HOW TO WATCH JOEY KING & LOGAN LERMAN'S HEARTBREAKING NEW DRAMA 'WE WERE THE LUCKY ONES'
Looking for a new show to watch? If so, you're in luck! The heartbreaking and emotional new Hulu series We Were the Lucky Ones, starring Joey King and Logan Lerman, is finally available for streaming!
What Is We Were the Lucky Ones About?
The limited series, which is based on Georgia Hunter's 2018 novel by the same name, tells the story of the Kurc family, a Jewish family from Radom, Poland, who have no choice but to separate in their journeys for survival during WWII.
"It is the spring of 1939 and three generations of the Kurc family are doing their best to live normal lives, even as the shadow of war grows closer," the novel's description reads. "The talk around the family Seder table is of new babies and budding romance, not of the increasing hardships threatening Jews in their hometown of Radom, Poland. But soon the horrors overtaking Europe will become inescapable and the Kurcs will be flung to the far corners of the world, each desperately trying to navigate his or her own path to safety."
Where to Watch We Were the Lucky Ones:
The limited series is available on Hulu ($7.99 / month after a 30-day free trial). The first three episodes, titled "Radom," "Lvov" and "Siberia" are available now. Following the three-episode premiere, the rest of the series will air on Thursdays on the streaming platform until its finale on May 2.
Is We Were the Lucky Ones a True Story?
Yes, We Were the Lucky Ones is based on a true story. In fact, the Kurc family tells the story of the author's own family.
"I interestingly grew up very close to my grandfather Addy, he lived down the street from where I lived in Massachusetts and we were together often and yet he never spoke about his Holocaust-era past, it simply wasn't a part of his dialogue," the book's author tells SheKnows.
"It wasn't until a year after he died, thanks to a high school project that I was asked to interview a relative that I discovered that piece of his history," she continues, adding that the few stories "sparked a lot of questions and curiosity." Years later, during a family reunion, the writer learned even more about "the greater Kurc's family narrative." At the time, she thought to herself, "Someone really needs to write this story down, this is unbelievable, these siblings scattered across the world on their own paths to survival."
"I didn't know that someone was going to be me but that's when the idea was seeded," she remembers. "It took me eight years to say ‘I'm gonna do this.'"
Then, in 2008, Hunter traveled across the world with her "little digital voice recorder" to unearth her family's history. "That involved flying all around the world to interview relatives in Brazil, France and across the States, traveling across the family's footsteps across Eastern Europe, following their journey and also collecting any records I could find anywhere from a museum or an archive or a majesty and pulling it all together into what became We Were the Lucky Ones the book," she says.
In 2017, her novel was finally published. Then, in 2018, director Thomas Kail, who ended up directing, executive producing and becoming a showrunner for the series, called her to make her book into a limited series. "It felt like a dream come true," Hunter says.
Talking to Kail, this opportunity was just as exciting. "What I love about the gift economy of books is that it's not really about how many people bought the book, it's how many people did they pass it to," Kail says, referring to the book's connection with readers.
With a story as detailed and emotional as the novel's, screenwriter Erica Lipez had quite a tall order in transforming it to the small screen.
"The challenges of the book are really the gift of it, really," Lipez says. "The fact that it spans nine years, four continents, that you're investing in an ensemble of 12 people equally is really rare." For her, each character's story is so profound and complex that they "could probably make a whole show" by themselves.
Therefore, writing the show became a play in balance in "how to make all those storylines work in concert with each other and the handoff from character to character."
In addition to King and Lerman, the series also stars Hadas Yaron, Henry-Lloyd Hughes, Amit Rahav, Sam Woolf, Michael Aloni, Moran Rosenblatt, Eva Feiler, Lior Ashkenazi, and Robin Weigert.
"Ultimately the family is the lead character of this series," the showrunner continues. "That's who you're desperately hoping will a way back to the dinner table together."
What Can We Expect From the First Three Episodes?
While you may be eager to binge the whole series right now, only the first three episodes are available. But don't fret, Lipez and Kail say these episodes are crucial in setting the scene.
"That first Passover, it was one of our first opportunities for us to see the whole cast together, to see that family around the dinner table," Lipez said of a scene in Episode 1. "I think we all felt chills when we saw that group together."
"It is such a specific family, it is such a specific experience but I think there is such universality in that," she says. "I think so many families can relate to that feeling around the dinner table, eating the food and laughing."
Kail couldn't agree more. "I feel like in many ways the show is can this family have dinner together again?" he says. "Through the detail of this one family, we transcend, and then it becomes your family, and the person next to you. We knew that if we got that right, and we did that in a way that felt honest, then we're all understanding what they're all working to get back to."
How Many Episodes Will the Limited Series Have?
The series will have a total of eight episodes, see the full list below.
Episode 1, "Random": March 28
Episode 2, "LVOV": March 28
Episode 3, "Siberia": March 28
Episode 4, "Casablanca": April 4
Episode 5, "Ilha Das Flores": April 11
Episode 6, "Warsaw": April 18
Episode 7, "Monte Cassino": April 25
Episode 8, "Rio": May 2
Happy watching!
Before you go, click here to see the best TV shows and movies about the Jewish experience.