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ZDF crime thriller: "Friesland: Until the Blood" – Nordic by Nature

Unfortunately, the new episode of the recently quite remarkable Schmunzel crime series on ZDF is only moderately cheerful and completely unexciting.

Frankfurt – The 13th “Friesland” episode follows a motto that conspiracy believers don’t mean in a funny way: Just because you are paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t after you. In this case, “you” is an engineer: Hanno Schlüter (Alexander Beyer) lost his job a few years ago, now leads an under-challenged existence as a lock keeper, spends his free time as a notorious minor plaintiff and is otherwise convinced that someone is constantly watching him.

When he suspects a burglar in the house, he calls the police, but Süher Özlügül (Sophie Dal) and Henk Cassens (Maxim Mehmet) cannot find anyone. The next day, Schlueter finds the body of his murdered wife Femke, and of course the uniformed duo from the Leer Police Department asks whether they could have prevented the crime. The main suspect is of course the possibly no longer completely sane husband, who obviously suffers from full-blown paranoia.

“Friesland” on ZDF: The new crime version has several problems

The film makes moderate fun of the engineer, but when it comes to murder, the fun ends in the smirking thriller. Author Mariann Kaiser has so far mainly been involved as a producer on “Friesland” and the ZDF crime series “Wilsberg” (both from Warner Bros.); “Bis zum Blut” is her first screenplay to be filmed. The art of both series lies in gaining cheerful sides from a story about a capital crime without becoming disrespectful. This is what Undertaker Habedank (Wolfgang Stockhaus) stands for in “Friesland”, who not only has corpses but also an impressive cannabis plantation in the cellar. Chief Inspector Brockhorst (Felix Vörtler) likes to nibble on Habedank’s hash cookies every now and then, but has launched a campaign to make the streets of Leer safer with the help of surveillance cameras; and one of these devices is aimed at Habedank’s funeral home.

What does that have to do with the murder of Frau Schlueter? Nothing at first. That is the minor problem with this film, however; the greater is the complete absence of tension. However, “Bis zum Blut” is rarely really witty. The participants make a visible effort to wrest a certain cheerfulness from the lines of dialogue, and sometimes this also succeeds because, above all, Tina Pfurr, as the pharmacy representative of Insa Scherzinger (Theresa Underberg), regularly makes the best of her scenes: unlike her boss, who opens While attending a conference and therefore only has two brief appearances at the beginning and at the end, Melanie Harms is not an enthusiastic amateur criminalist and accordingly skeptical when Brockhorst unceremoniously hires her as a forensic doctor so that she draws blood from Schlueter. The fact that there is no corresponding judicial decision turns out to be a hit for his lawyer (Sandra Borgmann).

The bottom line is that not much happens: New episode of the crime series “Friesland” on ZDF

Meanwhile, Süher and Henk are scrutinizing the victim’s professional environment and, to the delight of the policeman, come across an attractive assistant (Mersiha Husagic) who puts them on an interesting track: Femke Schlüter was a scientist for maritime biotechnology and was working on a method to find out how Lugworms gain blood substitute; a potential billion dollar business and always a reason to commit murder in a crime thriller.

The script brings further narrative threads into play, which are sometimes more, sometimes less linked to the common thread. In this way, the film seems full of action, but the bottom line is that not much happens, especially since the murderer search is forgotten in this way. In addition to the exchanges that Brockhorst has with either the lawyer or the undertaker, what is really amusing is basically just an “undercover” appearance when Yunus Özlügül (Yunus Cumartpay) and Harms contact the couple therapy to find out in which relationship the Psychologist stood victim. Süher’s brother and the pharmacist – and thus of course the actor duo Cumartpay and Pfurr – obviously enjoy this double game.

ZDF crime series “Friesland” with a new episode: Free of any sophistication

In any case, it’s not up to the ensemble that “Bis zum Blut” falls significantly behind the last two episodes; Thomas Durchschlag, who drew attention to himself ten years ago with his special home film “Holger sacht nix” (2011), also staged the extremely fun episode “Haifischbecken”, which was broadcast in February. This time his direction is completely devoid of any sophistication and so calm that it borders on boredom at times. A little more “Nordic by Nature” – the song from “Fettes Brot” is heard at the end – would have done the film really good. (Tilmann P. Gangloff)

“Friesland: Bis zum Blut” runs on Saturday (23.10.2021) at 8.15 p.m. on ZDF, and can already be seen in the media library.

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