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Stars:

Antje Traue, Michael Gwisdek, Victoria Schulz

Cast

Series cast summary:
Antje Traue	...	Emma 4 episodes, 2019
Michael Gwisdek	...	Peter Kugel 4 episodes, 2019
Victoria Schulz	...	Betti Steiner 4 episodes, 2019
Lars Rudolph	...	Michael Schubert 4 episodes, 2019
Fabian Busch	...	Lars Herbst 4 episodes, 2019
Corinna Kirchhoff	...	Dr. Eva Diestelfink 3 episodes, 2019
Inka Löwendorf	...	Nina 2 episodes, 2019
Nikolai Kinski	...	Kevin 2 episodes, 2019

Storyline

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Plot Keywords:

small town life | small town | small town mayor | mayor | forensic scientist | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Crime | Drama

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Details

Country:

Germany

Language:

German

Release Date:

2019 (Germany)

Also Known As:

Crime Scene Mittenwalde

Filming Locations:

Berlin, Germany

Company Credits

Production Co:

Real Film Berlin, ZDFneo

Technical Specs

Runtime:

45 min

Color:

Color

User Reviews

Interesting approach but not convincing

I am not sure a review in English is relevant since the series isn't geared towards an international audience. It is mainly because of Antje Traue who is better known to an international audience than German actors on average and who plays the lead role that non-German viewers might take some interest. And it is actually the play of Traue, despite her being a talented actress, that is part of the problems with this TV series. The announcement of the series made some, or me at least, expect to see a crossover of "Bones" and the Austrian cult series "Kottan ermittelt", but it is different. It is about the forensic pathologist Emma (played by Antje Traue) who returns from her workplace in the US to her home in Mittenwalde, a little town in the middle of nowhere in Germany, on the occasion of her father Peter's (played by Michael Gwisdek) 75th birthday. Peter is also a forensic pathologist, but now in his old age, he is past his best of mental powers, and tends to overlook some important clues. The other important figure is the young police officer Betti (played by Victoria Schultz) and together the trio solve some homicide cases due to Emma's pressing for very thorough investigations. The other figures are very much sidelined. There is a backstory coming into play from the middle of the series onward, as Emma's boyfriend Kevin (played by Nikolai Kinski) arrives from the US and keeps following Emma but she tries to avoid contact with him, this having to do with some previous events in the US in which the two were involved. This is more or less the rough outline of the narrative.

There are some interesting elements in this series, and basically, it is certainly not silly, and not one of these many (mediocre) mixtures of crime story and comedy by which German TV has been flooded over the recent years. It also has some touching moments when it takes up on Peter's degrading mental health as he is affected by Alzheimer's disease. It is also nice that the series takes time to develop certain story elements, but it is at this point where the problems start.

In German media, upon release the series has drawn very mixed reviews, from very positive to very negative. It depends a bit on one's taste, for sure. A common point of criticism is the too slow pace of the narrative. Also the story line has been criticized as being too conventional in many respects, and also the absence of really thrilling story elements in contrast to the cinematography that wants to suggest the presence of thrill is a mismatch, signalizing some shortcomings on the side of the directing. It is actually not the only one. Also, the acting performance is somewhat mixed. Antje Traue locks her lead figure in a sociophobic, introvert capsule, saying very little and portraying, for the most part, a difficult, reclusive and unlikable character. This is a difficulty for any lead figure in general. It may well be that her choices on set were very much in line with how her character is described in the script, but it makes it very hard for the audience to follow Emma as the lead character, to the effect that one starts losing interest in her. It may come to Traue's disadvantage that she has never received systematic acting training which might have put her into the position to compensate the effects of a weak script and poor directing. To be fair, there isn't sufficiently interesting script material for her to really work with. But in some scenes, her line delivery and timing is really bad. This becomes particularly noticeable against the fairly good acting by veteran actor Michael Gwisdek and young actress Victoria Schultz who, while not being given much better material, manage to give their characters a solid contour and convincing character development with good line delivery and timing. As mentioned, the directing appears to be a main source of the problem. Director Christopher Schier, although in the business for some time, does not have many movies or series on his track record; he seems to come from commercial filming. Thus, Antje Traue is very often pictured close up, body and face. There is no doubt that this produces very attractive vistas, but it is unrelated to the story and doesn't help the development of the narrative at all. One of the weak points is that the potentially interesting backstory, involving the (sparse) appearance of Emma's boyfriend Kevin, is too vague and too little developed to become a significant part of the narrative, and this is really a missed opportunity. I suspect there won't be a second season in view of the altogether unconvincing result of season one.