Reviews

I consider this far better than any other German crime series I have watched lately - and I'm doing so quite regularly.

Other than (modern) Tatort and most other newer German crime series, Letzte Spur Berlin is not trying to have more and more fancy and odd cases. Neither is it trying to be funny or hyper-ethical. Here the crimes do not occur while the inspectors happen to be around (as in many Tatorts), nor are they trying to show the daily struggles of being a transvestite. And last but not least there are no dramatic scenes in which the inspectors heroically save victims or convince criminals of the wrongness of their doing in a heart-melting speech.

Instead there are down-to-earth cases that seem realistic and convincing. Also, things can go wrong and there is not always a happy ending.

I would not call this show perfect, it is not. But looking at the recent quality of major German crime-series this one really stands out by far! (I have only seen some episodes as I cannot find it anywhere to buy and am not regularly watching TV)

Hello there, Veronica Mars started as a cliché-teenage series with a mobbed, yet very intelligent and likable main character who has some rich and mighty counterpart (the dad of her former best friend). This as well as her being a detective's daughter makes VM seem even more like a cliché-series, where the main character experiences lots of different and dangerous adventures to finally evolve to some sort of famous hero. I think that all this is what scares most people off, as it almost made me stop watching. I then thought about famous stories such as Harry Potter that have pretty similar setups, filled up with lots of exaggerated heroism and less complex plots.

This made me reconsider my bad first impression and i watched another episode, and another episode,... until the first and best season ended.

In my opinion VM is a great show with a very interesting and unpredictable but well designed and suiting story, interesting characters and generally lots of fun. The show is not realistic, yet close enough to build up an emotional link between the watcher and the characters, to make you feel and fear with them more than in any other series i have seen by so far.

The detective stories are meant to spice up the story and though some of them are rather bad i always had to credit how different they all are. I have seen lots of CSI-shows that focus on crimes and investigations and are allot closer to reality and allot more accurate in crime investigation. Yet VM makes the best out of this "accessory", presenting interesting and very different cases and finding the perfect middle between such side-events and the main plot about murder, love and becoming an adult (hello cliché ;)).

For comparison what similar series I watched lately (all episodes each): Heroes, Prison Break, Six Feet Under. Heroes has (better) special effects and allot more action, but other than the horror-parts with Molly Walker (the little girl) dreaming of the very evil totally lacks on atmosphere. Prison Break annoyed me from mid first season on, as it was always the same and so totally exaggerated that it wasted it's atmosphere. Six Feet Under was good, but had a bad proportion between story (too few) and relationship (too much). So if you liked any of the series mentioned above you should give VM a try.

I hope neither my bad English nor my lack of writing skills make this a pain to read. Greetings from Germany. :)