The second season of the fabulous thriller series “The Passport” is finally here.
Once invented by Bill Clinton’s campaign team, a saying that has been used many times since then was: It’s the economy, stupid! Here it should be modified once more: It’s the atmosphere, folks! Because if you think about what made the German-Austrian thriller mini-series “Der Pass” by Cyrill Boss and Philipp Stennert so special, what makes the second season available on Sky so special, then it is the bitter consequence with which cold and darkness, snow and forest are captured (camera: Philip Peschlow).
But then you think: wait a minute, isn’t it just as much the great Julia Jentsch as Ellie Stocker and the great Nicholas Ofczarek who beat quite a few of the crime scene investigators? The way these two look, what they put in their silent looks, especially the silent ones, speaks volumes. The first season of “The Passport” ran in January 2019, but filming for the second had to be interrupted in 2020. But Jentsch and Ofczarek can also do that: look years older from one moment to the next.
All this is no brainer
Because this series also doesn’t pretend that it’s all a piece of cake, collecting murdered women, looking serial killers in the eye. “The Deifi sleeps ned”, the devil does not sleep, is a prophetic sentence. After the first case together, Ellie Stocker took a year off and received therapeutic care, but she still has panic attacks. Gedeon Winter, who was shot in the last shot of season 1, has to constantly take painkillers after a coma and a long hospital stay. A bullet is still in his head. So, it is made clear to him that he cannot go back to the police force. At most, be a “consultant” without authorization.
Again it’s about a serial killer, that he starts torturing animals follows the textbook, that he’s a hunter gives him an opportunity first. Until hinds are no longer enough for him. This time he also comes from the drawer of the rich, the privileged, those who grew up in the cold of the family. Dominic Marcus Singer portrays a psychopath who can be likable and charming in the blink of an eye. His big brother, Christoph Luser, meanwhile, is using politics to ensure that the company is up and running and that a huge construction project is approved in such a way that it makes a good profit.
So it’s not the actual plot that makes “The Passport” so extraordinary. It’s the sovereignty with which time leaps (back and forth) and details are inserted that only make sense much later. But once you understand that a music box, for example, isn’t just shown, you’ll still remember it when it comes up again (and feel a little proud that you paid so much attention).
So if there is something to criticize about season 2, so that after eight almost one-hour episodes it’s over again. Which you also have to watch (almost) in one go because of the masterful cliffhangers.
“The Passport”, Season 2: Sky Germany. And “promptly” in the ZDF media library.
