''A Small Light'' is a

biographical A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or ...

war War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been ...

miniseries A miniseries or mini-series is a television series that tells a story in a predetermined, limited number of episodes. "Limited series" is another more recent US term which is sometimes used interchangeably. , the popularity of miniseries format h ...

created by

Joan Rater Joan Rater is an American television producer and screenwriter. Her most notable work has been for the medical drama ''Grey's Anatomy'', for which she has served as writer, producer and supervising producer for over fifty separate episodes. She is ...

and

Tony Phelan Tony Phelan is an American television screenwriter, producer and director. He is married to television producer and screenwriter Joan Rater. Phelan is best known for his work on ABC's ''Grey's Anatomy'', for which he has been nominated for two Emmy ...

. It premiered on

National Geographic ''National Geographic'' (formerly the ''National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as NAT GEO) is a popular American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. Known for its photojournalism, it is one of the most widely ...

on May 1, 2023. The miniseries became available to stream on

Disney+ The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment Entertainment is a form of activity that holds the attention and interest of an audience or gives pleasure and deligh ...

and

Hulu Hulu () is an American subscription streaming service majority-owned by The Walt Disney Company, with Comcast's NBCUniversal holding a minority stake. It was launched on October 29, 2007 and it offers a library of films and television serie ...

the following day. It received widespread critical acclaim.

Premise

Secretary A secretary, administrative professional, administrative assistant, executive assistant, administrative officer, administrative support specialist, clerk, military assistant, management assistant, office secretary, or personal assistant is a w ...

Miep Gies Hermine "Miep" Gies (; ; 15 February 1909 – 11 January 2010) was one of the Dutch citizens who hid Anne Frank, her family (Otto Frank, Margot Frank, Edith Frank) and four other Dutch Jews (Fritz Pfeffer, Hermann van Pels, Auguste van Pels, Pet ...

helps her

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

employer

Otto Frank Otto Heinrich Frank (12 May 1889 – 19 August 1980) was a German businessman who later became a resident of the Netherlands and Switzerland. He was the father of Anne and Margot Frank and husband of Edith Frank, and was the sole member of ...

, his family, and other Jewish refugees go into hiding during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

after the

German invasion of the Netherlands The German invasion of the Netherlands ( nl, Duitse aanval op Nederland), otherwise known as the Battle of the Netherlands ( nl, Slag om Nederland), was a military campaign part of Case Yellow (german: Fall Gelb), the Nazi German invasion of t ...

Cast and characters

Main

Bel Powley Isobel Dorothy Powley (born 7 March 1992) is an English actress. Powley was born and raised in London, where she was educated at Holland Park School. She began acting as a teenager on television, starring on the CBBC action television series '' ...

** Agi Tietjen as young Miep *

Joe Cole Joseph John Cole (born 8 November 1981) is an English football coach and former professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder or winger in the Premier League, Ligue 1, League One and United Soccer League. He is regarded as one ...

as Jan Gies *

Amira Casar Amira Casar is a British-born actress who grew up in England, Ireland, and France. Early life Amira is the daughter of a Kurds, Kurdish father and a Russian mother. She was born in London and was subsequently raised in England, Ireland, and Fran ...

Edith Frank Edith Frank (; 16 January 1900 – 6 January 1945) was the mother of Holocaust diarist Anne Frank, and her older sister Margot. After the family were discovered in hiding in Amsterdam during the Nazi occupation, she was transported to Auschwitz- ...

* Billie Boullet as

Anne Frank Annelies Marie "Anne" Frank (, ; 12 June 1929 – )Research by The Anne Frank House in 2015 revealed that Frank may have died in February 1945 rather than in March, as Dutch authorities had long assumed"New research sheds new light on Anne Fra ...

** Zoe Ponzo as young Anne * Ashley Brooke as

Margot Frank Margot Betti Frank (16 February 1926 – ) was the elder daughter of Otto Frank and Edith Frank and the elder sister of Anne Frank. Margot's deportation order from the Gestapo hastened the Frank family into hiding. According to the diary of her ...

** Polly Sakoufaki as young Margot *

Liev Schreiber Isaac Liev Schreiber (; born October 4, 1967) is an American actor, director, screenwriter, producer, and narrator. He became known during the late 1990s and early 2000s after appearing in several independent films, and later mainstream Hollywoo ...

Recurring

Guest

* Lisa Karlström as Charlotte Kaletta

Episodes

Production

Development

It was announced in February 2022 that

had greenlit the miniseries from

, which

and

wrote and

Susanna Fogel Susanna Fogel is an American director, screenwriter and author, best known for co-writing the 2019 film ''Booksmart'' and for co-writing and directing the 2018 action/comedy ''The Spy Who Dumped Me''. Her many accolades include a DGA Award and nom ...

directing multiple episodes of the series. In April

was cast as Gies, with

starring as

and

as Jan Gies.

