This review may contain Spoiler Alerts. I was expecting something more accurate given the 100 year anniversary of the first world war and the terrible toll that humanity paid not only in WWI but in WWII. The events are portrayed in a way that leaves much to be desired, and inaccurate in their representation. German officer uniforms are incomplete, specially some of the generals, their hair looks more like the Bee Gee's than a WWII general, (Spoiler Alert) Eva Braun and her relationship to Hitler completely ignored, even her suicide is missing, Hitler has the wrong weapon in his suicide attempt and he swallows the cyanide pill instead of crushing it which is how the poison was consumed, the toll paid by the Russia in the war is glanced over, only one concentration camp is mentioned, Buchenwald, no mention of Auschwitz-Birkenau (http://en.auschwitz.org/m/), the largest Nazi killing center, once gain very disappointing. Also not mentioned are how we remember the war, even Germany through the GDR has established monuments to those that died in the camps (http://www.buchenwald.de/en/69/) About the good things it does reflect the changes that WW I made in the leaders that fought WW II on both sides of the conflict.

With all due respect to the negative ratings, this was never intended to be a full fledged docudrama of the 30 years covering WWI to the end of WWII. It was intended to cover how it affected the formation of several major characters of WWI. And in that it was lacking, although not abysmal.If you wish to watch a series that is far far better, there are two; "The First World War" a 10 part series based on Hew Strachan's book and "The World at War" 26 episodes. Both are available on DVD and are often repeated on the H2 channel. Neither do much for actors, but who cares.Hopefully what happens is that people that are interested by this will follow up by watching these series and Paris 1919, learning a bit more and then checking out some of the wonderful books found in your local library.

This production is rife with oversimplification and inaccuracy. As previously noted, important events from both WWI and WWII are missing in their entirety, making it difficult, if not impossible, for an informed viewer to comprehend even the broad strokes of these significant world events. Film clips used to illustrate the narration are often not properly selected and, as a result, do not accurately portray the events being described. The time-line of events is frequently so out of order that it's impossible to establish a coherent chronology of events. Dramatization for effect is one thing, but the creators of this production have employed artistic license to the degree that this documentary is neither informative nor entertaining. The World Wars was obviously written by someone whose knowledge of history is solely a product of the American education system. The writer should have picked up and read a few history texts first! This was absolute garbage. I watched it once and was so steamed, I've deleted all the episodes from my DVR. This won't be part of my library, and I'd suggest that those who haven't seen it save six hours of their lives.

I had a lot of interest in The World Wars, because I've been interested in World War history in general since I was a lad. The resulting tripe was terribly disappointing. Not only was it badly edited, but the narrator was a plodding, monotone voice that showed little or no emotion during the program. What I thought was an adult level program turned into a middle school level show with frequent recaps just in case the watchers were morons and couldn't remember from one segment to the next. The only factoid I gleaned from this rehash of the facts was the English soldier who possibly had Hitler in his sights during World War I and didn't shoot. I hadn't heard that one. Inaccuracies, distortions and just bad history were the norm. What do you expect? The show featured numerous republicans who love to skew history to their ends, and how can anybody take a show seriously that has former Bush administrators who lied to the American People about WMD's. I'm surprised they didn't dredge up John Poindexter and Oliver North! Shame on you History Channel for turning what could have been a monumental show into a pig trough of slop.