persona of her landlady, the nurse. This story arc also takes in Forster the S. S. Officer who featured so prominently before who is still on the trail of any escaping Jews but who is forced to address his own humanity as his career ambitions suck him deeper into and higher up the Nazi hierarchy, personified by an especially cold-blooded visiting Gestapo officer who wants to recruit him for a concentration camp commandant job.
The second story takes us back to the deposed U612 Captain Hoffman who we last saw set adrift in the Atlantic by his mutineering crew. Somehow he gets to America where he is feted by a group of wealthy but undercover German-sympathising businessmen out to help the war effort by surreptitious means. However, before they can turn his head, his heart is claimed by a beautiful black singer in the Billie Holiday mould. Keen to get back to Germany, how does he appease his German backers who of course look down on blacks as inferior beings while he is in love with one of them. This I found to be the weakest of the three narrative strands, lacking in suspense as well as credibility. It looked like what it probably was, an unnecessary sop to diversity.
The third plot-line of course is set firmly underwater where the U612 takes to the ocean again under a new captain who we see right at the beginning execute a morally repugnant survival manoeuvre to save his sub from destruction. An honourable man, not dissimilar to Hoffman in fact, he is uncomfortable with the accolades which come his way and is clearly not happy to be taking Das Boot out on her new mission, especially as it is carrying three Gestapo officers who are to rendezvous in New York. By the time the submarine has met up with a fellow sub and taken on board the villainous Captain and his crew, the scene is set for more on-board tensions which will erupt in due course into treachery, murder and general mayhem.
There's no denying the quality of the production and the ensemble acting of almost all of its cast. Nevertheless by its own high standards this second series while still very watchable neither quite hit the artistic heights or plumbed the emotional depths of its forerunner. While it continued to be a fine study of the character and behaviour of men and women in wartime, this series didn't cohere as well as before although that won't stop our watching the third series in the very near future.