Babylon Berlin (2017)

write2topcat February 13, 2018

★ 10/10

Set in Germany's Weimar Republic in the late 1920s Babylon Berlin is a brilliant production, a welcome surprise for American television. The sets are fantastic and the actors are brilliant. Now it is excellently dubbed in English, and it is dubbed so well I thought at first it was filmed in English to begin with. I don't know what the budget is for this series, but I am very impressed with this show. Liv Lisa Fries plays Charlotte Ritter, a plucky young lady working odd jobs, including piece work for the police department, to support her extended family. She is plucky, smart, and willing to do whatever she can to provide for her little sister, elderly mother and grandfather (and elderly sister and her deadbeat husband). Volcher Bruch plays Detective Gereon Rath from Cologne, on special assignment in Berlin. Slowly we discern, over the first several episodes what that assignment is,…

MovieGuys October 17, 2022

★ 10/10

An atmosphere of German 20's chic permeates Babylon Berlin. Its a detective tale at its heart that initially captures the vibe of a decade that celebrated a newfound carefree freedom. A freedom that was not repeated until the 1960's. There's a real sense of flamboyance and decadence, that's colourful., celebratory and sexually promiscuous. Overlapping this is a delicately constructed story line that mixes a detective tale, with evolving political intrigue and cultism/militarism. The latter the earliest murmurs of an inflexible, embryonic nationalism, which will usher in an era of Nazism, which, in many respects, is very much, at odds, with 1920's Berlin. Rounding out this series is well crafted narrative, sensational sets and deeply human characterisations. The key protagonists in Babylon Berlin are flawed. There are no hero's, simply people going about their lives. This series doe…