Babylon Berlin

I watched this after listening to an NPR review. I love history, but crime and violence Is not my usual genre. This is such an amazingly shot series with twist and turns through out the plot that I have become fully addicted up to epi 8( even with the subtitles). A dark story during dark & violent times in 1929 Berlin, it is full of sad situations, the afternath of war on it's vets and population, corruption, decadence and interesting characters. Perhaps a lesson for current times, but when have we ever learned from the past? This series deserves all the accolades & awards it's been given.Give it a go, you won't be sorry.

This series are one of the best I've ever seen. First of all because they are educational. They tell us about how life was under the Weimar Republic (the democratic regime in Germany between 1919 and 1933). I am tired of all those cliches about Germany as fascistland, ignoring the rich history this country had before authoritarianism.

In Germany 1929, the country is falling apart because of the great depression combined with the crippling punishment of Versailles treaty, plus almost all adult males are crippled because of WWI or heavily shell shocked, with seizures and convilsions that prevented them of working or actually leading normal lives. Starvation, homelessness, drug use and prostitition (male, female and transvestite ) are essentially the only way many families resort in order to feed their children and older relatives. Heroin addiction is a menace, and that despair is driving people to embrace any charlatan, demagogue or ideology that promises bringing them a better future (which at the time, was not fascim yet, but Bolshevism, with Trotskyists and Stalinist competing and fighting each other).

Despite all that hopelessness and misery that Germans were enduring, there is an incredible cultural scene happening in Berlin, where the nightlife is intense, American Jazz musicians and dancers achieve success, the arts (Cinema, design, architecture, music) is evolving, there is a lot of beauty and reckless sex happening. Decadence is the word to describe the atmosphere, where a caste society lives another planet, with country clubs, mansions and servants, while the plight of the majority is simply ignored. It almost feel like the Blade Runner society.

It is not mentioned in the series, but at the time, Albert Einstein was a professor in Berlin, and Fritz Lang was the king of Cinema, Walter Gropius founded Bauhaus by that time, Vladimir Nabokov was living there, in short, the great Europeans minds flocked to Berlin in the late 1920s. So what you appreciate in the series is this dicotomy. How a society with so much brilliance, talent and efficiency could have rebuild itself slowly and become a prosperous nation, but later the population made wrong choices and followed the call that ended up in a disaster that they will never recover. I was in Berlin 2 tears ago, and saw how damaged the city is and felt so sorry for them and their curse.

The series gives us some contex that help us understand how many people, mostly good intentioned, ended up supporting a system in 1933 that was almost non existent in the 20s (fascism). Their regime at the time was democratic, with a free press, a legal system, parliament, etc.

Babylon Berlin is not only politics. It is also thriller, romance, drama and action. The main actors Gereon and Lotte are very charismatic and you cheer for them all the time, because they come from disfunctional families, but they try to do the right thing all the time. It is almos impossible not to fall in love with Lotte.

The rest of the cast is also very good looking, but still keeping the beauty standars accurate with the early 20th century. Their nude bodies are beautiful, but never arousing. The nakedness is constant, but never out of place. And people smoke all the time, whic is also accurate. There is almost no scene without a cigarette.

I hope most people enjoy just like I did

(Review updated after Season 4).

Berlin, 1929. A detective from Cologne, Gereon Rath, is seconded to the vice squad in order to crack a series of blackmail cases. Meanwhile a train from Moscow to Berlin is hijacked by communist revolutionaries. The train is carrying more than it appears.

Superb drama series. At the most basic level this is a crime/detective drama and a very good one. Always intriguing with multiple strands of plots operating, seemingly in parallel. The separate plots do coalesce eventually, forming a picture that is more than the sum of the parts.

Great, gritty depiction of life. Hardly any character is non-expendable and sub-plots don't always have happy endings.

Some great character development and character-based sub-plots too. The story arc of Charlotte Ritter is particularly interesting and engaging. On this note, great work by Volker Bruch as Rath and Liv Lisa Fries as Ritter but the casting and performances of all involved are spot-on.

