Deutschland 83: Northern Wedding
July 9, 2015 8:26 PM - Season 1, Episode 4 - Subscribe
When the bug is found in Linda's desk, NATO is placed on high alert. Linda arrives to visit Martin, who scrambles to turn her loyalties around.
From the Sundance website:
The bug is discovered in Brussels just as Linda arrives to visit Martin in West Germany. Martin scrambles to turn her loyalties around while under interrogation by NATO security about their relationship. As Linda figures out Martin's true identity, she runs. Martin follows but his East Germany cohorts are way ahead of him. He is forced to recognize the dark reality of the organization he is working for and his job becomes a terrifying trap.
From the Sundance website:
The bug is discovered in Brussels just as Linda arrives to visit Martin in West Germany. Martin scrambles to turn her loyalties around while under interrogation by NATO security about their relationship. As Linda figures out Martin's true identity, she runs. Martin follows but his East Germany cohorts are way ahead of him. He is forced to recognize the dark reality of the organization he is working for and his job becomes a terrifying trap.
I loved the first 2 episodes, thought the 3rd was lacking in terms of subtlety but found this episode back on form.
I love how, just as with Breaking Bad, this is effectively a live action graphic novel, with the range that graphic novels have, from the utterly fantastic comic book dynamic, i.e. Martin/Moritz is almost an ironic Peter Parker type of figure, suddenly granted with magical Stasi super powers as well as an element of being pressed into service like the British used to do with the Navy and the Stasi itself being able to pull off so much to the completely serious and dramatic. It moves far more into comic absurdism than Breaking Bad but they do share that common live action graphic novel feel so well.
Really like how Martin and Annett have both been pressed into service by the Stasi and Annett is not even aware of it but she's done her job by discovering the forbidden books.
Alex Edel I can't quite understand yet. He seems either incredibly intense or incredibly insane.
posted by juiceCake at 9:21 AM on July 10, 2015
I love how, just as with Breaking Bad, this is effectively a live action graphic novel, with the range that graphic novels have, from the utterly fantastic comic book dynamic, i.e. Martin/Moritz is almost an ironic Peter Parker type of figure, suddenly granted with magical Stasi super powers as well as an element of being pressed into service like the British used to do with the Navy and the Stasi itself being able to pull off so much to the completely serious and dramatic. It moves far more into comic absurdism than Breaking Bad but they do share that common live action graphic novel feel so well.
Really like how Martin and Annett have both been pressed into service by the Stasi and Annett is not even aware of it but she's done her job by discovering the forbidden books.
Alex Edel I can't quite understand yet. He seems either incredibly intense or incredibly insane.
posted by juiceCake at 9:21 AM on July 10, 2015
Thing I need to go back and check - when Martin phones Tobias to beg for help because Linda has run off, T asks "did anyone see you" and he says "no." But wasn't there a shot just before that of Martin coming out of the hotel that was from inside a parked car on the street? As if to show that someone (presumably on the NATO side) was indeed watching over Linda's hotel?
posted by dnash at 9:38 AM on July 10, 2015
posted by dnash at 9:38 AM on July 10, 2015
Alex Edel I can't quite understand yet. He seems either incredibly intense or incredibly insane.
or very, very scared. As the enlisted (more to that: has he went AWOL?) son of a general, he probably heard all kinds of NATO officials with the ideas of nuking Germany to oblivion as a first line of defense towards a Soviet invasion of Western Europe. He doesn't seem to see nuclear war as a matter of if, as Tobias' group seem to think, but when.
posted by lmfsilva at 10:04 AM on July 10, 2015
or very, very scared. As the enlisted (more to that: has he went AWOL?) son of a general, he probably heard all kinds of NATO officials with the ideas of nuking Germany to oblivion as a first line of defense towards a Soviet invasion of Western Europe. He doesn't seem to see nuclear war as a matter of if, as Tobias' group seem to think, but when.
posted by lmfsilva at 10:04 AM on July 10, 2015
I just caught up with this- and let me tell you they hit the period dead-fucking-on. I lived in Berlin (in Military Intelligence at this NSA intercept station) from 1977 through 1979, so just a little before this is set, and it brings kind of a cold chill to me to see it portrayed realistically from the other side. I did get kind of a grin at the "East German Listening post", which looked like indiscriminate radio equipment set on a table- permanent listening stations would have racks and racks of equipment, because you might not know exactly what you were listening to at times. We had some people who were "goldenears" who could discern meaning or patterns in otherwise seemingly random noise. (Think the blind guy from "Contact".)
I'm not sure of the bug on the secretary's desk, either. It picks up the typing and produces cleartext on the other end just how, exactly? You don't generally do Tempest with a voice microphone.
Still, I'm going to be watching carefully, since it really takes me back to that period in my life.
posted by pjern at 5:12 PM on July 12, 2015 [2 favorites]
I'm not sure of the bug on the secretary's desk, either. It picks up the typing and produces cleartext on the other end just how, exactly? You don't generally do Tempest with a voice microphone.
Still, I'm going to be watching carefully, since it really takes me back to that period in my life.
posted by pjern at 5:12 PM on July 12, 2015 [2 favorites]
It seemed clear that the person in the car smoking was the one who ran over Linda and gave Moritz the shovel.
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 8:28 PM on August 19, 2015
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 8:28 PM on August 19, 2015
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posted by dnash at 8:29 PM on July 9, 2015