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Reviews
Tatort: Deckname Kidon (2015)
The best episode yet!
From the music that is in the background of the episode to the plots and the actors, they have done an absolute fantastic job with this episode. These are so amazingly good. This is some of the best TV and some of the best drama that I've seen in a very long time. Bibi and Moritz investigate a suicide? A possible murder? Theis is almost a spy episode too, and they keep you right on the edge of the your seat every minute as it progresses up until the end. I'm not even sure how they had time to work in the parts with the physical rehab needed for Moritz's daughter, but they managed that and it's a nice touch amidst the possible Mossad assassination team, and the Iranian arms smuggling trying to get nuclear weapons, and the fat cat local snuggler who tries to get Moritz in trouble at a police checkpoint of all the things. This episode has a little bit of everything. Fantastic!!
Meurtres en Guadeloupe (2023)
Excellent Series Entry
A very pleasant, if somehat formulaic, entry in this decade plus long series. I have watched every episode now available through this "Season 12" entry on Mhz; and while several clearly we were out of broadcast order as well as not really "Muertres en...", most are of a type. Two detectives, one local, one less so or invited in, work together to solve a homicide or series thereof. Generally they will begin to work together and get along better and solves the case
Frequently the culprit is someone we meet, though not too well along the way.
This story fits quite well, with enough local culture and scenery to keep it interesting. It's not Award-Winning cinema, but fun and entertaining.
I bastardi di Pizzofalcone (2017)
Fantastic Series -- read the books too!
I'd watched the first two seasons of this on MHZ before I'd started on the series of books. If you love this series, you absolutely must get the books and read them! Start with "The Crocodile" which takes place before any of the "I bastardi" episodes, but is an absolute marvel of a book, introducing you to Lojacano and Piras, as well as Maurizio De Giovanni's style of writing. I came to love Sicily through the Montalbano books, and these, though quite different, give one a great appreciation of Naples, much more than one gets by visiting the Musei or going to see Pompeii.
Then the first actual "bastardi" book, where you are introduced to the other police officers you will know through the series is a must. That book is essentially covered by Season 1 Episode 1, but adds in much of the background from "The Crocodile." The casting is fantastic--I can't imagine anyone seeming more like Lojacano than Alessandro Gassman. And the rest are similarly well cast, down to the idiotic flashing of sunglasses than Angrisiano does playing Aragona. He's perfect, as are the rest. Very well done. This series is as well-matched to the books as the Montalbanos, or the Campion series, or Suchet as Poirot.
Assolutamente perfetto!!
Tatort: Zwischen den Fronten (2013)
These just keep on getting better and better!
Harald Krassnitzer has really grown into this roll. I just watched "Ep. 832, Falsch verpackt" last week, which IMDB lists as airing on 25 Mar 2012; this episode is Tatort 863, but the next Krassnitzer, listed as 17 Feb 2013, and rather than an episode from the next season, it seems almost like it was filmed the next week.
This episode tackles some difficult social themes, but in my view handles them with grace while still giving a credible and very entertaining episode. It must be even more so for Austrian TV; here in the US we can understand the tension between protection from extremist violence and overreach of the state apparatus, but add to this the sensitive theme for Austria of neo-fascists possibly involved in the government, and it must be even more so after what they experienced in the mid 20th century.
It's also not just Krassnitzer, though he carries the day, also Neuhauser has (and I had my doubts in her first episode), as Bibi, really grown into her role as well. Kudos also to guest star Susane Wuest as Major Warig, who reminds me at first of an SS officer out of a WWII flick, but shows by the end a bit of good character as well, and does this credibly.
So, MHZ, I want all the Tatorts, not just a few. And why can't we produce TV here in the US this good?
Le sang de la vigne: Les larmes de Pasquin (2011)
An interesting mystery and a good start to a series
This has at first glance all the elements of one of the French "Murders In..." series. In fact, as a single episode, it could almost pass for one of those except that the investigating policeman is not the main character but a supporting character. If you like the murders in series and these shows in French with English subtitles and filmed in France and you're also interested in wine at all, this will be a treat, especially as there are multiple seasons of this.
