Tatort! Where are my fellow German murder show fans?

October 11, 2017 4:59 PM

We could talk about the weekly episode or specific city teams.

Over a thousand episodes but the same intro since 1970. Most of the ones online at ARD have subtitles for anyone whose ear for regional accents and slang is nicht hervorragend.

I typically watch the new episode on Mondays but the posting schedule could be flexible. Munich, Dortmund, Berlin, and Bremen are particular favorites but I'm open to any of the cities.

Some episodes are on Youtube so it's possible to watch without having access to streaming. It could be a club arrangement where we agree to watch a specific episode.

posted by mrcrow (9 comments total)

Oh, I'm in.
And we could go over last Sunday's - Stuttgart. Where an old RAF killer comes back and makes a mess of things.
With Tatort I always find the more interesting thing (sadly, somewhat - that is it doesn't speak to well to the show as a stand alone entity) is the malleability of the 'format.' There is no real format, the show is mostly a way to employ workers in the film industry, and so you get these really uneven shows. Some almost brilliant, some really mediocre.
Sunday's was directed by Dominik Graf who I don't know but he is a 'known' German director among those who follow German film.
(Sam Fuller directed Tatort #25, Wolfang Petersen did a bunch. Curiously Christian Petzold hasn't - though he did do a rather fantastic episode of 'Polizei Ruff 112' last year(?) about a werewolf.)

This Sunday is Bremen, they're often totally ok. The question is how will anyone watch it from outside of Germany?
Here's the site for Tatort
posted by From Bklyn at 7:09 AM on October 19, 2017 [1 favorite]

Thank you, I knew there had to be someone else! Watching outside of Germany is possible with the use of a VPN, or so I have been told :) Thanks for posting the link.

I forgot that it's the 40th anniversary of the Todesnacht... it's probably 20 years since I studied it. Time to refresh my memory.

Der rote Schatten was one of the best I've seen. I thought Stau was going to be the brilliant one out of Stuttgart for the year! Since Tatort doesn't follow a set structure and there isn't a regular schedule of who's on when, I'm fascinated by how each story handles character development. Some of the cities have too much going on with the detectives personal histories to be able to drop in and understand what's up with the meaningful glares and tension. Lannert's own story made it compelling for me and must have been a treat for Richy Müller to act. Maybe it was a cheap gimmick but I appreciated the blend of historical and faux historical footage. Normally I'm much more critical but I think since German is a second language I appreciate things that would seem heavy handed if I saw them in English. Makes me much easier to please!

I'm interested that you think the lack of format is a hinderance--for me it's one of the more compelling things about the show. The free range for the director and cinematographer means that even a mediocre one may have a few good moments.

I fully support the full employment of film actors/directors like this. It reminds me of Columbo, where Peter Falk was able to rise (or descend) to the level of his costars. Most of the older ones I've seen were motivated by seeking out particular actors. Now I need to track them down by director too.

I don't know if we should continue this in Talk or make a single FanFare post for the series. Going by episode seems like overkill for now and FanFare isn't set up to handle episode numbers that high!
posted by mrcrow at 10:34 PM on October 19, 2017

Didn't mean to suggest I found the lack of formulaic writing a draw-back, I also see it as plus: as is the set-up of the whole endeavor, as a support for theater/film professionals per state.
'Stau' was pretty great, though at times it felt like a theater piece (when everyone started protesting that the Stau was intentional - ) but the pay-off was pretty satisfying.
I'm not going to be able to watch Bremen until next weekend and I'm looking forward to it because Bremen is almost always 'good' (and fine I'm curious about Stedefreund and Selb, which has been brewing for a while now.)

Let's keep it here, I think, as a sort of general all episodes of 'Tatort' thread.
posted by From Bklyn at 12:09 PM on October 23, 2017

They are going all out on these last few with Lürsen and Stedefreund! I'm very curious to hear your reaction to this one and am hesitant to write any more until you've seen it.
posted by mrcrow at 9:38 PM on October 26, 2017

1. Saw (Spiegel online, in german - couldn't find the English version) Hopefully won't be the big mistake it feels like.

2. Back where I can watch, I look forward to catching up. Also tonight is Dresden the new Kommissaren are pretty ok, should be good.
posted by From Bklyn at 2:06 AM on October 29, 2017

Missing link was this: about how they are going to limit the 'arty' episodes to two per year.

Bremen Episode: this was one of the best this year, best in a long time. I guessed who it should be early on but coming around to it was really well drawn out - I was almost willing to believe it was the husband, until he was on the bridge, being questioned.
And the skating! A great mix of the infantile and necessity. The poignancy of it took a while to set in - probably when she got to her 'sister's place' and it turned out to be a storage locker.
It was kind of an episode of 'incomprehensible women' - Voss and Selb both do things for oblique motives ( I was kind of sad for Stedefreunde but Selb was true to her deeply complicated self - she would be a hell of a mother - and I don't know if that would be good or bad)

I looked for this on the 'directory' of tv shows and couldn't find it - I'll look into that
posted by From Bklyn at 1:08 AM on October 31, 2017

Finally getting a chance to catch up myself!
The arty episodes are where it really has a chance to shine so that’s disappointing news.

The Bremen episode handled the classic insane manipulative woman so well! She was so compelling even as she was horrifying. Selb intrigues me because that kind of analytic genius is not a typical female role. Her whistling for Stedefreund cracked me up and the fight scene was pure fun. I really hope they don’t sideline her now.

Did you watch the Frankfurt horror episode? I have absolutely no interest, but they were promoting it heavily on social media.

About to watch Dresden.
posted by mrcrow at 2:24 PM on November 15, 2017

I made a FanFare post about Dresden - maybe the thing to do is make an Omnibus Tatort FanFare post...
posted by From Bklyn at 8:24 AM on November 16, 2017

Now that you've done the math on the season and episode number the hard part of going by episode is done :) I could go either way, with a preference for whichever method is most welcoming to anyone wishing to join us!
posted by mrcrow at 4:52 PM on November 20, 2017