The ZDF describes Berlin-Köpenick as an “unused location”. This is where the station places its new crime series, which is supposed to entertain the audience on Friday evenings at prime time.
Berlin – Somehow it was clear that he would catch a bloody nose for the saying. “You don’t call me a girl,” the inspector admonished the suspect in the interrogation room.
“Well, then cunt.” He laughs for a moment. Then his face has an uncomfortable encounter with the tabletop. The sound becomes rougher.
Chief Detective Kay Freund and her colleague Robert Heffler have to solve the murder of a man who recently came to Germany from Africa. His body is pulled out of the Spree. Before it landed in the water, the man was drugged, then killed.
It is the prelude to a new Friday crime series on ZDF: “Beyond the Spree”. Starting this week, the station will show four episodes, each at 8:15 p.m. For the main actor Jürgen Vogel alias Heffler, the production follows prominent predecessors on the broadcast slot: “The Friday night crime thriller is part of television history,” Vogel said according to the press release. “It started for me with“ Derrick ”. Somehow we all grew up with that, at least from my generation. And after that it has been “The Criminalist” for the last few years. “
“Beyond the Spree” tries to set new accents: Heffler is a single father of three daughters. To protect his family life, he has withdrawn from permanent criminal service. Due to a lack of staff, he is asked to support the new Commissioner Kay Freund (Seyneb Saleh). She is portrayed as young and willing to take risks, a workaholic. Heffler agrees, but the girls shouldn’t find out about it. Problematic, because one of the daughters keeps calling. The two commissioners get on surprisingly well straight away – as if they had been working together for years.
The series also wanted to ensure freshness in terms of film – “through the as yet unused location Berlin-Köpenick,” explained the ZDF. A large working class meets many newcomers from all over the republic, as Vogel describes it. “These conditions give you many different ways of telling the cases: you jump back and forth between the worlds, the rich and normal people, and you get different perspectives on Köpenick.”
The opening episode “Blood Ties” is about a terminally ill East German civil engineer who supported “the socialist brothers in Ethiopia” in the construction of factories during the GDR era, later made a lot of money there with his own company and – not without controversy – pursued art Germany made it. His nurse seems overzealous and tries to seal him off.
The victim, on the other hand, had worked for a shipping company before his death and had fallen in love with an employee. She was harassed by a colleague. Is there a motive here too?
Since the episodes only last an hour, it is – depending on your point of view – packed and a bit much material for the short time. Or primarily told in an entertaining and compact way. The four episodes are separate criminal cases. Meanwhile, the story of the main characters continues to develop. The whole thing is to be flanked in social networks with posts about the Heffler family. dpa
