On a factual basis: The eight-part series “Exit” on ZDFneo is dedicated to the dissolute private life of Norwegian business giants. The TV review.
Berlin – Textbooks for fictional writing prescribe interested aspirants that a story needs a protagonist and antagonist if it is to be successful. Fortunately, there are always creative people who violate such criminally simplistic rules of thumb. For example, the Norwegians Lars Gautneb and Petter Testmann-Koch and their co-authors.
They invented the TV series “Exit”. And landed a huge success. Beyond Norway’s borders. Although there are basically only antagonists here. At least they master the eight episodes of the first season and probably also the second, which has already been shot. The ZDFneo broadcaster now shows the entire series in one go.
ZDFneo shows Norwegian series “Exit”
The four friends Adam, William, Henrik and Jeppe are successful business people, company founders, investors. Everyone had their first million together early on, and the flow of money has not stopped since then. You drive a Porsche or Ferrari, own yachts and of course luxurious dwellings.
Three of them are married, Henrik’s wedding to Tomine is imminent. He already has children with her, William also has a family, and his wife Celine is pregnant again. The couple Adam and Hermione would like to have children, they say. But it is a lie from the mouth of Adam. He had himself sterilized years ago. Hermione doesn’t know about it. Jeppe is against marriage and advises married friends to get rid of their wives as soon as possible. Two will succeed in this too. But different from what they had imagined.
TV series “Exit” on ZDFneo: Hypocritical harmony
The guys with steady partnerships show harmony outwardly, but avoid their wives and, if available, children as much as possible. Work is always to blame when it gets late. In fact, they have rented an apartment together, where they indulge in drug excesses and have prostitutes come regularly. These four know no scruples and, like Sherman McCoy in Tom Wolfe’s “Purgatory of Vanities”, consider themselves to be the “Masters of the Universe” – by nature and by virtue of their successes above morality, law and simpler people. For the weaker they have nothing but ignorance and contempt. Kathryn Bigelow described this type in the movie thriller “Blue Steel”, Bret Easton Ellis in his novel “American Psycho”.
To the broadcast
“Exit”: Saturday, June 5, 2021, ZDFneo, from 11:35 pm
But the series “Exit” is much more profound. Because their creators had more time available than for an average movie. And because their action, at least according to the self-disclosure, is based on interviews with real, very successful stockbrokers and supplementary research.
ZDFneo “Exit”: fun at any price
This origin gives the film its dramaturgy. The four atrocities can be seen again and again in interview situations. Adam, for example, hedge fund manager, he explains, no longer finds “kicks” in his job. William says: “I have one goal in life: to have as much fun as possible.”
When it comes to that, the quartet knows no bounds. Speed limits only apply to failures. Also in a figurative sense. They sniff cocaine at every opportunity they get. Expensive bottles of wine are stored in Jeppes cellar. And a lot of drugs that would meet the annual needs of all Oslo junkies. And when a prostitute is injured with a knife by the intoxicated Henrik at one of their orgies, it’s just great fun for the men.
Excess follows excess, meanness follows meanness. Of course, it doesn’t fill the format for an eight-part series. Conflicts and crises occur and expand. William, initially no less cocky than his buddies, hides his financial troubles. He tries to kill himself, fails, is temporarily in a coma. Afterwards, for all acquaintances he is the dead man who wanted to kill himself. He suffers from more extreme mood swings than before.
“Exit” series on ZDFneo: Deliberate discomfort
They all suffer from severe narcissism, and the constant coke rush doesn’t make it any better. Jeppe beats a young couple together in the park almost in passing. He used to be a kickboxer, so you don’t stand a chance. Hermione, Adam’s wife, is increasingly exposed to his mania for control and increasingly violent outbursts. She secretly visits a therapist. A decision that marks a turning point.
Comfortable feel-good television is not to be expected with this production. Compensatory justice is only conditional, the final punishment of the perpetrator, a must in the average television thriller, is just as little.
The series is too bold for a milieu or character study, but the cynicism presented is part of the narrative level – the authors by no means aim only at affect. The properties of these Oslo disgust packages arouse certain associations. Hubris, baseness, mendacity, notorious egoism, all of this in manic forms, can also be found in the political sphere in some countries.
ZDFneo will show the production of the Norwegian public broadcaster NRK on Saturday, June 5th from 11:35 p.m. in a row. The series is available from June 6th to August 1st in the ZDF media library. Recent series launches such as “Helvetica” (3sat), “Requiem” (One), “The Split” (NDR TV), “The Bank Hacker” (ZDFneo) prove that public series purchases are worth a scrutiny. (Harald Keller)
