Pitch Perfect: Bumper in Berlin

The Good: Great production values! The producers had obviously a lot of money to spend, and they've spent it well. Kudos to the location scouts in Berlin - a good mix of well known and nice lesser known places. A few expensive German actors have been hired: Udo Kier (who became famous in 1973/1974 by impersonating Baron von Frankenstein AND Count Dracula in the two Andy Warhol horror movies) plays a crazy artist and father. Til Schweiger, arguably the biggest German movie star right now, appears in episode 3. Katharina Thalbach, the Grand Dame of the Berlin theatre, plays a ghoulish mix of Lotte Lenya (From Russia with Love), some character by Ingmar Bergman ("Sweden is in Germany, right?" - The screenwriters.) and a crazy old lady. Granted, only Udo Kier should be a part of this good news section. But this is a musical and the most important aspect is of course the musical quality. The music is well produced and nice. Unremarkable, but nice. Actually there should have been more of it.

The Strange: The casting! There are quite a few questionable and strange casting choices. I guess Adam Devine is an acquired taste, something I did not quite manage to achieve. He is the goofy normal guy and I respect the choice to make him the star of a show and not just the comic relief sidekick, but I'm sure he'll annoy a few people. Very annoying is the permanent grimacing of Flula Borg. He looks like he's got some severe mental problems. Whoever told him to act this way made a big mistake.- Some scenes are completely nonsensical, confusing strangeness with humor. A prime example for this is the appearance by Til Schweiger in a Youtube-2017-like sketch as Pickle Til. It is desperately unfunny, but there are layers upon layers of absurdities.

The Bad: The ignorance! The screenwriters didn't have the foggiest idea about Germany. They got everything wrong, and they didn't care at all. Using some stereotypes for humorous effects is fine, but the total ignorance is just lame and stupid. US-screenwriters in the 1970s have been much more culturally savvy that this bunch of hacks. The writers' ignorance is universal. At one point they have a bureaucrat, who spends his leisure time at a music festival, legally perform a marriage. There is no country on earth, where this is possible. "But that's the joke!" No, it isn't. This is a musical and the story is clichéd and silly, alright. But especially in episode 6 this reaches levels of sillyness and cringe that shouldn't even be possible. There is no discernible connection to reality. Going completely over the top can be a stylistic device, but here it only feels amateurish, childish and sluggish. The authors probably feel like high-riders, thinking big and stunning the plebs. That's funny. They should not give up their daytime jobs. They are terrible.

The Bottom Line: Technically fine, but utter nonsense - watch it with really low expectations.

This show has a lot of fun and it is all comedy, and the casting is PERFECT except for the villain played by Jameela Jamil who is the only negative of the show and without her it probably would have been perfect. Why they chose to have her in a role as a German singer when she can't sing, and wearing those blue contacts is also pretty strange, I don't know. But everyone else SHINES. Our main trio is so funny and the chemistry between Sarah Hyland and Adam Devine is still there years later from Modern Family. And Peter Kramer is hilarious! Lera Above as his sister is a scene stealer too! So this is a fun bright show, and if you need a little light definitely watch it. You can always fast forward through the painful parts where forced to listen to Jameela Jamil sing.

If you are familiar with the Pitch Perfect movies, you might know that those movies are about music and specifically acapella music, so moving forward with each film they got messier (the 3rd one was not as beloved as the first two). Now we don't have a fourth film but a spin-off about one of member of the the rival groups of our protagonists known as 'Bumper' who was a self-absorbed goofball in the movies trying his luck to be famous in Germany as one of his songs have gone viral through Tik-tok. So with the premise set, this show is entirely set in Berlin, Germany and the production values are splendid, I had a fear before watching this that this was just gonna be a cheap cash-grab like most uninspired Netflix stuff as these streaming companies just push out content just for the sake of relevancy in this fast paced short attention spanned world. But I was really wrong as it seems to be put forth some kind of thought and effort put into this show as far as mini-series for a secondary character of a known franchise goes. Adam Devine is great as Bumper, as his performance is layered as this idiotic guy just chasing after a dead dream, he is charismatic and comes across really likable even though people like these are just annoying irl. The other team mates including 'Haley Dunphy' actress Sarah Hyland, previous recurring cast member Flula Borg as Pieter Kramer and his sister Thea Kramer as DJ Das Boot were all equally charming and likable, the camaraderie between the group was very sweet and it felt like people growing and adjusting to work with each other and that alone makes it a good binge, honestly it's like a movie cut into episodes which keeps it fresh as the breaks make it more interesting. Also the camera work and color grading made it go easy on the eyes as most stuff is now supposed to be dark, grim and 'realistic' and this is a simple, sweet and light hearted show. If you get what I say and want something easy to watch and are a fan of the movies, then I'd say give it a watch and you'll at least have a smile on your face by the end of it.

It's not award worthy in terms of script, emotional depth, or, weirdly, musical content, but the series has a whole lot going for it in Sarah Hyland whose performance as the adorable Heidi is an absolute revelation. Add in the completely over the top vamping and the ultimate in sexy German accents from Jameel Jamil as Gisela, and a glorious cameo from veteran German actress Katharina Thalbach, and there's plenty to like about this "whatever happened to" series. It's just that as a Pitch Perfect fan I would have liked a whole lot more music, especially the a capella for which the films were noted.

This show is just so stupid in just the best way. Flula Borg is a revelation and every time he's on screen I just smile. It's camp and earnest in a way that just makes you want to love everything they're doing. This isn't a serious artistic masterpiece in any way, nor was it intended to be. I watch it when I just need a smile and not to think of the dumpster fire of violence and climate disaster happening around the world. I love all the Berlin references and satire. Enough cute little songs to satisfy me. The best is just the little asides like the bit around "Cups". Adam is just amazing, and if you don't care for him, you probably won't like this - it's his vehicle all the way, with Flula as the Robin to his Batman, and the other main actors are just as great. So many of them playing "off type" so that's fun also.