Pierre Arditi does a very credible job as a professional wine-taster/expert/author. He's called in to help with a murder by the lead detective very competently played by Vincent Winterhalter (who you may know quite well if you've watched a number of the murders in series). This initial story reminds one of Dick Francis' book Proof, with wine being the subject of the expertise rather than Scotch as in the Francis book.
Still the similarity ends there and this is a distinctly French story. Catherine Demaiffe as the assistant Matlilde is very good in her supporting role. Arditi's character is also given a romantic interest; she is also a wine expert, but this part if the story seems entirely a sidelight and is less well integrated into the episode. One hopes for something more there in future episodes.
Tatort: Glaube, Liebe, Tod (2010)
Solid episode but with unresolved questions
Krassnitzer is solidly into his role as Moritz with this episode. The initial scene where he's practicing archery with his daughter before some sort of Japanese Zen master works well actually with the theme of The cult which purports to give people some sense of happiness, but may or may not be involved in the death of the young woman who's found in an apartment in an apparently unfinished and perhaps abandoned construction area. Well, the initial investigation points in one way the eventual solution is perhaps a bit surprising and makes the episode interesting. However, there are some unresolved conflicts which tend to be characteristic of the Tattort series; It appears that Moritz's boss is involved and it turns out that it's probably an innocent association with one of the high up cult members who appears to be on some sort of community board, although it's unclear at least to me from watching this what that was exactly. This also is the second episode in which Bad actors seem to have an amazing amount of information about the police investigation and also about Moritz. They know about his family. They know where he lives. I mean this is sort of amazing stuff especially coming out of the EU where they have all this privacy stuff. I just don't get it. You don't see this sort of thing outside of spy movies in the US. But here in this series the baddies seem to like be plugged in. And if you're a cop, watch out because you know they're on to your family and they're going to put pressure on you and all sorts of things. And very little of that is resolved at the end of the episode. And that's maybe my reason for only seven stars. It's like how did they get this information and why doesn't anybody seem terribly upset with their access to this information?
Tatort: Baum der Erlösung (2009)
A solid episode but not the first one!
This was the first episode available in the Tattort Vienna series in the US. Looking these up though on IMDb one sees that this character has been in this series in many earlier episodes. So the character and his situation are not well introduced, but since this isn't his first episode for viewers in Austria, I'm not really surprised by that, but you need to be prepared when you watch this for sort of being dropped into the middle of a character who is all in all in 59 episodes, even if they're not all available in the US. So we don't really know much about the main characters we start and there's no real attempt to introduce him. But we do find out he has a teenage daughter. He's apparently a single parent, but she's really very much a background character, although her story and her current boyfriend, who's clearly a Muslim plays well against the general story where the murder that the inspector investigates involves a Muslim who is killed in a community, which is very much under tension in Western Austria. Even the local policeman who is a Muslim, has a lot of issues with the community. In that, he seems much more assimilated to Western culture, but he still speaks Turkish and understands the original culture and is very much a Muslim. So we see conflict at all levels in this episode, but it plays very well.
The mystery is fair. It's not terribly and complex and the solution is not too surprising, but it does hold the attention and with the mountainous region in Western Austria, it's a mystery with a very beautiful backdrop. Although some of the situations are expected, it never gets quite to the point of being banal and it does hold your interest for the full time. Available in the US with subtitles starting in 2023 this episode actually dates from 2009.
This series which is available in the US on MHz networks, if it is like the other Tattort series (e.g., Lindholm) the episodes will not necessarily be shown in order or anything like order despite the way they're listed by MHz and I do recommend that you look them and find out when they were produced and if possible try to watch them in order so far as is possible.
Typical also on these MHz subtitled shows the subtitles here are not a fully accurate translation, but a general representation of what's said. My sense is also that the subtitles were generated by a Brit because of the expressions that are used for the subtitles in English, which often seem quite odd.