What lifts this series to another level, however, is the historic background and the feeling that you're seeing history being played out before your eyes. You see the changes and upheavals occurring in Germany, especially the rise of the National Socialists (Nazis), and how this affects the country and life in general.

The historic side is not merely a backdrop but part of the plot. The rise of the Nazis has a significant impact on the plot, especially in Season 3 and probably more so in forthcoming seasons. Rather than a crime drama, the series could easily be a study on Germany's path to World War 2.

This historic aspect increases in significance as the series goes on, culminating in Season 3 which is a great mix of classic whodunnit, political machinations and historic events.

There is a downside to the historic side though. Any time the police are up against National Socialists you know they are going to be stymied by the politics and the influence the Nazis hold in high places. Does make the series quite frustrating at times (well, I did say it was gritty) and it will be interesting to see how the writers pivot away from this obvious perennial dead end, especially as the National Socialists gain more power.

This political aspect comes to a head in Season 4 as the police and SA, the paramilitary wing of the National Socialist Party, clash.

Season 4 also marks a downturn in the quality of the show as the plot becomes less watertight, being inconsistent, haphazard and contrived at times. It's also quite unfocussed as we have several sub-plots in play, many of which are unconnected with anything else going on. The interest and engagement levels suffer as a result.

S4 is still reasonably interesting though, just not as good as previous seasons.

Season ratings: S1 8/10, S2 9, S3 10, S4 7.5.

Babylon Berlin is based on the novel "Der nasse Fisch" by Volker Kutscher, but the production changed the story and the characters quite a bit, so much so that I wonder if further seasons can still be based on Kutscher's books. Since I had read the books not too long before watching the series, I got confused because of those differences, mixing up the images in my head and on screen, so make sure to leave some time between reading and watching. I can really recommend the books, they are well reasearched, they are historically accurate and give many nice details about the Berlin of that period. I'm not expert enough to say if the changes and additions made in the series are still as accurate, but the production team consulted a historian while producing it.

Babylon Berlin is the most expensive German production so far and you can see it. Where cheaper productions have to go with 3-4 takes to get it done, here each scene was shot until the director was finally satisfied (I was an extra in this series, so I know). Productions of such magnitude were not new to the team, many "Hollywood" movies and US series were shot entirely or in part in Berlin and Studio Babelsberg, so they had an experienced crew, headed by Tom Tykwer.

So is it any good? I'm not quite neutral, since I was there on set, and I dislike it when a good book gets altered too much in filming, but the images alone are worth it, you can see the extra money spent, so give it a try!

Edit: Review of season 3 (which is based on book #2 by Kutscher). Again I was there as an extra and got a look behind the scenes. I couldn't find any numbers, but I had the impression that this season was done on a smaller budget than the first two, e.g. we didn't take quite as many shots on the same scene and seemed to be more in a hurry. Still, the sets, the costumes and some other things that cost money were already there and build upon. After watching the series on TV, I didn't really notice much of a difference when it comes to production value. In this season, Gereon and Charlotte are undergoing some changes, thus becoming more like the characters from the books, to me these changes make them more amiable. Also, the plot follows the one from the book more closely than the first 2 seasons did, but there is still an entirely new sub plot. Basically, if you liked the first 2 seasons, you will also like the third. It's a bit less glamorous, instead we get more detective story parts and you won't get as many history lessons, but you will get to see how movies were made 90 years ago. One of the great things is that the scenes that play at the Babelsberg Film Studios were actually shot there, they have survived a war, the GDR and the changes that came with the fall of the Berlin Wall.

I was quite aware of the history of German film making which excelled up until the 40's. Babylon Berlin has shown me that the German film industry is not in limbo anymore, but is now making a major comeback with such wonderful mini-series as this one.

The cinematography, acting, set designs are just superb.

I can not get enough of this great series.

To the directors, actors and film crews I want to thank you all for this masterpiece and keep up the good work.