"GSG 9 - Die Elite Einheit" (2007) TV series 2007-????

Seasons:

1 | 2

Release Date:

7 March 2007 (Germany)

Genre:

Action

Plot Keywords:

Super Soldier | Elite Team | Killer | Paramilitary | Number In Title

Cast

Marc Benjamin Puch	...	Gebhard Schurlau (25 episodes, 2007-2008)
Bülent Sharif	...	Demir Azlan (25 episodes, 2007-2008)
Jorres Risse	...	Frank Wernitz (25 episodes, 2007-2008)
André Hennicke	...	Thomas Anhoff (25 episodes, 2007-2008)
Florentine Lahme	...	Petra Helmholtz (25 episodes, 2007-2008)
Richard van Weyden	...	Anton Bender (24 episodes, 2007-2008)
Andreas Pietschmann	...	Konstantin von Brendorp (16 episodes, 2007-2008)
Anna von Berg	...	Maja Schurlau (15 episodes, 2007-2008)
Bert Böhlitz	...	Caspar Reindl (13 episodes, 2007)

Also Known As:

GSG 9 - Ihr Einsatz ist ihr Leben (Germany)
S.E.T. - Die Elite-Einheit (Germany) (working title)

Country:

Germany

Language:

German

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Filming Locations:

Berlin, Germany

Company:

Medienfonds GFP

Lofty cowboy version of the true GSG 9

This series had great potential and that was awfully wasted.

The makers of this show just tried to copy the pathos of the usual American television series without giving credit to the true self-understanding of the GSG 9 . In German as well as in any other country's police S.W.A.T. units its all about professionalism, understatement and team work. Real team work is not shown here, because there is only one team in this show, but the GSG 9 simply does not consist of four people who solely report to the commander of the whole federal border guard. In this show, you get to think that every major encounter is only handled by those four guys. Commander Anhoff himself is like a pontifical swaggerer, who only cares about wearing his beret, of which I'm sure he carries it even in bed and while sleeping with his wife.

The team itself has only one decent member and that's the team leader, Geb Schurlau, played very well by Marc Ben Puch, in fact the only actor next to Jorres Risse I would believe to be a member of the GSG 9. Jorres Risse does his job as Frank Wernitz quite well too, but the character is not given the necessary lines or scenes to be recognized by the audience. But maybe that is exactly what the characters should be about. In total contradiction to those stand Wanja Mues, Andreas Pietschmann and Bülent Sharif. Their characters are just infantile embarrassing and annoying failures.

But can you blame them? I don't think so. In my humble opinion the actors just imitate exactly what is written in the script. The script smells so much like wannabe Hollywood that it makes me sick. In every episode there is a huge crisis to be solved, which suggest that only a crisis is interesting and the real work of police special forces is too boring to show. Well, maybe the writers are just too narrow-minded to describe the tension of regular GSG 9 work.

I stress that real members of the GSG 9 would be rolling on the floor laughing when they saw this show.