Signora Volpe: Death of a Ghost (2024)
Pointless episode about nothing
Considering they make only three episodes per season, I cannot fathom why you'd waste a third of the season on a boring mystery that goes largely unsolved, and advances nothing important in terms of plot, characterization, or theme. Sylvie is not really to part of the investigation at all. What this does, to be fair, is advance her father's stature a bit as a former agent himself, but he's still almost inept, and why do we care? All five prior episodes were good mysteries and intriguing stories, and this, very unfortunately, was neither. One sincerely hopes that the show will be back for a third season, and this time with three quality episodes. It would be a great misfortune for this show to end after two seasons with such a terrible episode.
The Russians Are Coming the Russians Are Coming (1966)
"Emergency, everybody to get from street!"
This film, even nearly 60 years later, is an absolute delight. A royal hoot. It's a classic mid 20th century comedy, and as any true comedy, everything works out. There are a number of performances here worth, as they say, the price if admission. The top of the list has to be the late, great Alan Arkin as the Russian officer in charge of the landing party. Brian Keith does a more than fine job as the matter of fact police chief, but Carl Reiner is brilliant as the island vacationer caught in the middle.
As any good comedy will, this film also presents a positive message about understanding, something that should still resonate and have value today..
Midsomer Murders: A Climate of Death (2023)
Mediocre, even for season 24
Not an inspiring series entry, and full of holes. For one thing, the key motto around which the solution to the mystery hangs, is, in a word, nonsense. Gratia et Dignitas Vir Bonus Facit" does **NOT** translate as "Grace and Dignity makes a good man". In fact, it's not even syntactically correct Latin. It should read "Gratia et Dignitas virum bonum faciunt" Perhaps one could forgive the singular"facit" accepting the idea of grace and dignity as a collective single, maybe, but there's no object in this sentence. Even a first year Latin student in high school should catch that. This is indicative in a small way of the overall lack of care that has gone into this series of late.
Le pont du diable (2018)
Great story, excellent mystery, all pieces fit!
This is an extremely charming French mystery with an abundance of beautiful scenery as a bonus. The story begins rather slowly, with an apparent suicide from an old stone bridge, but it without too much surprise becomes something more. As usual in these stories, an outside detective is thrust into the case with a local one. Again, as is common, the newcomer has some personal connection to the area. As each new piece of the mystery unfoldes, it seems to branch out into multiple unrelated threads, but these are rather skillfully tied back together to form the solution to all the various problems, with all the skill of a Sophoclean drama. Well writen, well acted, and not overly intense or needlessly melodrammatic.
A pleasant evening's entertainment.
Roches Noires (2018)
Good solid mystery and a worthwhile view
Shown here as part of Mhz Network's "Murders in..." series, this was apparently produced as a Saturday evening movie for French TV in 2018. It's a good solid story, and other than a somewhat predictable if understated romance, the mystery itself is not. The background of the mountains and snow is not just beautiful scenery, which would be fine, since it is gorgeous, but it is from the outset an integral part of the mystery of the body, when it is found, and in a way, key to the solution. The acting is also solid, both Grégori Derangère and Flore Bonaventura doing excellent performances in their roles, though Iin my view Flore steals the show.
The Savage Bees (1976)
Good solid 20th century TV movie
Okay so the VHS transfer was kind of lousy but where else was I going to get one? Michael Parks and Gretchen Corbett do an excellent job and this is a lot better than the average sci-fi movie produced today. Okay, the special effects aren't good, It's 640 by 480, and probably the science isn't any good but who cares. It's well done. It's well acted, and I wish there wasn't such an emphasis today on gory violence and effects, which aren't the same as plot, characterization, and good acting! So if you're from the 20th century like me and have gotten here by the old fashioned method of time travel that is living through the in between time and surviving Y2K, and 2019-2020, this film just might be for you!
