ZDF is starting a new Friday crime series with Jürgen Vogel and Seyneb Saleh in the leading roles with four episodes that can be expanded for the time being.
Berlin – “Beyond the Spree” is a ZDF Berlin series that – so far – has done without recordings from Potsdamer Platz, Kottbusser Tor and Neuköllner Kiez. The Dahme and Spree merge in Köpenick, the green surroundings and the Müggelsee are close by. Castle island, river landscapes, old buildings – picturesque locations are available for filming. But the team behind the new Friday thriller “Jenseits der Spree” has not been tempted to create the series as a colorful tourist brochure with permanent sunshine.
The story even begins very dark. The chief inspectors Robert Heffler (Jürgen Vogel) and Katharina Koblinski (Elisabeth Baulitz) observe a hostage-taker who is holding a group of young girls prisoner on the excursion boat “Alexander”. Heffler’s daughter Carlotta Heffler (Lea Zoë Voss) is among them. The special command is expected. But when the situation came to a head, Heffler intervened. He manages to secretly guide the young women from the ship.
Except for one who is frozen in fear. The hostage taker becomes aware. And shoots.
“Beyond the Spree” (ZDF): The family comes first
Three years later. Heffler survived the attack at the time and drew the consequences. He now works in the office as a dispatcher. Until the lack of staff forces him, as an exception, to work again as an investigator. At the side of the new colleague Kay Freund (Seyneb Saleh).
It was a tricky business for Heffler because the single father had promised his three daughters that he would no longer be in danger. Their fear of being orphaned one day is too great.
“Beyond the Spree” (ZDF): Family life provides the background
Heffler’s family life, at times prone to conflict, sometimes exhausting or even amusing, provides the continuous background of the four-part series. Sometimes the baby Emmi (Bella Bading) shuns herself by pretending to be unwell before doing math work, sometimes Stella (Luna Jordan) needs a little support to face the competitive situation in the skate park. Heffler sometimes leaves the colleague abruptly at work when a crisis is reported from home.
The father-daughter relationships come to the brink of dysfunction when Carlotta finds out that Robert, contrary to his promise, is again doing field work. It didn’t stop with the one-time exception. A weak point in the scripts, because Heffler’s change of heart is not worked out as the result of a development, but simply thrown in.
“Beyond the Spree” (ZDF): Flirt with the forensic doctor
Maybe colleague Kay Freund has something to do with it. She was forcibly transferred to Köpenick, the reason for this remains open for the time being; she is significantly younger, tough, energetic and not on the lips.
When Heffler teases: “My generation still had mental arithmetic at school”, he gets a cheeky “Ok, Grandpa …” in reply. But he likes it. The tone between him and his superior Koblinski is similar. During practice shooting, she taunts: “If you hit, I’ll sleep with you.” And one is not sure if she was just kidding. Conversely, it would be a case for the equality body.
Is something developing between Kay Freund and the old man? Barely. Friend – nomen est omen – is interested in her own gender, and her disguised flirtation with forensic doctor Veronika Schäfer (Anne Müller) is one of the most beautiful scenes in the series. Troubled only by the fact that the otherwise very capable Ms. Schäfer does not seem to know her own job title: She introduces herself as a “pathologist”. It is an eternal mystery why German screenwriters persist in using this wrong term as they do with the “forensic scientist”, which is not used in practice. Both of these were not accidentally taken over literally and thus falsely.
“Beyond the Spree” (ZDF): Sometimes a touch of irony
The criminal cases, one murder per episode, which always finds a solution, are told in a straightforward manner and carried out routinely. No antics, no second level. Occasionally a touch of irony when, while talking to the father of a drug addict, his house bar can be seen with a whole battery of alcoholic beverages.
“Jenseits der Spree”, Friday, 9/24/2021, 8:15 pm, ZDF, and episode 1 already in the ZDF media library.
Current issues such as gray areas in legislation, African looted art, corruption are included. In some places, the directors responsible, Marcus Ulbricht and Neelesha Barthel, exaggerate with the intentionally meaningful music overlays. It is artificially emotionalized where the art of acting should be sufficient. Which she does with this cast in the majority of the broadcast minutes.
“Jenseits der Spree” (ZDF): four episodes of the series
ZDF left it with four episodes for the time being, and it is already clear that more can be extracted from the main characters. Kay Freund evidently has a tense relationship with her mother, she becomes, caution, pun, good friend with Heffler’s daughters, and of course she is still pending her one – lesbian or bisexual? – Attributing love life. (Harald Keller)
