ZDFneo announces a number of new comedy series and opens the round with an eight-part tragicomedy about four conspiratorial women around thirty.
The surprise is great. Suddenly there are three former school friends in Lena’s apartment. At that time they formed a conspiratorial clique, then the paths of life diverged. In view of the unexpected reunion, Lena (Sarah Bauerett) tries to control impulsiveness and needs a “warm communicative shower” first. The teacher – a steady relationship, a foster daughter named Talisa (Filippa Moeller) – babbles in an exaggerated argot of the left-liberal-green milieu and tends blatantly to over-the-top behavior right to the edge of borderline disorder. Or maybe beyond. Her thoughtful partner Marek (Markus Winter) endures all quirks – toilet paper is forbidden, the diet is vegetarian, of course, cut flowers are taboo – stoic and with poorly rhymed love songs. Little Talisa answers Lena’s hyperactivity with silence and rolled eyes.
ZDFneo: turning points in the new tragic comedy “Deadlines”
The international business woman Elif (Jasmin Shakeri), who is actually passing through, comes to visit, the good pharmaceutical saleswoman and conscientious housewife Franzi (Llewellyn Reichman), the failed musician Jo (Salka Weber), who lives in insecure circumstances. All of them are around thirty, the single Elif a little older. Jo, a former child star, has a high level of wear and tear and makes a living from it. Franzi wants marriage and four children.
The meeting, the emerging memories of the wild youth and, connected to it, also of the hopes and dreams of that time, pull Franzi and Lena out of their rut, cause disorder and a change of orientation. Franzi’s fiancé, the surgeon Stephan (Christoph Gawenda), has long felt overwhelmed by her caprices. He must first ask her to wear an SM gag so that he can have his say: He needs a “break”.
So it will probably not come to what the nippy Elif had suggested in view of his profession: “Then he can cut you a new nose when she turns forty.”
“Deadlines” at ZDFneo: listeners
Elif is the shrillest of the four and uses rather coarse language. A creamy Schnulze describes it as the “international fuck anthem of low-potency dentists”. When it comes to the modern villa of her former lover, she remembers: “As if God had shit a square in the area.” As an investor, she is interested in the “anal whitening salons in Peru”, among other things.
Lena suppresses her doubts about the upcoming wedding. However, they can no longer be tamed when the hot-blooded and spiritually minded photographer Guillermo (Marcel Mohab) shows clear interest. It comes to tête-à-tête. Meanwhile, the friends in the room above press their ears to the floor and try to follow the action. One of the successful scenes in this tragicomic series from a humor point of view.
New comedy series on ZDFneo: These are role models for “Deadlines”
There have been a few series recently devoted to the group of around thirty-year-olds. One or the other can be heard here. As in the British BBC series “Fleabag” – or classics like “Moonlighting” and “Hustle” – the Graces now and then address the audience directly. In “deadlines”, however, this scam appears to be applied and does not provide any added value compared to conventional dialogue.
The exchanges are quick and cheeky, but interspersed with unnecessarily coarse jargon, as if the series creators wanted to signal: Look what we dare. Again a relationship to “Fleabag”, where coarseness like “A.schf.ck” is part of the style. The four main characters do not reveal any individually tailor-made language, but rather irritate with an abrupt change from a pompous idiom to the generally dominant vulgarity.
ZDFneu: Some slip-ups in “Deadlines”
Sometimes the noticeably deliberate cheek slips into bad taste. “I fill myself up like Hannelore Kohl,” Lena complains during the appointment with the wedding photographer. And Elif ends up at the police station because she “pushed” a wheelchair user with her car. In such places, no less with the exaggerated philistine fantasies and the deep reaching into the box with the gags from seventies sex clothes, one wishes for more esprit and fine-tuning instead of the childish provocations.
“Deadlines” on ZDFneo
The eight-part series “Deadlines” has been in existence since July 9th. available in the ZDF media library. From July 13, 2021, ZDFneo will show two episodes in a row on the new comedy slot on Tuesday at 11:15 p.m.
Serious issues are addressed below the humor level. Unfulfilled wishes for children, for example, including dementia. But if Jo, who has been infamous for her indiscriminate sexual behavior since her teenage days, turns out to be lesbian or at least bisexual and secretly in love with Elif, then that seems more like a fashionable ingredient than a serious confrontation with disguised homosexuality, because there is no consistent, meaningful way progressive storyline was developed. (Harald Keller)