Tatort: Das verschwundene Kind (2019)
Lindholm in exile
For reasons that are not made entirely clear, Lindholm has been removed from the LKA and sent to head a local criminal investigation team in Göttingen. She does nothing to endear herself to her new team, and they hardly seem to like her. But they've caught a tough case right out of the box, a missing teen girl who had apparently just given birth.
All of this turns quite a bit more serious when the body of a newborn is found dead.
The girl's teacher is clearly a suspect as the father, as are perhaps two other young men.
The episode highlights overall the problem with teen pregnancy and parental neglect, with the background for fans of the Lindholm "series" within Tatort, of her personal difficulties in working with others.
Overall, a good episode, but less than satisfactory mystery.
Les blessures de l'île (2015)
Well done mystery
In French, with English subtitles. In some ways this is a classic scenario, where the people of a small island town are trapped by bad weather with a killer. The detective and his assistant (who is not a member of the police) end up trapped on the island also, and the townspeople are not, at least at first, very friendly. Somebody is certainly trying to scrare them off. It turns out that both the detective and the assistant have old connections to the island. Ghosts are possibly seen, and the film gets just a bit spooky. There is another murder, and then bits of another corpse from years ago are found. The ending is quite well done, and I'm left wishing they'd made this into a series.
Màkari: I colpevoli sono matti (2021)
A great start to a different type of mystery series
This show gives a different twist to the standard mystery series. There was only one Montalbano, so this series, also set in Sicily, takes a new tact, at least one I've not seen in a while, if at all. Our "detective" isn't a policeman, or a private detective, or like Don Matteo, a priest. He's an unemployed (but seemingly financially secure at least for the moment) writer, a wrongly terminated former government worker, who helps solves crimes in a small Sicilian town. He falls in love with a fetching local young lady, and, in this first episode, helps solve the murder of a local boy. Was he killed by the estranged father? By the vagrant? It's a decent mystery with nice local flavor.
Professor T: Swansong (2022)
The best of episodes, the worst of episodes.
A well-acted and well- written story is ruined by what is at best described as a weak ending, and more frankly is simply terrible. Skip the last two minutes.
We leave with the idiotic and improbable--no, just absolutely unbelievable ending of the Professor under arrest for what? Saving the life of a police officer? I'm mortified by the stupidity story writers can exhibit on occasion. Perhaps this was caused by the AI which really wrote the story going randomly off message. And Brand can't even thank him for what he did? Perhaps, but it seems very much contrary to her previous character. And Simon's fate needs to be made clearer. If this is an attempt at a cliffhanger, it is an even weaker story. I can't believe anyone really cares about the weird sub-plot involving T's mother.
Die Toten vom Bodensee: Die vierte Frau (2018)
The best episode so far!
A fascinating mystery evolves around whether or not a woman whose body has been found is part of a series of murders by a serial killer. Meanwhile an old friend of Oberländer reports his wife is missing in the same area as the killings and asks for Oberländer's help. When Oberländer begins to suspect that his friend's wife was possibly kidnapped by the serial killer, his former superior, who now heads a special team investigating the serial murders, doesn't buy this theory, because the missing woman doesn't fit with the supposed profile. As we might suspect, Oberländer sticks to his guns and begins, with Zeiler's help, gradually to unravel the solution. Meanwhile, Zeiler's troubles with her father are not quite over even after the man's death, as she must decide on the disposition of his ashes.
Don Matteo: La rosa antica (2000)
A solid series entry
At this point in season one, the actors are much more comfortable with their parts and the writers too. The captain of the Carabinieri seems, if not eager for Matteo's assistance, at least quite willing in private with his sargent (the Italian Carabinieri equivalent thereof) to acknowledge his abilities at sifting out rhe truth. Matteo at one point is referred to as "Sherlock Holmes," and himself calls another character "Miss Marple." The mystery here is typical of the series so far, never a solution out of nowhere, and always a pleasurable experience to view. There are to side-plots to the main mystery which tie in well to each other and the main plot.
