TV REVIEW : ‘Road’ Adds Little in WWII Glut

There seems to be a new TV documentary or videocassette on World War II once a week. If you’re adding to the glut of overviews, you’d better come up with something special. Since British TV gave us the best of these--”The World at War” series--the A&E; cable network’s “The Road to War” might seem promising, especially once you hear it’s an eight-part series produced by the BBC.

However, the first episode, “Germany” (airing tonight at 6 and again at 10), indicates that the series is going to be a long, slow haul down a well-traveled “Road,” with few fresh insights from our guides. The hour follows a predictable course, running via stock footage and unenlightening eyewitness accounts through post-World War I Germany, the rise of Hitler (very superficially presented), the Reichstag fire, the persecution of the Jews, the hypnotic appeal of Hitler to the masses, the 1936 Olympics, and so on in a classy, high-toned but perfunctory manner that may put even history buffs to sleep. This “Road’s” editing, music and narration has none of the drive that propelled those elements in “The World at War.”

Future episodes will focus on one country at a time--Japan, Britain, the United States, etc.--except for the final installment, “Global War.”