"My friend, the disgust" (ZDF): The film with Dieter Hallervorden goes into series

The series based on the great comedy of the same name with Dieter Hallervorden and Alwara Hövels no longer has the originality of the film, but is also a lot of fun.

Frankfurt – “My friend, the disgust” was two years ago, despite the chilling title, a lively ZDF comedy with a wonderful age role for Dieter Hallervorden. Thanks to his questionable “Didi” films, the actor long stuck to the label of slapstick comedian; Basically, he was only able to prove himself to be a serious actor of tragic-comic characters with the box office hits “His Last Race” and “Honey in the Head” (2013/14).

The title role of the ZDF comedy (written and directed by Marco Petry) was a real bow. The fact that ZDF is not telling the story of the retired Berlin philologist Olaf Hintz and his roommate Trixie Kunze (Alwara Höfels) with a second film, but with a mini-series, is not exceptional, but quite unusual, especially given the six episodes asks the question whether a cinematic sequel would not have sufficed.

“My friend, the disgust” (ZDF) with Dieter Hallervorden and Alwara Hövels

The ZDF comedy “My friend, the disgust” lived from the often narrated clash of two very different life plans: here the solitary and obnoxious know-it-all, there the single panel construction mother with three children. Normally, the two would never have met, but because the ex-teacher, who has been paralyzed on one side since a stroke, is dependent on help and his sister Elfie (Ursela Monn), who has so far taken care of old curmudgeon in the shared, spacious Berlin apartment has embarked on a year-round trip around the world, there is a “win / win” deal: care for living.

Despite all contradictions, something like a friendship between Hintz and Kunze actually develops in “My friend, the disgust”. This is now over when Elfie returns prematurely from her trip with a hippie (Horst Günter Marx) in tow, whom she met in Sri Lanka. Since Hintz has not read Elfie’s emails, Trixie now has to look for a new place to stay for herself and the offspring overnight. Frustrated, she turns her back on Charlottenburg and back to Marzahn, where she temporarily settles in the apartment of a friend who is on vacation.

When Hintz negligently burns down the apartment, they meet again, but this time with the opposite sign: Now the old man is asking for asylum. Meanwhile, Trixie has completely different problems in the ZDF comedy: Hintz got her an apprenticeship contract in her dream job as a confectioner, but with the meager salary she cannot finance her own apartment; Not to mention her weaknesses in reading and screaming. In addition, she promptly runs into her mother (Franziska Troegner) in the “Platte”, with whom she broke off contact 14 years ago for good reason.

“My friend, the disgust” (ZDF): Up and down with Hintz & Kunze

Petry is featured as a dramaturgical advisor in the credits of “My friend, the disgust”; in fact, the series ties in with the quality of the film, at least in terms of its strengths. The staging (Wolfgang Groos, Winfried Oelsner) is solid television craft; mostly it is the music (Riad Abdel-Nabi) that provides the tempo. What the series lacks, however, is an element of surprise beyond the many amusing details. The two main characters are known, their conflicts are repeated just like the pattern, because the life of Hinz and Kuntze is a constant ups and downs: Hardly there is good news, followed by bad; and vice versa.

Basically, the team around chief author Daniel Scotti-Rosin tells the story of the film again in “My friend, the disgust”, only this time three times as long. After all, Trixie can now hope for a start-up career as a cake baker. The fact that the grumpy Hintz, who in between involuntarily becomes a YouTube star, is supposed to take over the acquisition leads to some confusing experiences because, for example, an American barista only hears “queer” from the word “acquisition”.

“My friend, the disgust” (ZDF): The script team gives Hallervorden wonderful dialogues

Actually, the series on ZDF is well worth seeing, especially since the filming team Hallervorden brings many wonderful dialogues, not to mention the sometimes tear-inducing comic challenges for Hintz. The most fun are the arguments with caretaker Nowak (Thorsten Merten), especially since Wolfgang Groos, director of the first three episodes, stylizes the encounters into a duel: A funny chase between a ride-on lawnmower and a wheelchair leads to a staged with optical and musical borrowings from spaghetti westerns Duel. In episodes four to six (director: Winfried Oelsner) the two opponents agree on a community of convenience that leads, among other things, to the expected reconciliation between Trixie and her mother.

The various slapstick moments in which Hintz and Trixie subvert all sorts of mishaps that lead to unfortunate chain reactions are just as much fun as the many small script ideas. The third important character in the film was the eldest son (Julius Gabriel Göze). Now the daughter comes to the fore: Afia is training to be a nurse and, thanks to her medical knowledge, is mistaken for a doctor-to-be. If ZDF stays true to its strategy of promoting talent, Lathisha Kohrs should soon appear in an episode of the “Herzkino” series “Rosamunde Pilcher” or “Inga Lindström”: The young actress does her job very well with Hallervorden and Höfel. (Tilmann P. Gangloff)