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ZDF presenter Lanz
Photo: Markus Hertrich / ZDF
Soothing "high tension"
Last Thursday,
Markus Lanz
achieved
the best ratings since 2016
with his
ZDF
broadcast: 24.4 percent market share. Because of such numbers, Lanz has been assigned new qualities or at least new relevance for the last few months. I belong to the 24.4 percent and for my part I can say: neither nor. Lanz hasn't gotten better or more relevant, he's just there. Three times a week, sometimes with Karl Lauterbach, sometimes with Robin Alexander.
Lanz often says in these rounds that he finds something "highly exciting", but I didn't get a single insight from his show, because Lanz is equally interested in everything and each of his guests (or at least performs like that).
This leads to a basically friendly atmosphere with an absolutely uniform course of the conversation (unless Armin Laschet is a guest).
Daily television couldn't be more relaxed - and that's exactly why I tune in.
Because nothing calms me down as much as Markus Lanz, when he finds something "exciting".
- Hannah Pilarczyk
TV feature section for a good mood
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"Voice Kids" jury
Photo: Richard Huebner / SAT.1
I see? It is not absolutely necessary that the chairmen of casting show juries are inhuman, disciplinarian, destroyer of individuality? Is it possible to judge artists and their art on television with heart and philanthropy, with clear, professional, critical judgments? The
ProSieben
show "
The Voice Kids
" is touching art television. The jury, currently made up of Stefanie Klos von Silbermond, Alvaro Soler, Wincent Weiss, Smudo and Michi Beck, judges with heart, humor and an understanding of art.
This is TV features as I imagine it to be.
In all seriousness it seems to be about the search for new talent, fantastic new voices, beauty of expression, personality.
The staging of the jury - brilliant: in their upturned armchairs we watch the judges' faces soften.
Or stay hard.
It's not an all-praise show just because the artists are little people.
Criticism is only packaged in a humane and delicate manner.
That doesn't make them any less clear.
But the failed one can usually continue to live well with it.
And in the end, real, cool, small, and soon to be big artists often win.
Maybe ProSieben does something like that with literature.
I would be there right away!
-
Volker Weidermann
Royal Touch TV
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Prince Philips coffin at the April 17th memorial service
Photo: Pool / Max Mumby / Getty Images
When the sugar can came into the picture, I needed encouragement - in real time.
Like all
major royal events
, I watched the funeral for Prince Philip on television last weekend.
When his two carriage ponies were brought into the picture during the live broadcast from Windsor Castle (and Philips gloves and the little box in which he had kept his treats for the animals were on the now orphaned carriage seat), which, at the request of the deceased Duke of If his coffin was driven past them into the chapel, I was glad I had rushed my way home a short while earlier so as not to miss the start of the special.
Switch on on time and, even more, adjust your daily schedule to the TV program - these are cultural techniques that we have forgotten since you can stream almost everything individually at the convenient time or briefly rewind programs that have already started on the loop TV.
Royal touch TV only works live and direct for me, because I regularly need encouragement.
"Oh God, his ponies!" I chatted to a friend, "I'm crying too," she wrote back, and so we commented live on Charles' skill level, the suddenly tiny-looking Queen - and were silent with the highly knowledgeable
BBC
commentators when it was appropriate.
Spatially separated, united in the television feeling, sometimes it still works.
-
Anja Rützel
The Hundred Thousand Assassin
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Dirk Steffens explores the Macaronesian island world
Photo: Oliver Roetz / ZDF
Until recently, I thought I had a pretty great job.
And I was absolutely convinced that nobody would ever get past my great idol, James Bond.
Then he showed up, Mr. Überall, a great, good-humored hundred thousand assassin - and that in the middle of public television!
Even before sunrise I sometimes jump out of bed and turn on the TV to start the day with him and let his inexhaustible curiosity and energy push me through the Corona period:
Dirk Steffens
, presenter of documentary series such as
» Terra X: Fascination Earth «
, the consequences of which are constantly on
3sat
or
ZDFneo
run and be repeated.
The man is constantly pounding in the helicopter over the most magnificent areas of our planet, stroking baby animals, climbing volcanoes and flirting with pretty scientists.
What a guy!
And what a nice guy!
Steffens lives out the great adventure for us.
The perfect lockdown hero.
-
Lars-Olav Beier
Chugging power plants of reason
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Scene from »Munich Murder«
Photo: Hendrik Heiden / ZDF
In difficult times like ours, which seduce many people to shut down their minds, crime novels are reliably chugging powerhouses of reason. After years of television diet, I find myself in the pandemic watching series crime thrills. They pay homage to the ideals of enlightenment, the skill in dealing with dangerous situations and the human ability to combine. My favorite series are called »
Death in Paradise
« and »
München Mord
« (various episodes on
ZDF
-Media library available). For me they are easy to confuse, because one of the series is set on a Caribbean island, where palm trees grow and waves lap and for many people dreamlike conditions prevail; the other series takes place in Munich, which for me personally is paradise.
"Death in Paradise" is a British series with various investigators, the detectives are mostly cranky and the detectives are beautiful and clever.
"Munich Mord" is a German crime thriller with three mentally deranged police forces, whereby the two men played by Alexander Held and Marcus Mittermeier are either amazed or amused by the talents of their colleague, portrayed by Bernadette Heerwagen.
