Marnow Murders

There are surprises around every corner in this series. The two protagonists are very competent cops and extremely troubled individuals, spectacularly played by Petra Schmidt-Schaller and Sascha Alexander Gersak. (Both were awarded well earned German TV Prizes.) Also standing out: Anne Schäfer and Jörg Schüttauf. No black and white, good against evil here. Unusual for a German production, the good guys are corrupt, take the law routinely into their own hands, try desperately to get away with it and to bring down the real villains for good measure. One memorable scene after the other: A crime victim taking revenge in a shocking way within minutes after the deed. The heroine telling how she lost her whole family. A stunning action sequence with the hero trying to save his own family. A second season would be very welcome.

I'm all for the character-driven crime series from Scandanavia, but Germany delivers some of the best, more nuanced series in the genre. Marnow Murders (as titled/viewed in the US) has great, movie-quality characters, beautiful filmaking, quirky storyline and...two central figures that draw you into their individual worlds. Exceptional "tv."

The story was captivating from beginning to end.

German crime series are very different from US productions. Characters are more real, the story line is less contrived than US shows (yet still not wholly realistic) - but this is escapist TV.

The acting is good, the scenery beautiful, the cinematography excellent.

Overall, a highly recommend several hours of excellent entertainment.

The show should have you hooked after the first episode, otherwise it is not for you.

Note: I watched the original German so I cannot comment about dubbing nor translations/subtitles which I sadly have seen to often be terrible.

Watched all 8 episodes on a rainy weekend. As others have wrote here before, great actors, great scenery and excellent camera work.

In addition, a story that's almost as captivates as a Hitchcock, from the first to the last moment and deals with recent German history.

The course of the story, although with many participants, is still easy to follow. The background story of the two investigators is also perfectly integrated. How everything ultimately comes together is in the end an excellent small thriller series, in what is otherwise often quite the same German crime entertainment.

There is not a moment of boredom.

It doesn't get any better than this. The script is superb and completely unpredictable and there was never a point where I felt like it was being 'filled' as I so often do with Netflix so the eight episode run seemed perfect. The dialogue is excellent and about the most natural I've heard. There's even a good few moments of humour in there and thanks to this show I've learned a few German swear words. The actors are superb, all of them, there was never a moment when I didn't believe any of them they were all absolutely convincing. Despite the leads being seriously flawed people and imperfect police officers they are very real and hugely likeable. The personal lives part is also perfectly balanced and almost always relevant to the story so it doesn't turn into a chore watching them at home with their significant others. I've never watched German TV before but I liked listening to the language. Even my wife who refuses to watch foreign TV with subtitles was hooked and we binged watched the show on C4 in two days.

If I had a gripe then I'd say that while it's a murder show and the very nature of murder is brutal I dislike graphic violence and some of the murders could be done without so much gore 'vielen dank' and while I'm at it that gore was always repeated during the 'last time' refresher at the start of each episode, poor Mr Dreyer. I also dislike 'next time' trailers at the end of each episode believing they spoil the experience so I had to grab the remote to stop them. They we unnecessary as I was already hooked and didn't need encouraged to watch the next episode. We'd watched entire episodes without realising or checking the running time once. All German TV can't be this good but based on this I'll be giving it another go. When something is this good it should be left alone for everyone to enjoy in its original form so no English speaking remakes please.