Does Charlotte Ritter Continue in Book 2
M urder. Misery. Mobsters. Mayhem. A country in turmoil with financial disaster looming. A city on the brink of collapse, filled with characters on the make and the sense that if the end of the world is coming, then why not party the nights away. And, hanging over it all, the hint in the air of something very nasty, slouching just over the horizon.
You might not think that Babylon Berlin, Sky Atlantic's big-budget German period drama – the third series of which reaches its conclusion tonight – would be the perfect lockdown bingewatch. But, frankly, you'd be wrong.
I understand there are plenty of people who reach for comfort at a time like this – it makes complete sense to curl up and relax with something that demands little but rewards well.
But Tom Tykwer's ambitious adaptation of Volker Kutscher's police procedurals – the first two series of which aired in 2017 – offers something more. The chance to lose yourself in a fully realised and beautifully recreated world, populated by people you will come to genuinely care about, driven by tight plots and a wider story of how the after-effects of the first world war would send shockwaves through the German nation, eventually leading to the collapse of an all-too-brief progressive government and the subsequent rise to power of Adolf Hitler's Nazi party.
It's a huge undertaking, but one that Tykwer and his team handle with ease, thanks in large part to an impressive commitment to detail.
From the cross-dressing cabaret act performed by Countess Svetlana Sorokina AKA Nikoros (Severija Janušauskaitė) to the tiny room that would-be police detective, flapper and occasional sex worker Charlotte Ritter (Liv Lisa Fries) shares with a man she never sees, this is a faithful recreation of Weimar Germany, and one where no expense is spared.
Similar care has been lavished on the characters, from surprisingly moral mobster Edgar Kasabian AKA the Armenian (noms de plume are something of a feature of the series) played with panache and just the right hint of menace by Mišel Matičević, to a troubled leading man in the form of Insp Gereon Rath (Volker Bruch), a war veteran with PTSD and a morphine habit who is in thrall to a mysterious psychiatrist, himself obsessed with the notion of an increasingly close relationship between man and machine.
Like all the best dramas, Babylon Berlin creates a world so believable that you feel almost as if you are stepping into it rather than simply watching it. This experience is only exacerbated by the show's ability to convince you that this is the way Germany must have felt at that time – that feverish sense that everything was moving slowly out of control and that the only response was to dance harder, faster and more fervidly as the end of the world drew nigh.
This third series is arguably the best yet. Beginning with a murder on a movie set – this being Babylon Berlin we were offered a glimpse of that movie, a pitch-perfect take on German expressionist film complete with a beautifully choreographed avant garde dance number that, like so much on this show, felt as though it must have really existed – it has widened out to take in the rise of rapacious capitalism in the unnerving shape of incredibly creepy businessman Alfred Nyssen (Lars Eidinger). We also see the growing poverty on the streets of Berlin, and a surprisingly touching three-way relationship between two gangsters and one of the men's actor wife.
Throughout it all, Charlotte – wide-eyed and sharp-of-thought – has brought heart to the series, as she battles to save her childhood friend Greta from execution, while the more solemn Rath fights for justice for the dead film star and struggles to come to terms with his past, in particular a complicated relationship with his (possibly) dead brother's wife.
Yet no matter how bad things get – and this being Babylon Berlin they often get pretty terrible – Rath and Ritter continue to support each other in one of the more touching detective partnerships on TV. It's one that has you rooting for him to overcome his demons and her to be given the recognition she deserves.
Will tonight's concluding two episodes give them the happy-ish endings they desire? Given that the dark shadow of history is moving ever closer that seems unlikely. In any case, if you haven't been watching this most gripping and evocative of shows then now is the time to start.
Babylon Berlin concludes Sky Atlantic, 9pm, Friday
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2020/apr/10/lifes-no-cabaret-why-gritty-weimar-noir-babylon-berlin-is-wholly-compelling-tv
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