The Big Picture

• Joey King and Logan Lerman are standout presences in Hulu's We Were the Lucky Ones.
• The ensemble is impressive and well-cast, though there are too many characters to keep track of.
• The series tells a heartfelt story despite rushed plotlines, although its low stakes conflict with the harrowing WWII setting.

Hulu is the latest streamer to delve into the horrors of the Holocaust with We Were the Lucky Ones' debut this week. Based on Georgia Hunter’s award-winning novel by the same name, the series joins the ranks of Apple TV+’s The New Look and Masters of the Air, National Geographic’s A Small Light, and Netflix’s All the Light We Cannot See as it delves into the lives of a family directly impacted by the rhetoric and violence of Nazi Germany.

The series begins in 1938, a mere six months before Germany invades Poland. While tensions and antisemitism are on the rise, it seems that nothing will stop the Kurc family from descending upon their family home for the start of Passover. It’s a fairly unremarkable night, filled with laughter and camaraderie, that is framed as a common occurrence. They are a tight-knit family held together by their stalwart mother, Nechuma (Robin Weigert), and father, Sol (Lior Ashkenazi).

What Is 'We Were the Lucky Ones' About?

We Were the Lucky Ones centers around the five Kurc siblings and their spouses; the eldest Genek (Henry Lloyd-Hughes) and his wife Herta (Moran Rosenblatt), who is expecting their first child; Mila (Hadas Yaron) and her husband Selim (Michael Aloni), and their daughter Felicia; Addy (Logan Lerman), who has been living abroad in France writing jazz music; Jakub (Amit Rahav); and their youngest child, Halina (Joey King) As the opening scene lays out, each of the Kurc siblings have hopes and dreams for the future. They’re largely unphased by the impending war or the rising hostility. Little do they know that this is one of the last truly happy nights they will share as a family before the five siblings and their parents are scattered across the continent like seeds in the wind, as the war rips apart their homeland and lives.

The series states that it is based on a true story, but that might be too broad of a claim. While it details, in excruciating detail, the real-life horrors that Jewish people, and those deemed undesirable by the Nazis, faced during World War II, We Were the Lucky Ones is more inspired by true events, than based on a wholly true story. As the author has explained over the years, Addy is a fictionalized version of her grandfather and his family during the Holocaust. Hunter never knew that her grandfather was Jewish until she interviewed her grandmother shortly after his passing, and she relayed to her what she knew about his time before immigrating to America. Erica Lipez, the showrunner and screenwriter for We Were the Lucky Ones, has expertly taken Hunter’s lovingly crafted tapestry of fact and fiction and transformed it into a harrowing and brutal look at the Kurc family’s fight for survival.

Joey King Finally Finds Her Spotlight in ‘We Were the Lucky Ones’

King and Lerman, like the author Hunter, have spoken about their own familial connections to the Holocaust, which adds a layer of realness to their performances. Perhaps that personal association helped pave the way for both lead actors to have notable performances in the series. With We Were the Lucky Ones, Joey King may have, at last, found a role that will prove to audiences that she is an actress who should be taken seriously. While she has flourished in tween flicks like Ramona and Beezus and The Kissing Booth trilogy, she has had a series of poorly received films as of late, including The Princess, and her miscast role in Bullet Train, which Lerman also appeared in.

Lerman is another clear standout in the series, though his performance is more subtle—mirroring Addy's more subdued personality when compared to his little sister. As an artist, a free spirit, and a hopeless romantic, these quiet yearnings carry Addy through the worst of the horrors he faces, and it’s quite compelling to watch his love story blossom with Eliska (Lihi Kornowski) amid such a tumultuous time. Addy and Eliska aren’t the only romance in the series, as Halina has her own interlude with Adam Eichenwald (Sam Woolf), which serves as a diversion from the war—for both of them. While King and Lerman are at the forefront of the conversation, We Were the Lucky Ones is very much an ensemble cast. Lloyd-Hughes delivers another memorable performance as Genek, particularly as he’s forced to tread the careful line of fighting for his family’s future and keeping his head down in order to survive.

‘We Were the Lucky Ones’ Has Too Many Characters to Keep Track Of

Clocking in at a little over eight hours of screentime across the 8-episode series, We Were the Lucky Ones occasionally feels more like a series of vignettes instead of one cohesive story. Halina and Addy are clearly set up as the main characters, as their plotlines receive the most focus, but the rest of the Kurc family are just as vital to the overarching plot. From the very first—and last—Passover supper, We Were the Lucky Ones wants its audience to form an emotional attachment to each sibling, but it often spends too much time away from the individual characters to ensure that the emotion carries through from episode to episode.

In part, this is because We Were the Lucky Ones is tasked with telling a story that spans the entirety of World War II, spread out across different continents, and threaded through multiple intricate storylines. While this won’t detract from the first trio of episodes dropping together, this may pose a challenge for the five remaining episodes, which are dropping weekly after the premiere.

As the series reminds audiences in the very first episode, nearly 90% of Poland’s Jewish population was murdered by the Nazis, which makes the writing surrounding the Kurc siblings' remarkable story of survival oftentimes feel implausible. That’s not to say that We Were the Lucky Ones should show more of the unfathomable, stomach-turning horrors of the time. Narratively speaking, however, the continued good luck of the Kurc family might play into the title, but it lowers the stakes at every turn. Where else have we seen a Jewish man shout at and belittle a Nazi officer and walk away with nothing more than a few bruises?

Nevertheless, We Were the Lucky Ones is a worthwhile watch this spring. Amid the dirty, grim, and impoverished conditions, the series crafts a sumptuous scene with its costuming and scene design. Ultimately, despite its narrative issues and expeditious storytelling, it still manages to pull off a heartbreaking—and heartwarming—storyline that will leave you anxious to discover what comes next.

We Were the Lucky Ones premieres March 28 on Hulu.

Watch on Hulu