Incidentally, this is what my two favorite series have in common: They are not just celebrations of reason, but also triumphs of comedy.
-
Wolfgang Höbel
Science can do it
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A "secret of forensic medicine" is revealed
Photo: Nitro
My friend introduced me to the "secrets of forensic medicine". She has been using "
Medical Detectives
", a multi-part US forensic documentary series from the 1990s, for months as a safe remedy for lockdown insomnia (at night on
Vox
, on Friday and Saturday in prime time on
Nitro
). At the latest in the second of the murder cases, which are solved through meticulousness, expertise, ingenuity and technical progress (the scheme is always the same, the cases are often similar, the methods too), she nods away. Probably also due to the sonorous voice of Hubertus Bengtsch, who speaks the voiceover in the German version.
After I initially found all of this, pardon: dreadfully boring, I now stay spellbound, marvel at tissue and DNA analyzes or blood splatter vectors - and can at least temporarily indulge in the deeply reassuring belief that science, here is also the most savvy serial killer is able to convict, ultimately also a killer virus like Covid-19 will come across.
Before I think too long about the fact that it sometimes takes years or decades for the medical detectives to be successful, I usually finally fall asleep.
Luckily.
-
Andreas Borcholte
A head hostess as a mother substitute
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Heide Keller was still on board
Photo: Dirk Bartling / ZDF
I've traveled a lot in the past few months. I looked for vintage cars in Cuba, dived for corals off Palau, and danced the tango in Montevideo. In between I even had to flee from the Malaysian mafia. Does that not seem plausible to you? You're right. After all, we're supposed to stay home for a year. But while my body lounged on the sofa, my mind traveled. On board the "
dream ship
". Believe me, I hadn't seen a single episode of this
ZDF
fantasy series
before Corona
. But boredom, overwhelmed by Netflix, and wanderlust do strange things.
I saw the first episodes stunned because of the crazy plot twists and countless clichés, then I was fascinated for the same reasons.
And finally in love.
Especially in the head hostess Beatrice, whom Heide Keller played with zeal and cheerfulness for decades.
Beatrice solves every conflict, but also interferes in everyone.
She is there for everyone, but also wants to know everything.
She is funny, friendly, and smart about life.
Beatrice is like my mother.
Which I see so seldom in these times.
Maybe that's why I like to travel around the world with her so much.
-
Elisa von Hof
Mr. Paschulke in Cambodia
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Sanam Afrashteh and Guido Hammesfahr in »Löwenzahn«
Photo: Antje Dittmann / ZDF
Recently watched the end of "Apocalypse Now" with the twelve-year-old, Colonel Kurtz's monologue in the jungle ("The horror, the horror"), simply because Marlon Brando is Mr. Paschulke from "
Löwenzahn
", Fritz Fuchs' annoying neighbor . Helmut Krauss, who has played Paschulke since 1981, was also the voice actor for Marlon Brando. The child loves "dandelions" especially in lockdown because it "learns something" there. So is the father. Even if it's just what a famous actor Krauss, who died in 2019, was. In addition, Fritz Fuchs (Guido Hammesfahr) not only took over Peter Lustig's construction trailer in 2006, but also its fundamental unemployment. Our hero doesn't work, he
is
simple - above all curious, without pressure to perform.
On math, guinea pigs, languages.
Or temperatures.
Incidentally, Mr. Paschulke wants to freeze himself in the corresponding episode.
The horror, the horror.
-
Arno Frank
Non-political soul food
TV Chef Jamie Oliver
Photo: Uwe Anspach / picture-alliance / dpa
When I turn on the television, it often has something to do with work: Sometimes Jens Spahn gives a press conference that I have to watch. Another time, colleagues at Anne Will discuss fighting the pandemic. As a political journalist, I don't necessarily associate watching TV with relaxation. It's only different with one program: For months now, I've been listening to the
Sixx
TV channel on Saturday mornings
(a channel I'd otherwise never turn on) to watch
Jamie Oliver's
cooking show
to watch (a format I would otherwise never watch).
When Jamie puts his Teflon pan on the stove, my weekend starts.
While the British chef is gently massaging a chicken, I can switch my head to idle.
A lot comes together here: my desire for homeliness, which Jamie serves with his fat food, my longing for Great Britain, which is moving further away due to Brexit, and most importantly: the show is absolutely apolitical.
-
Milena Hassenkamp
The ball is rolling - we are there
Photo: Patrick Seeger / picture alliance / dpa
It started when Bielefeld played against Bayern in February. I know that even before the Super League plans, professional football was broken, and apart from that, I'm not particularly interested. The game was somewhat spectacular, however, and the balance of power that was shaken up here was easy to understand. I started as a watcher, with the final score of 3: 3 after months of lonely Netflix I had above all the nice, if always a bit corrupting feeling: I am one of many, so a lot of people were cheering at that very moment. The »
Sports Show
«Followed every now and then, with a gentle budding professional interest (well - is Adi Hütter really Adolf? For some Frankfurt fans, this is definitely the case). The Champions League semi-final between Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern naturally took place in front of empty ranks, suddenly it banged. Horror thoughts of terrorist attacks briefly came up, but then they dissolved in fireworks fountains in the evening sky. Fans in front of the stadium simply said: We are there. And so am I.
- Eva Thöne