babylon berlin

[abulafia]

kommissar (Police Inspector) gereon rath is sent from cologne to berlin to be a special investigator in the blackmailing of cologne´s mayor konrad adenauer (later first chancellor of the FRG), which leads into the red light scene of berlin.
set in the late golden twenties, several subplots soon emerge. russian activitiy against trotztistc activists, first of may clashes between socialist movements and police forces and conservative, nationalists elites pulling their strings...

i have only been into the first episodes and found the pilot a little weak. but after the next two episodes, i felt the narration really put up some steam.
that is partly to the indepth portrayal of main protagonist rath, who is suffering from "kriegszittern" a PTSD after WWI, which by that time was considered a coward´s excuse among the prussian millitary elite, and the rich world building of the series which ranges from small folks to national elites, capturing the spirit of the 20s.
the setting is of personal interest to me, cause as of born to cologne(with polnish roots as my grandfather fought in the polnish exile army), the tensions between rhinelanders and prussians is very important until today. (cologne fc main rival is b(p)orrusia möchengladbach, which 100 years ago were the club of prussian loyalists against rhinelanders...rangers/celtic, espanyol/fc barcelona,...)

i had been very reserved in my judgement, cause early reviews dubbed it the new "das boot". i am particularly displeased with german productions, considering they get a yearly public funding of 8 billion euros. and barly produce something of quality.
so i can´t judge if BB ranks in the quality of das boot department, but i am looking forward for the next episodes

outro:


damn, this song is awesome

[abulafia]

i had been under the imprerssion that such an ambitious project (by german standards) would have also been released to an international audiance.
turns out, after a little research, that it will only be released till the 5th november (remember, remember) on sky atlantic

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...ped-global-hit

curious how a german production (with heavy berlin slang) will sound in english

trailer (with that incredible song)