La terapia di Sebastian Fitzek

I wasn't aware of the original novel, so I came to this without prior knowledge or expectations. It seemed like the sort of thing I would usually enjoy. I watched the dubbed-in-English version which probably made it less enjoyable than a subtitled version.

At the end of episode one, my partner was keen to continue. I would have abandoned it. The pace was glacial! Oh well, only two more to go, I mistakenly thought. Unfortunately, there were six in total! Three too many!

The "what happened to Josy" mystery was quite easy to solve, unfortunately. I grew to quite like Dr Roth and the spiky older woman though, which was the only saving grace.

Surprised to see a German TV series on Amazon Prime just as we were getting bored with other programmes. We started watching this without much expectation knowing the ratings and reviews of this series being just about average. While we persisted in watching it, the story is getting better and better with twists and turns and a very surprising ending.

The story was weird to start with as the protagonist - Dr Victor Larenz, a psychiatrist with his wife and daughter living in a luxury villa near Berlin - was experiencing a personal crisis after the disappearance of his only child. The story goes back and forth mixing the present and flashbacks to trace the trajectory of his daughter's experience of growing up in a bourgeois family with a strict discipline imposed by her parents. Then we see the usual story of a teenager's rebellion and her final disappearance which resulted in the bitter separation of the parents. The personal crisis prompted Larenz to quit his job and travelled to a completely deserted North Sea island in the middle of a cold winter to have a soul-searching holiday alone. With excellent cinematography, the bleak winter beach scene perfectly conveys the feeling of desolation and despair of the protagonist. Then a series of weird things happened on the island.

At the same time, a side-plot developed in Berlin with Dr Larenz's colleague Dr Roth working in the same psychiatric clinic. The story exposes some of the common problems in the West - drug abuse and other social ills in the streets of Berlin. Roth helped Larenz to the end to solve the mystery of his daughter's disappearance.

A thought-provoking series which mixes the hallucinatory scenes with the bleak reality in the style of a psychological thriller. The story is not tinted by the usual "political correctness" and does not seek to sell any political agenda. It is both satisfying as an intriguing story as well as an example of aesthetically appealing cinematography without any special effects. Well worth watching. Highly recommended.

The only regret is the dubbing voices (in English) which sound a bit robotic - not natural enough as the native speakers.

Really interesting story, a 10 but average editing, a 5.

I highly recommend.

Very good acting.

The English dubbing was excellent, I usually prefer to watch in the original language but this time I made an exception and I was very pleased.

I am usually not too fond of German cinema (of course with some exceptions). This was similar to a British production/series.

I liked the fact there was no clichés or any politically correct agenda. It is refreshing that there's wasn't any agenda forced on us.

Don't miss it.

Not predictable at all: a bonus as I tend to guess and it takes away the experience.

Maybe a bit slow as well.

I have not read the book so I'm not sure how true the series is to the book. However, I found the series to be a very enjoyable watch and highly engaging.

The focus of the story is regarding the missing daughter of the main character, Dr. Larenz. Josy goes missing at the age of 13. The series moves between different time points starting with the day of her disappearance and it moves into the past and into the future, 2 years after her disappearance. Ultimately we learn the fate of Josy, but I won't give any spoilers away.

As well as moving between different timelines, we are also moving between different sub-plots and everything came together at the end.

The characters are believable and well acted. I watched the version with the English dubbing and it was good.

The setting of the series is in Germany. In some episodes we are taken to an atmospheric island in the North Sea called Parkum, a setting that I enjoyed.

The number of episodes and the length of the episodes was right, in my opinion.

Overall, I can highly recommend this series.

This is truly a psychological mystery and contains twists and turns and unexpected imaginings. I am surprised there are such low ratings by some people. The cinematography was beautiful, the acting was very well done especially the main character Victor. Such a range of emotions. The two teenage girls also I think did an excellent job of being typically moody in a very believable way. The second main character Roth also carried off his part very well. The layers upon layers of imaginings versus reality gave the plot a lot of mysterious ambience that was enhanced by the musical score. There were some very tender and moving moments especially at the end. The dubbing was pretty good so all in all I really was captivated by this Limited series.