, Billie Boullet and Ashley Brooke would join in June, with Boullet cast as

. Production began by July 2022, with filming taking place between

Hradec Králové Hradec Králové (; german: Königgrätz) is a city of the Czech Republic. It has about 91,000 inhabitants. It is the capital of the Hradec Králové Region. The historic centre of Hradec Králové is well preserved and is protected by law as an ...

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

and

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

in summer 2022.

Music

The series' soundtrack was executive produced and co-produced by

Este Haim Este Haim (born 14 March 1986) is an American musician and composer. She is best known as a member of the pop-rock trio Haim, which Este formed with her younger sisters Alana and Danielle. Este is Haim's bass player and a vocalist. She co-writes ...

, and features covers by musicians including

Danielle Haim Danielle Sari Haim (born February 16, 1989) is an American musician. She is the lead guitarist and vocalist of the pop rock band Haim, which also consists of her two sisters, Este Haim and Alana Haim. Danielle also serves as the group's drummer i ...

Kamasi Washington Kamasi Washington (born February 18, 1981) is an American jazz saxophonist, usually playing tenor saxophone. Archived July 9, 2015. Career Washington was born in 1981 and raised in Los Angeles, California. He is a graduate of the Academy of ...

Sharon Van Etten Sharon Katharine Van Etten (born February 26, 1981) is an American singer-songwriter. She has released six studio albums, the latest of which is '' We've Been Going About This All Wrong'' (2022). Early life Van Etten was born in Belleville, N ...

Angel Olsen Angel Olsen (born Angelina Maria Carroll; January 22, 1987) is an American singer-songwriter and musician from St. Louis, Missouri who lives in Asheville, North Carolina. To date, Olsen has released six studio albums: ''Half Way Home'' (2012), ...

Weyes Blood Natalie Laura Mering (born June 11, 1988), known professionally as Weyes Blood (pronounced ), is an American singer, songwriter, and musician. She was primarily raised in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. She has been performing her own material under ...

Remi Wolf Remi Francis Wolf (born February 2, 1996) is an American singer and songwriter from California. As a senior at Palo Alto High School, she appeared as a contestant on ''American Idol'' in 2014. After completing her studies at USC Thornton School ...

King Princess Mikaela Mullaney Straus (born December 19, 1998), known by her stage name King Princess, is an American singer, songwriter, and musician from Brooklyn, New York. She is signed to Mark Ronson's label Zelig Records, an imprint of Columbia Records. ...

Orville Peck Orville Peck is a South African country musician based in Canada. He wears a fringed mask and has never shown his face publicly. He released his debut album ''Pony'' in 2019, followed by the EP '' Show Pony'' the next year. His second studio a ...

, and

Moses Sumney Moses Sumney is a Ghanaian-American singer-songwriter. His self-recorded EP, ''Mid-City Island'', was released in 2014. He released another five-song EP in 2016, titled ''Lamentations''. His first full-length album, ''Aromanticism'', was released ...

. The soundtrack album was released on May 23, 2023.

Release

''A Small Light'' premiered on

on May 1, 2023. It was released on

and

on May 2, 2023. It later aired on Freeform on May 6, 2023.

Reception

Audience viewership

On May 4, 2023, according to Jordan Williams of ''

Screen Rant ''Screen Rant'' is an entertainment website that offers news in the fields of television, films, video games, and film theories. ''Screen Rant'' was launched by Vic Holtreman in 2003, and originally had its primary office in Ogden, Utah. ''Scr ...

'', "With over 11 million recorded attention signals across online platforms, ''A Small Light'' is generating considerable buzz from potential viewers, including the second-greatest hype on YouTube for May 2023 releases."

Critical response

The

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

reported a 100% approval rating with an average rating of 8.80/10, based on 34 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "

's arresting performance burns bright in ''A Small Light'', a sensitive portrait of heroism in the face of all-encompassing tragedy."

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 83 out of 100 based on 16 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". Christine Persaud and Nick Perry of ''

Digital Trends Digital Trends is a Portland, Oregon-based tech news, lifestyle, and information website that publishes news, reviews, guides, how-to articles, descriptive videos and podcasts about technology and consumer electronics products. With offices i ...

'' included ''A Small Light'' in their "Best Shows on Hulu Right Now" list. Kelly Connolly of ''

TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media company that provides television program Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or t ...

'' included ''A Small Light'' in their "74 Best TV Shows on Hulu Right Now" list. Tamara Fuentes of ''

Cosmopolitan Cosmopolitan may refer to: Food and drink * Cosmopolitan (cocktail), also known as a "Cosmo" History * Rootless cosmopolitan, a Soviet derogatory epithet during Joseph Stalin's anti-Semitic campaign of 1949–1953 Hotels and resorts * Cosmopoli ...

'' included ''A Small Light'' in their "30 Best TV Shows of 2023 We Can't Get Enough Of" list.

Accolades

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Small Light, A Biographical television series Cultural depictions of Anne Frank National Geographic (American TV channel) original programming Television series by ABC Studios Television shows filmed in the Czech Republic Television shows filmed in the Netherlands Television shows set in Amsterdam 2023 American television series debuts 2023 American television series endings 2020s American drama television series