Zu asche, zu staub. Zu asche. Doch noch nicht jetzt.
I don’t think I’ve ever reviewed a TV show. Not an episode, not an entire season and definitely not a multiple seasons series. But as things go and governments around the world come to realize that a highly transmittable disease transmits more when people are at work, or just doing things people do in life, compared to when locked down, it is highly likely that many in multiple parts of the world will soon have to deal with curfews. And that’s the best of it, local lockdowns are becoming always more popular and then we even don’t mention all redundancies which the pandemic has caused. In brief: many, many people will be staying at home over the coming months.
What better to do than watch some great TV, by which I don’t mean Tiger King: Joe Exotic. Many of us are looking forward to the second season of The Mandolarian starting end October, but that’s only that many hours covered.
So let’s try something new and review one of the better TV series I’ve watched in recent years: the German period drama Babylon Berlin. Because I couldn’t have chosen a series easier to review.
The show, set in the late 1920s and early 30s Weimar Republic, is the most expensive German production yet and considered the first high quality box office in the streaming era. And before that. Written and co-directed by Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run), based on the popular novels of Volker Kutscher, is an ambitious project which is perfect lockdown (binge) watching material. Despite being a noir, but you didn’t expect me to opt for something easygoing and superficial, did you?
Where normally people tend to opt for more comforting things to consume during gritty times, there’s a reason to recommend the mayhem of a collapsing Berlin towards the end of the Weimar Republic. Tykwer and crew bring the viewer a greatly recreated real world with compelling characters you will truly come to love, care about even if initially they may not necessarily be your cup of tea.
What makes Babylon Berlin so compelling is the mix of several tight plots throughout each season and the characters role in each plot. Interestingly enough most of the lead characters all have different stories in their development, between which the series often switches. Flapper Charlotte Ritter, played by Liv Lisa Fries, is both an aspiring police detective and occasional sex-worker in Berlin’s cabaret dominated nightlife. Lead Gereon Rath, performed by Volker Bruch, is a police inspector plagued by World War I PTSD, which opens a new plot in the story which we gradually discover over the so far three seasons. And, of course, there’s more to mobster Edgar Kasabian, AKA the Albanian, than just his night club and assorted dealings. A surprising sense of moral would be the first thing to discover as his character is developed throughout the show.
Above three are definitely among the main leads in the series, but every character which gets some dialogue is at some point or the other further developed. While at times the viewer may think there’s slightly too much going on all at once — the first few episodes of the third season gave us that impression — Tykwer and cast manage to keep it tight and keep the audience engaged. It’s also entirely possible to connect with some of the characters without getting engaged in the many side plots.
A huge part of realizing that is due to the incredibly beautiful — or rather realistic — sets the show happens on. Not beautiful like in Game of Thrones’ Spain or Lord of the Rings’ New Zealand, but beautiful because of their near perfect recreation of the Weimar Republic. Each new episode feels like re-entering a stressed Germany which has barely recovered from WWI and is on the verge of walking straight into its next disaster. When Charlotte is at the nightlife you feel the cabaret vibes all around. When Gereon has a WWI flashback you suffer the same claustrophobic psyche he goes through at that time.
While Babylon Berlin is a great gritty noir, its inhabitants also find ample opportunities to nevertheless enjoy life and live as if there’s no tomorrow. Most see tomorrow but had absolutely no idea yet what the next decade would bring and that’s another great part of the series. While the Nazi threat is growing in those years, and Hitler’s rise is only few years away, the show doesn’t mention, nor needs to, the obvious threat we all know will happen1
Cabaret, murder, mystery, mobs, mayhem. Noir. It may not seem an obvious choice for these rather grim times but it is excellent TV and deserves even wider distribution than the show has received so far. While some may sniff their nose at a 8.4 IMDb rating, we would have loved to read Roger Everts take on Babylon Berlin, if he did TV.
No curfew or lockdown is needed to have a good reason to watch Babylon Berlin. But if you have to sit through any of those in the near future, don’t forget this review and spice your life up with some excellent German noir.
Title Sequence
No one cares about title design but geeks and nerds, and me. The title sequence of Babylon Berlin is absolutely gorgeous motion and was named Best Title Sequence of 2018 by the Art of the Title.
It was the Art of the Title which first drew my attention to Babylon Berlin. Check out some previous work by title designer Saskia Marka in this Art of the Title interview.
1 At least not in its first three seasons