ARD "crime scene" from Dresden: does Commissioner Schnabel die?

Created: 11/21/2022, 2:49 p.m

By: Astrid Kistner

Schnabel (Martin Brambach) in danger.

© MDR

The Dresden "Tatort: ​​Katz und Maus" provides a surprise.

What happens to actor Martin Brambach?

Our TV review.

A tough case for Inspector Schnabel.

Sounds like the title of a funny paperback from Duckburg, but what is meant is the "Tatort" investigator from Dresden (Martin Brambach), who is at the center of the episode "Cat and Mouse".

In the clutches of a crazy conspiracy theorist, the supervisor of the inspectors Karin Gorniak (Karin Hanczewski) and Leonie Winkler (Cornelia Gröschel) reaches his personal limits.

Director Gregory Kirchhoff dives deep into the thriller genre and consistently aligns the dramaturgy and image design of the "crime scene" with it.

Not everything is logical in the new Dresden "crime scene"

The ultimatum given by the kidnapper to the police in Saxony turns into a life-or-death race.

Not everything in this case is logical, not everything makes sense: the headless approach of the investigators, for example, who stormed the suspect's apartment single-handedly or let the kidnapper, who had already murdered in cold blood, go after a meeting with an amateurishly hidden tracking device.

The case is still exciting because Martin Brambach “has really something to play”, as he says himself.

As Commissariat Manager Schnabel, he oscillates between pragmatism and fear of death and shows nerves in the (unfortunately unproductive) discussion with his kidnapper.

Dresden “Tatort” critically questions fake news

Hans Löw shines as a strong antagonist and supporter of alternative facts.

And that's probably the most exciting aspect of this case: How are you supposed to negotiate with someone who has his "own truth" and is firmly convinced that somewhere in Dresden 150 children are being tortured and held in a cellar?

The screenwriters Jan Cronauer and Stefanie Veith were inspired by a real event: in 2016, during the American presidential election campaign, fake news was spread on the internet that a child porn ring was operating in a Washington DC pizzeria, in which the candidate Hillary Clinton was also involved.

The alleged conspiracy continued to spread on social media until a man armed with a gun stormed into the pizzeria in December 2016.

to free the children allegedly being held there.

So what to do when a kidnapper demands something that simply cannot be fulfilled?

How to deal with infatuation?

The crime thriller delivers a bloody answer – it owes a clever one.