Streaming series review - Babylon Berlin: Season One

Babylon Berlin: Season One ***1/2 (out of 5) This is the first season of a complex political crime period drama that has run for four seasons in Germany, with a fifth yet to come. It’s won a scheisse-load of awards and nominations for the series and many of its components. I recommend concentrated viewing – preferably in binges - rather than background entertainment, since there’s a mare’s nest of plot threads to follow.

It’s set in 1929. Gereon Rath (Volker Bruch) is an honest, intelligent cop who has just moved to the titular city (Berlin, not Babylon). He’s paired with Burno Wolter (Peter Kurth), a brutish fellow detective of questionable virtue. The former looks a bit like Tim Roth; the latter somewhere between Gert Frobe and Simon Oakland. The crimes they’re assigned to cover seem local, but lead quickly down the rabbit hole of international intrigue, overrun with individual and group conflicts, misdirection and betrayals, spanning from Russia to Germany and beyond. It’s the era in which Stalin was brutalizing his own people to solidify his grip on the country, leading some to want Lenin, who was hiding in exile, to oust the beast. All the plotlines hover around a trainload of some super-important cargo being smuggled from Russia to Turkey via Germany. Enough about that. We don’t do spoilers here.

Adding to our hero’s burdens, is his being periodically stricken with disabling flashbacks due to what we now call PTSD from what we now call WW I. He has to keep this “weakness” secret, because it would get him kicked off the force… or worse if discovered. Wolter resents the new guy anyway, so he looms as a threat to Rath on top of his other sadistic inclinations and actions. Quibbling Commies and nascent Nazis make what could be a city enjoying a hedonistic post-war nightlife that makes our own Roaring 20s seem uptight rife with menace from multiple sources. The production revels in those aspects of the era, providing a superb array of sets and costumes – especially praiseworthy for small-screen fare. Violence is moderate. Nudity is periodic, but not lurid. Among the supporting players, Severija Janusauskaite contributes a femme fatale role played to the hilt, and Charlotte Ritter brings heroine vibes to the grimly ominous proceedings.

The eight-episode season ends with some degree of resolution, but plenty of intrigue yet to cover. The next three seasons (32 more episodes) are slated for streaming release here within the next few months. Strap in folks. I’m anticipating a long and engrossing journey.

(Babylon Berlin: Season One, mostly in German with subtitles, streams on MHzChoice as of 4/16/24)