''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 basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or curric ...

war War is an armed conflict between the armed forces of states, or between governmental forces and armed groups that are organized under a certain command structure and have the capacity to sustain military operations, or between such organi ...

drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...

miniseries In the United States, a miniseries or mini-series is a television show or series that tells a story in a predetermined, limited number of episodes. Many miniseries can also be referred to, and shown, as a television film. " Limited series" is ...

about

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

, a secretary who helped her

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

employer

Otto Frank Otto Heinrich Frank (12 May 1889 – 19 August 1980) was a German businessman, and the father of Anne Frank. He edited and published the first edition of her diary in 1947 (subsequently known in English as ''The Diary of a Young Girl'') and adv ...

, his family (including

Anne Frank Annelies Marie Frank (, ; 12 June 1929 – February or March 1945)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 li ...

), and other Jewish refugees go into hiding after the

German invasion of the Netherlands The German invasion of the Netherlands (), otherwise known as the Battle of the Netherlands (), was a military campaign, part of Case Yellow (), the Nazi German invasion of the Low Countries (Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands) and Fran ...

during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. The series was created by Joan Rater and Tony Phelan. It premiered on

National Geographic ''National Geographic'' (formerly ''The National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as ''Nat Geo'') is an American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. The magazine was founded in 1888 as a scholarly journal, nine ...

on May 1, 2023 and on

Disney+ The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...

and

Hulu Hulu (, ) is an American Subscription business model, subscription streaming media service owned by Disney Streaming, a subsidiary of the Disney Entertainment segment of the Walt Disney Company. It was launched on October 29, 2007, initially as ...

the following day.

Premise

Secretary A secretary, administrative assistant, executive assistant, personal secretary, or other similar titles is an individual whose work consists of supporting management, including executives, using a variety of project management, program evalu ...

helps her

employer

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

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

after the

Cast and characters

Main

* Bel Powley as

** Agi Tietjen as young Miep * Joe Cole as Jan Gies *

Amira Casar Amira Casar is a French-British film actress. She was nominated for a César Award for Most Promising Actress for the 1997 film ''La Vérité si je mens !, La Vérité si je mens!'' and also for the Palme d'Or at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival for ...

as Edith Frank * Billie Boullet as

** 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. He has received numerous accolades including a Tony Award as well as nominations for nine Primetime Emmy Awards and five Golden Globe Awards. Schreiber's early film roles incl ...

Recurring

Guest

Episodes

Production

Development

It was announced in February 2022 that

had greenlit the miniseries from

, which Tony Phelan and Joan Rater 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 Bel Powley was cast as Gies, with

starring as

and Joe Cole 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 (; ) is a city of the Czech Republic. It has about 94,000 inhabitants. It is the capital of the Hradec Králové Region. The historic centre of Hradec Králové is well preserved and is protected as an Cultural monument (Czech R ...

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

and

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

in summer 2022.

Music

The series' soundtrack was executive produced and co-produced by Este Haim, and features covers by musicians including Danielle Haim, Kamasi Washington,

Sharon Van Etten Sharon Katharine Van Etten (born February 26, 1981) is an American singer-songwriter, musician and actress. Originally from New Jersey, and currently based in Los Angeles, Van Etten's music is noted for its indie rock aesthetic and personal lyric ...

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

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

, Remi Wolf, King Princess, Orville Peck, and Moses Sumney. 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 comic books. It is owned by Valnet, parent of publications including Comic Book Resources, Collider, MovieWeb and XDA Developers. ...

'', "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 and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, 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 ...

reported a 100% approval rating with an average rating of 8.80/10, based on 34 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, " Bel Powley's arresting performance burns bright in ''A Small Light'', a sensitive portrait of heroism in the face of all-encompassing tragedy."

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, 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 in P ...

'' 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 In mass communication, digital media is any media (communication), communication media that operates in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital content can be created, vi ...

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

Cosmopolitan Cosmopolitan may refer to: Internationalism * World citizen, one who eschews traditional geopolitical divisions derived from national citizenship * Cosmopolitanism, the idea that all of humanity belongs to a single moral community * Cosmopolitan ...

'' 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 Television Academy Honors winners