Tatort: Auge um Auge

November 13, 2017 1:04 AM - Season 47, Episode 10

Dresden! Sieland! Gorniak! Schnabel! A sharp-shooter kills the president of an insurance firm.

With detours into Henni Sieland's muddy personal life - including a questionable sub-plot about a refugee family (Tatort is, if nothing else, a meta-show about Germany) - this episode does not quite reach the ... epiphany it was aspiring to. Still, the redoubtable Schnabel shows that he can put his personal preferences aside to focus on what counts.

posted by From Bklyn (2 comments total)

Schnabel was pretty outrageous making small talk with the executive! That, angling for the men disputing their claims, and his meltdown over the computer made him solidly a man of his age and class. Glad he was redeemed in part.

Is disability fraud the same kind of trigger issue in Germany as it is in the US? I wondered how tacked on the refugee plot seemed within Germany, too. I'm really glad that something so mainstream included something about refugees that wasn't as a suspect or victim.

The detective work fell a little short in that they didn't look into the other members of the shooting club. The murderer actively represented the claimants in front of her former employers and no one recognized her? Close enough, Dresden.
posted by mrcrow at 4:44 PM on November 20, 2017

Is disability fraud the same kind of trigger issue in Germany as it is in the US?

Yes, in a pretty banal way. The 'refugee' issue was the most remarkable element here, I thought. Dresden is, of course, the home of 'Pergida' and a bunch of other xenophobic bullshit - no one I know gets what the fuck is up with 'die Sachsen' they have the fewest refugees yet are the craziest about the topic.

The guilty party did change their name and hair color so, you know, totally camouflaged (!ugh writing steps in it again...)
posted by From Bklyn at 7:34 AM on November 23, 2017