‘The Narrow Road to the Deep North' Is a Brutal but Poetic War Drama
Jacob Elordi stars in the brutalizing five-part Australian mini-series 'The Narrow Road to the Deep North,' available on Amazon Prime Video. The show is based on the novel by Richard Flanagan and combines a sweetly doomed romance, a layered domestic drama and a harrowing World War II tale.
Elordi is terrific as Dorrigo, a young aspiring doctor heading off to war. Before he is deployed, he has a doting girlfriend, Ella (Olivia DeJonge), but he falls hard for his uncle's young wife, Amy (Odessa Young), and it's their taboo love that he visits in his mind during the darkest experiences of his life. Dorrigo is one of thousands of Commonwealth soldiers taken prisoner in the jungles of Thailand, where Japanese soldiers starve and torture them, work them to death, behead some, beat others for hours on end.
We also see Dorrigo in the 1980s, now played by Ciaran Hinds; he's a successful surgeon and a comfortable philanderer. He is haunted and hollowed-out in some ways, of course, but he has a life, a practice, and now a book of a fellow prisoner's paintings is coming out, and he has been asked to speak about it.
Each episode bounces around in time, and for once, split timelines come as a huge relief. The jungle scenes are agonizing, even by prestige-misery standards, and you, too, long to retreat, with Dorrigo, into sunny memory.
Dorrigo is a poetry buff, and poems are woven into the whole show, as are painting and music, these expressions of humanity that surface during circumstances both mundane and depraved. A jolly woman plays tunes in bar; a skeletal soldier sings 'The Prisoner's Song' as he lies among his dysentery-stricken companions. The show depicts a dizzying variety of suffering, but it is also generous with its pity. There's a visceral quality to most scenes — the clammy humidity, the golden warmth of a sandy beach, the icy sterility of a gray office — as the show teases out the pains and pleasures of the body along with its grander ideas about the mind, the heart, the world, war.
'Narrow' is patient, but it isn't slow. It is also sometimes so illegibly dark that I resorted to turning on the audio descriptions.
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FAIRLEA, WV (WVNS) — The State Fair of West Virginia is an event that many people often look forward to throughout the years. However the 1940s brought some changes to the annual event. The State Fair of West Virginia in the Roaring 20s On March 19, 1941, the fair became the State Fair of West Virginia from being previously known as the Greenbrier Valley Fair. The designation came after the fair's potential and popularity was recognized. Although 1941 was an important year for the fair due to the change, events around the world affected the State Fair of West Virginia for many years in the 1940s. World War II cancelled the fair in 1942, 1943, 1944, and 1945, according to information provided on the State Fair of West Virginia's website. The annual event did not make a return until 1946. Due to the cancellation of the fair in 1942, fairgoers had to wait to celebrate the 1941 designation of the State Fair. In the link on the history section of the State Fair of West Virginia's website, the provided information stated that due to World War II, a decision was made by the Board of Governors that reportedly stated: Fashion of the Fair: style trends throughout the last century at the State Fair of West Virginia In taking assessment of the war situation, which has necessitated government restricting of the sale of auto tires, the rationing of gasoline, the regulation and the possible restrictions in the near future of all forms of travel and transportation except that which is absolutely necessary, we recognize an insurmountable obstacle in the way of conducting our fair and whereas, it is also our desire to conform to the cheerfully acquiesce in any action deemed necessary by the government in its war effort, now therefore, in it resolved that we abandon our efforts to operate this year and definitely call off our fair for 1942. Early Fairs and State Fair History link in the history section on the State Fair of WV website Events at the State Fair of West Virginia in the 1940s included events such as horse shows, draft horse shows, horse/harness racing, beef and dairy cattle shows, livestock judging, poultry and fowl exhibits, dog shows, agriculture shows, 4-H Club shows, and fireworks. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
