German people have an unfair reputation for being relatively humourless; something I’ve never found to be the case with the Germans I know. But this crime series set in Hamburg doesn’t do much to dispel that myth.
If you want to avoid spoilers, stop reading this article now.
The main two characters in the show – Falke (Wotan Wilke Möhring) and his sidekick, Julia Grosz (Franziska Weisz) – are so devoid of joy that it’s hard to feel much empathy with their tribulations, as they try to bring down the criminal element of northern Germany. Reading reviews on IMDB, the words “tiresome” and “irritating” crop up, and whilst I wouldn’t go that far, there is something infuriating about their dour expressions and – with Falke in particular – constant badgering of colleagues, witnesses and suspects alike.
The storyline in episode 1 of the new season is interesting enough. A lorry driver, Aresh Naderi, has been killed outside the gates of the fracking company he works for. His body is found some yards away from the cab of his truck, and a trail of blood suggests he was confronted and tried to escape his attacker(s). Aresh was a highly educated Iraqi refugee, so xenophobia is high on the list of potential motives for his death. But soon it becomes apparent that the village where the fracking is occurring is far from normal.
Eco-warriors (or “eco-nazis”, as one character refers to them) dominate the village – one farmer in particular is leading the rebellion against the fracking firm, citing them as the cause of various lesions, rashes, mood swings and respiratory illnesses that blight the local population – in particular the children. Indeed it’s the village children who are the most frightening part of this show. They barely speak a word, and shuffle about aimlessly like a modern-day version of ‘Children Of The Damned’. The only time they smile is when they’re bullying and threatening Aresh’s nephew, or watching a scientist nearly drown when taking water samples from a lake.
There’s another similarly horror-like scene late on when some video footage taken by Aresh is made public. His family are in a supermarket when the news goes viral, and slowly the villagers all start surrounding them, shuffling relentlessly and silently towards the family down the aisles with their shopping carts and baskets dragging behind them. It’s more like a pastiche of a zombie movie than a crime show.
Each episode is a 90 minute stand-alone story, which gives plenty of time for red herrings and misdirects, and we get a fair share of those as suspicion falls on a variety of characters. In the end, the big reveal is rather unsatisfactory, though.
I like the fact that the show just gets on with it. We do learn a little of Falke’s private life, namely a rocky relationship with his teenage son. But mostly it’s all about the crime – and in some ways that’s a good thing. There’s no frisson of sexual tension between the two detectives, which is refreshingly uncommon. And the acting and cinematography (plenty of aerial drone footage of the German countryside and monstrous fracking facility) are both excellent.
This one wasn’t for me, but if you enjoy unfussy police procedurals, give it a go.
Walter Presents: ‘Inspector Falke’ season 2 is available as a boxset on All 4 now.
