It is definitely one of the best series of its type and holds up really well in 2016. There are only two demerits to it that one should be advised of before diving in. Firstly, its coverage of the Eastern Front is a little thin. The series actually covers the Eastern Front better than its contemporaries (and, truth be told, better than many documentaries today) but it relies a little too heavily on German sources and interviews. This reliance in and of itself is not bad, but the voluminous scholarship of the late 1980s and 90s on the Eastern Front (eg David Glantz) has shown the extent to which the Germans overemphasized the "General Winter" and "Asiatic hordes" tropes to mask the fact that the Soviets eventually outfought their German enemies.The second deficit is that there is no discussion of Ultra or other codebreaking efforts. Ultra itself only broke a few weeks after the last episode aired with the publication of the book Ultra at War. That means that some of the episodes, like the one on the Battle of the Atlantic or the Battle of Midway, are missing a vital piece of the narrative puzzle.

However, these demerits are relatively minor in light of The World at War's many virtues. The interviews with direct participants came at the right time as many are quite candid and it's one thing to know Primo Levi from Survival in Auschwitz, but another to see him talk about the Holocaust directly. The graphics, although dated with a seventies aesthetic, are clear and intelligible (another virtue not often present in today's documentaries!), and the stentorian narration by Olivier is top notch. It also has an incredibly impressive scope; when I rewatched it just a few years ago, I was surprised at just how much of the war it covers.

I agree with everyone's comments.

• Regarding the Eastern Front - it is a bit thin and dependent on Germans available at the time, who had an axe to grind, both in terms of the weather, the vast expanses and Hitler's generalship. A better eastern front documentatry would be Soviet Storm
• The beginning regarding that small town in France states the impact of the war and cruelty briefly and concisely.
• Olivier was the best narrator for this very serious topic.
• I was surprised about how unsantized it was regarding the deaths. Today's documentaries have polite "look away" footage after an initial description or still.
• Red Star was heart-breaking; it brought the suffering and need for revenge of the Russian people to life, with their words and poetry.

Very, very good. [r/Documentaries] (https://www.reddit.com/r/Documentaries/) considers it the best ever.