Start of the Masurian crime series on ARD: With “Fryderyks Erbe” the series starts promisingly in the first.
Some time ago, darker tones found their way into the ranks of the Thursday crime thriller on ARD than were used to in previous years. This note also characterizes the newcomer to this group, the “Masurian crime thriller”.
The landscape around the small town of Pasym should have been designed by forensic scientist Dr. Viktoria Wex (Claudia Eisinger) is actually very comfortable: Forests, meadows, lakes and the proverbial Masurian swamps. Few people in between. She doesn’t like them. On the train from Berlin in the direction of Pasym, she has reserved the entire compartment so as not to be disturbed by fellow travelers. No polite questioning, no pleading undertone helps. Dr. Wex wants her quiet.
“The Masurian crime thriller: Fryderyk’s legacy” (ARD): Lost or dead?
She would get enough of it in Pasym, but she wants to go back to Berlin as soon as possible and start working again. But she is denied that, as her boss reveals in a text message. First the doctor has to go to a psychological examination. The authors are still hiding why this is so for the time being, and it will not be revealed here either.
But it is likely that Dr. Wex stays longer than planned. She came because her uncle Fryderyk Jankowsky (Wieslaw Zanowicz), with whom she grew up, is said to be dead. To be more precise: lost, because he was seen rowing out into the lake, he left a suicide note, but his body was not found. It is astonishing that Fryderyk devoted himself to his dementia-ill wife Marta (Natalia Bobyleva). And now he is supposed to have left his beloved partner in the lurch?
Viktoria Wex is incredulous about what the doctor, the priest and the village policeman Leon Pawlak (Sebastian Hülk) say, who will soon turn out to be her neighbor. This is extremely convenient because Dr. Wex stumbles over a corpse in the heir. It’s not Fryderyk, but a well-known, widely hated investor.
“The Masurian crime thriller: Fryderyks Erbe” (ARD): microscope instead of Barbie
It is in their nature that Dr. Wex begins to investigate immediately, but without any legitimation. To the annoyance of the responsible detective Zofia Kowalska (Karolina Lodyga), by chance the divorced wife of Leon Pawlak and mother of the bright Emilia (Matilda Jork). Dr. Wex does not like children because the reasonable arguments are inaccessible. Nevertheless, something like a friendship soon develops between the two of them. Which could be because Emilia forensic technician feels reminded of her own youth. When other girls played with dolls, little Victoria sat, we see it in flashbacks, at a microscope, or let Uncle Fryderyk explain the chemical and physical connections.
To the broadcast
“The Masurian Crime: Fryderyk’s Legacy”, Thursday, May 20, 8:15 pm, Das Erste
“The Masurian Crime: Fang Shot”, Thursday, May 27th, 8:15 pm, Das Erste
Both two days before the broadcast date in the ARD media library
There is a lot of research in this crime thriller, which is followed by a sequel a week later with “Fang Shot”. You have to be Dr. Just nudge Wex, then the knowledge gushes out of her. Otherwise she is rather monosyllabic and introverted to the point of obduracy. It is precisely because of this that she impresses the police officer from the neighborhood, who repeatedly invites her to dinner – everyone thinks he cooks very well – and does not give up despite her snotty refusals.
“The Masurian thriller: Fryderyks legacy” (ARD): Romanticism is not logical
Saga Norén from “The Bridge – Transit into Death” may have acted as godmother for the character drawing of Viktoria Wex. Both have above-average professional skills, but are socially incompetent. And not particularly romantic, because romance is not logical. Dr. Wex thinks the moon is a gray lump that can’t even shine on its own. The practice of flirting alienates her, but she can recite the composition of moon rocks by heart.
The heavy shadow that rests on Wex makes her interesting enough, her occasional hallucinations wouldn’t have been necessary, almost seem like an exaggeration.
Not only the figure of Viktoria Wex is convincing, the entire staff is realistic, almost authentic. You can tell from these characters, the village doctor, the boat builder, the geriatric nurse and part-time farmer, that they are rooted in this region.
The authors, Ulli Stephan wrote the script based on a script by Markus B. Altmeyer, were clever enough to give memories to the series. Here the events from the opening sequence in the second film haven’t been forgotten yet, and there is a core of recurring protagonists, which hopefully will be retained in any sequels.
“The Masurian crime thriller: Fryderyks Erbe” (ARD): Above average
It is gratifying that the majority of the roles were not given to the assembly line workers of German television, but to Polish actors. Director Anno Saul took over the direction of the dubbing himself, which has no defects, which is not standard in the Degeto remote thriller.
There are many cinematic qualities, from camera work (Martin L. Ludwig) to the choice of locations and editing (Dirk Grau). In the second episode, a policeman grabs a running youngster by the shoulders, after the prompt cut, the young lout is pushed onto a chair with the same grip. In addition to the finely honed dialogues, these are the moments that distinguish these two films from the everyday crime thriller. (Harald Keller)