Triassic Attack (2010)
Hey it's a zombie dyno film and it has Amelia Clark in it and it's not that bad
I mean I don't know what people are expecting. It's not like you have to pay to watch this or something. There's a lot worse sci-fi movies on the sci-fi channel and elsewhere and this really isn't that terrible. I mean it's a zombie dino movie. And yeah the young woman playing the university professor is far too hot and it's got Amelia Clark in it as the daughter of the professor and the sheriff who are of course having marital issues and all but divorced, a typical sort of backplot. I don't know if I've ever seen a movie involving a homicidal dinosaur skeletons conjured up accidentally by an American Indian. But hey all in all, it's not much more improbable than bringing them back to life with DNA preserved in mosquitoes covered with amber. The acting is fair and once you get over the premise the story holds together and if predictable it's still a bit of fun!
Morden i Sandhamn: I de lugnaste vatten (Del 1) (2010)
Very well done detective/police procedural
This series does an excellent job of gradually introducing the viewer to some very interesting characters and to the specific mystery of the first season. Unlike a lot of US and UK shows, this one takes the refreshing tact of getting the viewer involved in the characters but not drowning us in their personal problems. A detective show where the personal issues of the detectives overwhelm the actual investigation are soap opera melodrama masquerading as detective fiction. This **isn't** that, but also doesn't have plastic or all-sunny characters. In addition, the actual mystery is engaging, and, for viewers in the States, the location is equally interesting and fascinating. I'm so glad there's a whole bunch of these!
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023)
Ford good, supporters weak, plot TERRIBLE
Harrison Ford could, I'm sure, go on playing Indy for another 20 years if he wanted. This part certainly works. The supporting cast is, however, very weak. The woman and young fellow helping him are wooden and aren't fleshed out. Worse still is the villain who has to be the lamest Nazi villain in the history of cinema.
But worst of all is a plot that shouldn't even get a C in a junior high creative writing course. The only possible answer I can think of is that those financing the firm were seeking a possible tax loss, so like the fictional "Producers" they picked a sure loser; but unlike the Producers, these guys succeeded at failing.
Tatort: Vergessene Erinnerung (2010)
Another excellent Lindholm / Tatort episode
Small towns make great fodder for mysteries, and aside from being in German, this could be set in the US or some place in Midsommar with Barnaby investigating. As we start Lindholm leaves some sort of police-to-police lecture where she has just given a well-received presentation. She leaves in a borrowed car and appears sleepy at the wheel. Her GPS seems to be losing signal, and it has almost an X-Files feel. Some shadowy figure steps out in front of her car and she swerves and hits a tree. Then things get weird for a bit as if she's delirious. She finds herself in a small town hospital where everyone claims she didn't hit anything other than the tree. Butt it's a town where mysterious doings are a foot. Soon there's murder. And then another body turns up! This is a very fun mystery that will keep you guessing.
Alles Fleisch ist Gras (2014)
Gruesome. Watch something else.
This is the first one of these that has not been enjoyable. The detective after discovering that the missing person is actually a victim which the audience has already witnessed realizes that an old friend of his committed the murder and then turns the story away from being a detective fiction to being something else and it becomes thoroughly unpleasant I am not a fan of this sort of story where the police officer is essentially a manipulative criminal. The main actor and supporting actors do an excellent job, but there's no mystery here, only an agonizingly slow train wreck of a story. There's nothing at all redeeming here.
Il commissario Montalbano: La voce del violino (1999)
Don't miss this one!
For anyone who is unhappy with the final episode, rewatching this one should elucidate a truer understanding of why Montalbano and Livia are wrong together; more particularly why she, as a character, is completely wrong for almost anyone. She is a true comic foil. And this episode is not to be missed for a charming, albeit brief, guest role of the magnificent Sergio Fantoni.
It's also a wonderful episode that highlights the great detective abilities of Fazio, who seems to see past all of Montalbano's subterfuge.
It also highlights the very real-life issue of overlapping police authority in various areas of Italy.
All in all, utterly charming!