Set in 1946, with Berliners probably at their lowest and all the occupying forces despising and exploiting them, the show could have focussed on Max officially helping the local police to get organised, and building a special relationship with Elsie, the good German cop-in-chief.
Unfortunately, the script suffers from a serious case of anachronism and derails into a million sub-plots. While Max tries to protect Moritz, who turned into a serial killer of Nazies after having seen what happened in Dachau, almost all the German cops are blackmailed into betraying their colleagues, mostly by the stereotyped evil Russians. The Russians planting a large recording device in Elsie's apartment is one of the lowest points of anachronistic ideas planted in a show that takes places in 1946.
Not only that, but one of subplots involves an abortionist doctor who controls the Berlin underworld, joining forces with a waitress who turns out to be an evil mastermind. Additionally, Max is pursued by the wife of Tom Franklin, Max's boss, who's also playing a secret game of his own.
The setting look suitably dreary but the unshaven Max and Moritz stick out like two sore thumbs: men in those years were shaved clen, sporting at most a thin moustache.
13 out of 24 found this helpful