In 1981, the German film Das Boot, directed by Wolfgang Petersen, was a sensation: at that time, there were virtually no German movies about World War II, and this one took place almost entirely inside a German U-boat. The eight-part TV series Das Boot has a broader scope, and weaves the misadventures of the crew of U-612 around the Nazi occupation on land, specifically in the seaport of La Rochelle. Lizzy Caplan (pictured) plays resistance organizer Carla Monroe, a hard-edged, sexually adventurous American Communist. (Carla comes off as a Marxist Ghislaine Maxwell.) But the story is centered on Simone Strasser (Vicky Krieps), an Alsatian-born translator torn between loyalty to Germany—and her Gestapo employer—and her sympathy for her French neighbors. The series is suspenseful and full of human drama; A French Village with ocean views. —Alessandra Stanley