[7.4/10] Maybe I’m just scarred by The Wire and Broadchurch, but I instinctively roll my eyes when a T.V. show gets on the high horse of “news coverage ain’t what it used to be.” And I think that's partly the point Babylon Berlin wants to make here. When Katelbach grouses that we used to have “readers” and now we just have “lookers”, it’s the sort of “man, I miss the good old days” observation that seems especially trite when it’s in a story set nearly a century ago.
But there’s a point when the blustery newspaper editor makes the point that people want drama, jealousy, intrigue, revenge on the front page. And a splashy murder of a starlet fits the bill, while the more serious and substantive story of a major company supporting a military coup takes a backseat because it doesn’t have good enough pictures to go with it. We’re encouraged to tsk tsk at a fickle, shallow society more interested in silver screen blood spatter than major world events. And it comes with the subtle implication that this kind of superficial distraction is part of what allowed this society to slip into the grip of the Third Reich.
And yet, it’s hard not to feel the same way about this episode as a whole. In truth, when Rath and Charlotte are skulking around the movie set, it feels like a different show. Gone is the true political element and the story of recovering from war and the other lived-in corners of Berlin society that have come to the fore. In their place is a pulpy story of mob violence and backstabbing actresses and a black clad slasher who’s practically out of Halloween. (Hell, the closing score is pretty close to that movie’s famous musical motif.)
It’s almost as though Babylon Berlin is daring us to do the same. In truth, I can't pretend I’m super invested in the on-set mystery. I’m sure the answer will surprise us, but for now, I don’t really care about the various actors and directors and producers and costumers and techies and the like who are flitting about this new ecosystem. They’re a bit onenote, and even when one starlet is Weinstraub’s mistress, and a costuming assistant is friends with the lighting tech who was killed, it doesn’t do much for me.
But there’s something to be said fo the visual verve of it. As silly as I find the person dressed up in the Demon of Passion” getup who’s going around killing people, the imagery of it is striking. So are the musical numbers and screen tests we get to see, which ably represent that era of German cinema. And the pressure on set, where one person is trying to make art, and the other is just trying to make money, with the threat of violence and ruin hanging over them both, gives it a particular flavor. There’s flash to all of this, and it’s hard to deny that, even if it feels comparatively hollow relative to some of the show’s meatier storylines.
There are a few human moments though. Something about the producer and Edgar’s wife bonding and commiserating over what to do makes for an oddly sweet moment. You do feel for the producer, wrapped up in all of this through (seemingly) no fault of his own. But he also went in with the mob to try to fund his artistic dream. That's equally noble and stupid, and so him scrambling to make this ramshackle production work and keep his life at the same time does have a human dimension.
(Some pure speculation on my part: My semi-random guess is that Edgar’s wife is behind the deaths in the production. She holds a grudge against the producer and her husband, and could maybe want to ruin him so she can collect the estate or lie off her brother or maybe just get Edgar out of the way so she can shack up with Weintraub. Shot in the dark, but it would be a twist, and the way they focus on her here feels like foreshadowing.
Still, the stuff away from the murder investigation is more striking. I’m still not exactly over the moon for Greta, but man, something about Wendt using her baby as leverage so she’ll change her story and implicate the Communists is so heartless and full of pathos that you can't help but feel for the girl. You also feel for Helga, who rightfully all but begs Gereon to tell her what’s wrong, and is de facto pushed out of his life instead. I get that Gereon is riddled with guilt now for what happened with his brother, but however hard it is, Helga deserves better from him than this, if only an outright admission and apology that he’s not capable of continuing.
I’m still not crazy about her shacking up with Nyssen, but I guess we’ll see where that goes. As someone who lived through the Great Recession (and enjoys The Big Short), it’s interesting to see both a montage of a private eye uncovering how scores of common people are overleveraged in their investments with the idea that the stock market will continue to rise indefinitely, and how for all his seemingly poor instincts for business, Nyssen foresees the crash. The guy has new dimensions we get to see; I’ll give him that.
Otherwise, it is interesting to see Katelbach get his secret plans from an informant through slick means, which hopefully means something to the paper. And I like how the uptight forensic specialists is initially excited at his findings in the Betty WInter case, but through Rath’s personal issues and the chief’s outright dressing down, he feels marginalized in his job and would rather make money or do something illicit with his break in the case than use it to help his fellow policeman. The contrast between the chief’s insistence that the system only works with structure, while the forensic specialist is an object lesson in how overly-rigid, dehumanizing systems fail when they fail to recognize the people they cram into boxes, is potent.
