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»Knight of the Peanut«: Silke Haller (ChrisTine Urspruch) helps Professor Karl-Friedrich Boerne (Jan Josef Liefers) in armor.
Photo: Thomas Kost / WDR
The »Anabaptist Experience« is to take place in Münster, an outdoor event with cheerful singing of Minnesota and severed limbs.
The Anabaptists were a radical Protestant movement that established a regime of terror in the city in the thirties of the 16th century with Bible studies and blood baths.
The cruel climax came when the leader Jan van Leiden beheaded one of his wives in a public ceremony in 1534 after she had criticized his polygamy.
The head-from-number should also be the highlight of the re-enactment spectacle that forms the background for the murder case in the current Münster »crime scene«: The Radtke showman family is planning their Anabaptist event in an old castle, which they only recently became a long-established one Family.
There the Taliban Protestantism of the Anabaptists should be reproduced as authentically as possible;
the fake blood should actually flow in rivers.
But before the »Experience« can start, the showman patriarch Radtke and his armor drifts dead in the moat.
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On observation post: Inspector Thiel (Axel Prahl)
Photo: Thomas Kost / WDR
That could have provided plenty of material for an unleashed mummery like some of the better "crime scenes" in Münster.
Because the present seems so peaceful in the bicycle metropolis, for the television series one was often immersed in the dark prehistory of the city and told the crime story in the tone of scary clothes, including mummies.
But oh, hardly a gag ignites in the new episode, and no capital is made of the shudder potential of the excessive violence of the past.
On one occasion, Inspector Thiel (Axel Prahl) calls his colleague Boerne (Jan Josef Liefers) the "Knight of the Peanut" - in reference to the movie classic "Knight of the Coconut".
But the anarchic humor of Monty Python, which does not shy away from blood fountains, is far from this very, very good "crime scene".
How does comedy work under corona conditions?
Director Buket Alakuş previously shot beautiful ethnic comedies such as "Once Hans with a hot sauce", and screenwriter Benjamin Hessler illuminated the human subconscious as an absurd horror trip for Marvin Kren's terrific Netflix series "Freud".
But the common »crime scene« about the Anabaptist tourist show now functions neither as a disguise nor as a grotesque violence.
What, to be fair, is also due to the production conditions of the film: "Long live the king!" Was one of the first "crime scenes" to be shot completely under strict health conditions in the television industry in June after the pandemic-related filming stop after that, production was finished extremely quickly by ARD standards.
After all, a “crime scene” bottleneck loomed due to the lockdown in the spring.
And then drugs and dementia
Comedy under corona conditions - that may be particularly difficult.
And the fact that a particularly light-footed Münster “crime scene” (completed before the pandemic) ran just a month ago with the episode “Limbus”, now reinforces the feeling of tension that the new episode leaves behind.
As if one were to distrust one's own plot and one's own punch lines, the re-enactment spectacle, which actually has enough curiosities, crass and sicknesses, is supplemented by a number of less plausible side aspects: The victim suffered from dementia - which leads to some complicated explanations about the old age disease.
And an internationally sought-after drug boss sneaks in at the opening event of the “Anabaptist Experience” - which is why investigators from various departments step on their feet in the end.
It only becomes interesting when Münster's top nerd, Professor Boerne, in a conversation with his colleague Thiel, who is otherwise less well-to-do in cultural and historical matters, tries snippily to put the Anabaptist regime of horror into a larger context: "What all this means for the Münster city psyche, You can't even gauge that.
I tell you, the Münster resident feels a deep collective aversion to any form of totalitarianism. "
Religion, delusion, excess - there would have been more.
If only it had been a little bit of "coconut" -style splatter slapstick.
After witnessing the preparations for the beheading scene, Boerne is furious about the "violent pornographic exploitation of the history of Münster."
In contrast to the professor, we would not have objected if the "crime scene" had gone much more in this direction.
Rating:
4 out of 10 points
"Scene of the crime: Long live the king!",
Sunday, 8:15 pm, Das Erste
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