Icon: enlarge
75 years of German history: Nina Rubin (Meret Becker) and Robert Karow (Mark Waschke) with corpse
Photo: Stefan Erhard / rbb
Rubin, Karow and the German guilt
Three social systems, three generations of guilt, 75 years of German-German history.
On the 30th anniversary of reunification, digging is going on in Berlin again, very deep.
The patriarch of a construction clan lies shot dead on the balcony of his company;
around his neck a plaque with the Nazi slogan "I was too cowardly to fight for Germany".
Nina Rubin (Meret Becker) and Robert Karow (Mark Waschke) enter the tricky story of a family in which each member represents their own way of dealing with guilt and repression.
From the West German building contractor who is building a Shoah center in Israel, to the East German right-wing populist from a party called the Völkische Front, who dismisses the Holocaust as a triviality, to the young left-wing radical who gets bogged down in hatred and love for father and grandfather.
That could easily have turned into an over-constructed political tableau, but here the exact dialogues and coherent twists by screenwriter Christoph Darnstädt - who previously wrote the Tschiller "Tatort" - lead deep into the culpable entanglements of a family.
Berlin as the topography of German-German horror.
Moving.
(Broadcast: October 4, 2020).
Icon: enlarge
Punks against the police: Carol Schuler (left) and Anna Pieri Zuercher filming their first "Tatort" episode
Photo: Sava Hlavacek / Sava Hlavacek / SRF
Grandjean, Ott and punk rock
Züri is burning!
The new Swiss "Tatort" wants to link the political struggles of the past with those of the present.
After finding a cremated corpse, the new investigative duo around case analyst Tessa Ott (Carol Schuler) and Commissioner Isabelle Grandjean (Anna Pieri Zuercher) are drawn into a case for which they have to look back in 1980, when in Zurich there were battles between police officers and Punks raged.
At the beginning of the renovated Swiss "Tatort", things are going to be urban and highly political.
As if one wanted to highlight the clear break with the predecessor area in the tranquil Lucerne.
The troupe around Commissioner Flückiger, played by Stefan Gubser, was seen in episodes of very different quality.
There were highlights like the case that came along in one shot - but the parting sequence, in which those responsible got caught up in conspiracy theories, was a real low.
We hope all the more that the modernization efforts with the women's doubles will bear fruit.
With Profiler actress Carol Schuler there is at least an actress on board who has already been at the forefront of the new German series television: Her appearance as a Kurdish fight rapper in the hip-hop panorama "Skylines" on Netflix was terrifyingly good (broadcast: 28 October).
Icon: enlarge
Increased number of investigators: Jörg Hartmann (left), Miroslav Nemec (2nd from left), Aylin Tezel and Udo Wachtveitl in the anniversary "crime scene"
Photo: © Frank Dicks / Frank Dicks / WDR
Batic, Leitmayr, Faber and the Mafia
On November 29, 1970, the first "Tatort" ran with "Taxi to Leipzig", the 50th anniversary is to be celebrated with a double episode with the Munich and Dortmund teams.
The way there was a tremendous part of the route.
Because at the lockdown in March 2020, some scenes of the Munich part were still missing, and the shooting of the Dortmund strand had not even started.
The particular pressure in contrast to other TV productions during the Corona stress test: You didn't want to rewrite the script of the ambitious crossover "Tatort" (Bernd Lange) in order to be able to deal more easily with the new hygiene requirements, and you also had November 29th as the deadline in the neck.
All the scenes are now in the can.
We can expect big "Tatort" cinema from this two-part epic about a family pizzeria that is involved in Mafia deals.
The Munich part was directed by Dominik Graf ("In the face of crime"), who staged some of the best German gangster thrillers;
The Dortmund part was directed by Pia Strietmann, who last year delivered the celebrated high-end city shocker "Unclear situation" (broadcast: late autumn 2020).
Icon: enlarge
In the face of misogyny: Axel Milberg (left), Almila Bagriacik and Thomas Kügel during a break in filming
Photo: Christine Schroeder / NDR
Borowski, Sahin and misogyny
So far, the team around the long-established Klaus Borowski (Axel Milberg) and the relatively new Mila Sahin (Almila Bagriacik) has not yet really settled in.
Perhaps Bagriacik, known from "4 Blocks", should simply have a stronger role in the investigation.
Maybe it will work in the next case.
The plot revolves around misogyny on the Internet: After the corpse of a woman was found next to a club, Borowski and Sahin are confronted with sympathizers of the Incel movement, i.e. with men who live out their misogyny in Internet forums.
An extremely urgent topic - but one that is also extremely difficult to implement.
How do you depict misogyny without giving the word to misogynists?
The director was Nicole Weegmann, who previously staged the Love Parade drama "Life afterwards" and is familiar with difficult subjects.
A special highlight could be the appearance of Arndt Klawitter, who has established himself as a specialist for concise "crime scene" episode roles.
Wherever he appears it is usually a little disgusting and at the same time very virtuoso.
Here he mimes a cocky pick-up artist, a macho who has elevated "towing" to an alleged art form (broadcast: winter 2020/2021).
Icon: enlarge
How does "Tatort" work?
Jasna Fritzi Bauer (left), Mads Andersen and Luise Wolfram
Photo: Radio Bremen
Moormann, Andersen, Selb and the new birth
"Online first!"
That is the new motto of the ARD, where all important productions are now placed in the media library before the linear broadcast.
That won't happen with "Tatort" - the crime thriller, which continues to enjoy top ratings, is to be kept as the last big campfire on German television.
But Bremen's "Tatort" still has a nice tribute to the media library beliefs: Before the new team starts producing the first episode, the actors shoot a mockumentary for the internet.
Linda Selb, Mads Andersen and Jasna Fritzi Bauer are currently in front of the camera to self-ironically show in "How to Tatort" the pressure you are under when you get the prestigious job in the venerable series.
The six by ten minutes are produced by the bildundtonfabrik, which also launched the comedy "How to Sell Drugs Online (Fast)" for Netflix.
The fact that actress Bauer already took part in the hilarious celebrity pseudo-documentary "Jerks" can only make the fun of the fake easier.
Only after completion of the mockumentary will the regular debut episode about the team Liv Moormann (Bauer), Mads Andersen (Salim) and Luise Wolfram (Selb) be filmed in November.
In the old Bremen "Tatorten" with Sabine Postel and Oliver Mommsen it was always possible to combine difficult social issues with daring narrative concepts.
That it could stay that way is at least supported by the author's selection: Christian Jeltsch wrote some of the most explosive political "crime scenes" for Radio Bremen, including one about a Frontex mission (broadcast: summer 2021).
The Sunday crime season on ARD begins on September 6th with a "crime scene" from Vienna. As usual, read our "Crosshair" column on Friday and the quick check on Sunday.
Icon: The mirror