Otherwise, I like the idea that this murder makes for strange bedfellows. Gereon and Edgar are united in common purpose, not just a mutual indebtedness to the man who helped heal their PTSD, but a mutual desire to know who would want to wreck this production. That too is a little pulpy, but it’s also compelling, and full of potential based on both plot and character. When it’s done right, there’s nothing wrong with a bit of flash, so long as we’re not missing out on the substance.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2024-09-04T23:52:21Z
[7.4/10] Maybe I’m just scarred by The Wire and Broadchurch, but I instinctively roll my eyes when a T.V. show gets on the high horse of “news coverage ain’t what it used to be.” And I think that's partly the point Babylon Berlin wants to make here. When Katelbach grouses that we used to have “readers” and now we just have “lookers”, it’s the sort of “man, I miss the good old days” observation that seems especially trite when it’s in a story set nearly a century ago.
But there’s a point when the blustery newspaper editor makes the point that people want drama, jealousy, intrigue, revenge on the front page. And a splashy murder of a starlet fits the bill, while the more serious and substantive story of a major company supporting a military coup takes a backseat because it doesn’t have good enough pictures to go with it. We’re encouraged to tsk tsk at a fickle, shallow society more interested in silver screen blood spatter than major world events. And it comes with the subtle implication that this kind of superficial distraction is part of what allowed this society to slip into the grip of the Third Reich.
And yet, it’s hard not to feel the same way about this episode as a whole. In truth, when Rath and Charlotte are skulking around the movie set, it feels like a different show. Gone is the true political element and the story of recovering from war and the other lived-in corners of Berlin society that have come to the fore. In their place is a pulpy story of mob violence and backstabbing actresses and a black clad slasher who’s practically out of Halloween. (Hell, the closing score is pretty close to that movie’s famous musical motif.)
It’s almost as though Babylon Berlin is daring us to do the same. In truth, I can't pretend I’m super invested in the on-set mystery. I’m sure the answer will surprise us, but for now, I don’t really care about the various actors and directors and producers and costumers and techies and the like who are flitting about this new ecosystem. They’re a bit onenote, and even when one starlet is Weinstraub’s mistress, and a costuming assistant is friends with the lighting tech who was killed, it doesn’t do much for me.
But there’s something to be said fo the visual verve of it. As silly as I find the person dressed up in the Demon of Passion” getup who’s going around killing people, the imagery of it is striking. So are the musical numbers and screen tests we get to see, which ably represent that era of German cinema. And the pressure on set, where one person is trying to make art, and the other is just trying to make money, with the threat of violence and ruin hanging over them both, gives it a particular flavor. There’s flash to all of this, and it’s hard to deny that, even if it feels comparatively hollow relative to some of the show’s meatier storylines.
There are a few human moments though. Something about the producer and Edgar’s wife bonding and commiserating over what to do makes for an oddly sweet moment. You do feel for the producer, wrapped up in all of this through (seemingly) no fault of his own. But he also went in with the mob to try to fund his artistic dream. That's equally noble and stupid, and so him scrambling to make this ramshackle production work and keep his life at the same time does have a human dimension.
(Some pure speculation on my part: My semi-random guess is that Edgar’s wife is behind the deaths in the production. She holds a grudge against the producer and her husband, and could maybe want to ruin him so she can collect the estate or lie off her brother or maybe just get Edgar out of the way so she can shack up with Weintraub. Shot in the dark, but it would be a twist, and the way they focus on her here feels like foreshadowing.
Still, the stuff away from the murder investigation is more striking. I’m still not exactly over the moon for Greta, but man, something about Wendt using her baby as leverage so she’ll change her story and implicate the Communists is so heartless and full of pathos that you can't help but feel for the girl. You also feel for Helga, who rightfully all but begs Gereon to tell her what’s wrong, and is de facto pushed out of his life instead. I get that Gereon is riddled with guilt now for what happened with his brother, but however hard it is, Helga deserves better from him than this, if only an outright admission and apology that he’s not capable of continuing.
I’m still not crazy about her shacking up with Nyssen, but I guess we’ll see where that goes. As someone who lived through the Great Recession (and enjoys The Big Short), it’s interesting to see both a montage of a private eye uncovering how scores of common people are overleveraged in their investments with the idea that the stock market will continue to rise indefinitely, and how for all his seemingly poor instincts for business, Nyssen foresees the crash. The guy has new dimensions we get to see; I’ll give him that.
Otherwise, it is interesting to see Katelbach get his secret plans from an informant through slick means, which hopefully means something to the paper. And I like how the uptight forensic specialists is initially excited at his findings in the Betty WInter case, but through Rath’s personal issues and the chief’s outright dressing down, he feels marginalized in his job and would rather make money or do something illicit with his break in the case than use it to help his fellow policeman. The contrast between the chief’s insistence that the system only works with structure, while the forensic specialist is an object lesson in how overly-rigid, dehumanizing systems fail when they fail to recognize the people they cram into boxes, is potent.
Otherwise, I like the idea that this murder makes for strange bedfellows. Gereon and Edgar are united in common purpose, not just a mutual indebtedness to the man who helped heal their PTSD, but a mutual desire to know who would want to wreck this production. That too is a little pulpy, but it’s also compelling, and full of potential based on both plot and character. When it’s done right, there’s nothing wrong with a bit of flash, so long as we’re not missing out on the substance.