Die Kühe
Oh, the things you learn from the casual browsing of Wikipedia: the long-running German detective show "Ein Fall für Zwei"
that I remember watching when I was a kid is still in production after
a successful run of 25 years, still starring the same guy as Josef Matula,
the small and unassuming but tough and loyal main character of the
show. American viewers have probably never even heard of this whole
genre of German detective shows such as "Derrick" and "Der Alte"
and their distinctive style and conventions that, for example, the SNL
would have no problem parodying if the audiences knew what the heck it
is that is being parodied.
I am sure that the memories I have from these shows are rosier than they ought to be, so if I saw them today, they would just seem as silly as everything else that I have made the mistake of re-reading or re-watching as an adult. I am also sure that the style of these shows has gradually evolved since their inception, the way that TV shows have changed and evolved in general. For example, I would be curious to know if all characters still casually smoke everywhere even today. You know, the Germans being very liberal on that particular front, as I once learned firsthand to my dismay when we had to switch planes in Frankfurt.
Even so, they should make a crossover episode of Ein Fall and one of the shows in the Law & Order franchise so that... whatever Herr Doktor Doktor of Law they currently have in Ein Fall would take an international murder case that sends Josef Matula to New York, where he has to co-operate with the detectives of the local police force who are initially suspicious of him but then end up becoming friends after working together to find the real villain, who could in this episode for once actually plausibly be a white man of German descent. Just the denouement scene where Josef Matula had a beer with the Detectives Goren and Eames would rule so much that I would be at loss for words to even begin to describe it.
During the early nineties, I noticed that the German police shows were becoming more... American in plot and visual style, so that they even featured some gunplay and explosion, which are so totally wrong and unfitting of this whole genre. I don't think these newer shows ever lasted more than a season or two. I do remember us at least getting a laugh from the ad for "Der Clown", a show about a GSG-9 operator who puts on a clown mask and starts fighting crime as a kind of costumed superhero. Inspired by a true story, I am sure.
I am sure that the memories I have from these shows are rosier than they ought to be, so if I saw them today, they would just seem as silly as everything else that I have made the mistake of re-reading or re-watching as an adult. I am also sure that the style of these shows has gradually evolved since their inception, the way that TV shows have changed and evolved in general. For example, I would be curious to know if all characters still casually smoke everywhere even today. You know, the Germans being very liberal on that particular front, as I once learned firsthand to my dismay when we had to switch planes in Frankfurt.
Even so, they should make a crossover episode of Ein Fall and one of the shows in the Law & Order franchise so that... whatever Herr Doktor Doktor of Law they currently have in Ein Fall would take an international murder case that sends Josef Matula to New York, where he has to co-operate with the detectives of the local police force who are initially suspicious of him but then end up becoming friends after working together to find the real villain, who could in this episode for once actually plausibly be a white man of German descent. Just the denouement scene where Josef Matula had a beer with the Detectives Goren and Eames would rule so much that I would be at loss for words to even begin to describe it.
During the early nineties, I noticed that the German police shows were becoming more... American in plot and visual style, so that they even featured some gunplay and explosion, which are so totally wrong and unfitting of this whole genre. I don't think these newer shows ever lasted more than a season or two. I do remember us at least getting a laugh from the ad for "Der Clown", a show about a GSG-9 operator who puts on a clown mask and starts fighting crime as a kind of costumed superhero. Inspired by a true story, I am sure.
http://www.zdf.de/ZDFde/inhalt/22/0,1872,1020854,00.html
Josef Matula reminds us from one off our old neighbours.
Every Finnish family has a neighbour, who looks like Herr Matula, and he is a friendly fellow.
Eine Frau fron Barracksstreet 24
Posted by Anonymous | 1:04 PM
Some other series in the Finnish Yle-tv2:
http://www.yle.fi/ulkomaiset/
Posted by Anonymous | 1:09 PM
"...after working together to find the real villain, who could in this episode for once actually plausibly be a white man of German descent."
Ha! I was waiting for something like that.
Posted by Russell | 6:44 PM