Das Geheimnis des Totenwaldes

In sifting through some of the reviews of Dark Woods, I was surprised to see so many words, like "gripping" and "captivating." While I found it interesting, well acted, and well produced, for me it was a bit more plodding than gripping. By episode 6, I felt much like the characters who had been waiting for an answer for 28 years: a bit weary.

I assume that the filmmakers adhered closely to the real facts of the case, but I wanted more dramatic highs and lows, and less of a muted documentary feel. Indeed I felt like the series could have played out in a brisker, tighter 4 or 5 episodes than the six.

On a side note, I watched the series on the newly discovered (for me) Topic channel. On Topic, the default version is English dubbed. I quickly got out of that version to watch it in the original German with English subs. Much better. Would I recommend this series? Yes. Would I rave about it? No.

I had trouble getting into the first episode of this six-part series. That was partly because it was hard to sort out the flashbacks from events in the present day, and partly because the show looked like a standard European procedural with a mismatched male/female pair of detectives (one cliche) investigating the disappearance and murder of various young women (another cliche) as well as a few men. But since the show was streaming on Topic, and just about everything else I'd seen on Topic turned out to be excellent, I persisted and was glad I did.

The story is complex and the investigation ends up lasting for decades, but the plot is well constructed and the conclusion makes sense. All the actors are strong, especially the tormented protagonist, played by Matthias Brandt (who was also brilliant as Benda in Babylon Berlin). I'd recommend this show to anyone who likes crime dramas -- especially true crime, since "Dark Woods" is based on an actual case: the Göhrde murders of 1989.

One commenter complained that the title (in German -- Das Geheimnis das Totenwaldes, The Secret of the Deadly Forest) was misleading. I don't understand that criticism, since many of the corpses were discovered in Iseforst, a forest in Germany; the forest itself appears in every episode; characters often mention Iseforst; and in the series, the media start calling the crime scene "Totenwald." So the title seems perfectly apt, in English as well as German -- especially if you interpret it both literally and metaphorically (e.g., the "selva oscura" -- dark forest -- mentioned in the opening verses of Dante's Inferno).

The story was quite gripping, it wasn't until the last 2 episodes that things dragged a little. It was shot and directed well, and the costume and make up department did such a good job and ageing the cast over the decades!

The series is very much like it's lead character Thomas Bethge (Matthias Brandt). Steady, stoic, and thorough. The contrast with the behaviour of the various suspects in the murder of his sister is both a strength and a weakness. There is a slow build up of tension, but a significant amount of screen time is taken up with repeating situations we have already seen before.

A slight disappointment is that the final episode doesn't end up exploring all the possibilities that were suggested in the previous two. But perhaps that is the danger when doing a "true crime" drama - I didn't know anything about the events it is based on, but the production team are understandably wary of taking too many liberties with what actually happened.

This series was one of the best I've watched in long time on all levels.

While it is detective murder mystery, it goes well beyond that to draw you deep into the suffering and pain endured by the family of a missing wife/mother/ sister. The pacing of the show, while keeping you on the edge of your seat, at the same time enables you to experience the agonizing heartache of the family of the missing woman over an excruciating 27 years. That is masterfully accomplished, so much so that I found myself in tears at the conclusion having gone along on their journey for the truth.

Watch it.