Reliving the Berlin wall days.

• Author: Fisher, Anthony L.
• Position: Briefly Noted - Television program review - Brief article

Deutschland 83, a sly and creepy Cold War spy thriller/coming-of-age drama airing on SundanceTV, is the first German-language television show to run on a commercial American channel, and one of the first works of entertainment available here focusing on those grim years in Germany.

The show's protagonist is a young Stasi officer who, after being assured that his ill mother will receive expedited medical care, agrees to be sent across the border to pose as a West German general's aide-de-camp. There, he spies on negotiations with the U.S. military to station nuclear warheads on...