Jamás de los jamases

The dream team of Pastewka and Engelke elevates this rather short series miles above the average German romantic comedy. Bastian Pastewka takes on the Lorioesque role of the dry sports retail salesman and newly divorced family man plagued by bad luck, while Anke Engelke plays the bookstore owner whose relationships and job are cursed with bad karma and a lack of tact. Whether the two ultimately find each other is left to the imagination, but their paths cross frequently, defying all odds, yet they somehow manage to miss each other perfectly, as the title suggests. The series gleefully mocks luxury wellness, gourmet restaurants, and false friends. And it does so with such attention to detail and irony that it is reminiscent of the best of Loriot's sketches. Loriot himself would probably have enjoyed these absurd scenes as much as the viewers. A German series with humor? Yes, they do exist.