"Der Alte" has been on for more than 30 years now. The concept is always a murder, often in the so called "upper middle class". Compared to other detective stories, it might be slow. In fact, there is usually only one salvo of shots being fired in each episode: the actual murder (mostly only after an introduction of the subsequent subjects). The rest of the story is virtually non-violent, but you see more police action than in "Derrick", the most popular competitor to "Der Alte".
The appeal of "Der Alte" is the rather realistic plot and the possibility to solve the crime before the detectives do. However, you need to be a buff and pick up all the clues really quickly. In realtime, I merely manage that in one out of three episodes, and I am really an addict to "Der Alte". The murderer is always among the introduced characters and his/her motive largely traceable throughout the episode. This is a contrast to other series where murderers are conjured up just in the end or divulged to the audience from the start.
On average, I would say that "Der Alte" is the best detective series on German TV. Though, a few episodes of "Tatort" clearly outclass this average.
