Close to Home: Murder in the Coalfield

I had zero expectations from this show, as I just wanted to pick up some average-looking German show to hone my German skills. 6 episodes, some kind of crime-mistery; why not? I lgenerally like those.

Oh boy, was I in for a great surprise! The whole show is basically a lecture about environment protection. Yes, you guessed it: a teenage girl completely stomps her parents and grandparents, because she's vegan and she hates coal, and she is the future and she's cool, unlike her lame and stupid parents and grandparents. Very cool. I just had one question: what does it have to do with the murder? Let me help you out in advance: nothing. This is pretty much a 6 episode long "coal is bad, meat is bad, save the planet" message, which needed something else going on to stretch the screentime, so throw in a murder, why not! Extremely dumb, extremely condescending. Don't worry, the final reveal about the murder is even worse! I had to pause the show because I had so much second-hand embarassment.

And I'm not even for coal or anything. I support a healthy environment, but either make a series about that, or a murder-mistery. These amateurs fused these in the worst possible way imaginable, which backfired horribly. I don't think I have ever had this much sympathy to evil coal-moguls than after watching this preachy show.

The skeleton of the whole series is bang average as well. Someone died ---> who done it? ---> the plot thickens ---> finale. It's extremely boring and holds no surprises. In fact, we are constantly being introduced to new characters, which absolutely destroys the fun of a show like this: the whole point would be to meet the cast early, and try to figure out who could've been the murderer and why.

The writing is atrocious. There are several sub-plots which go nowhere, gets unresolved, or has a random, unsatisfying endings.

The characters are boring, wooden, and other than the little boy, it's hard to care about them. The only character which was decently written was André. The male protagonist is as interesting as watching a paint try, though he has screen presence, I give him that.

The female lead was pretty much a cheap copy of the lead from The Bridge. She's on the spectrum, has bad social skills, but a great cop. Sadly, this cop is nothing special in her field, and her bad social skils are just awkward without any payoff. I was willing to bet my left leg after the first episode, that these terrible writers will copy the scene from The Bridge, where the detective woman whom they copied here, casually walks into a bar and asks a stranger if he wants to have sex with her. That was really funny in The Bridge. Don't worry, these writers totally butchered it here.

Honestly, I can't give a single reason why anyone should watch this. It does a terrible job at making you care about the environment, in fact, it makes you want to strangle that smug, condescending teenage girl, but it is also an extremely boring and slow murder-mistery with no surprises whatsoever.

This was a good watch on a rainy afternoon. Kept my attention, it was engaging, it was interesting. I felt that the first three episodes were really set up to draw the audience in. Lots of interesting (and different) ideas and characters. Lots of backstory in flashbacks on the lead man Maik, and lots of questions - even intrigue - was Maik a killer?? And great family drama with an interesting father and brother.

The side story with the dead girls little brother held my interest as well. Also the ex-wife and her boyfriend storyline could have been drawn out some more, it was interesting. So for all the lead-up to what should have been a good climax, and enough drama from the past to pack a powerful ending, the last two episodes just felt a little lack-luster. And the abduction in the last few minutes seems a little thrown in. Probably a different person should have been abducted, seemed unbelievable and didn't really fit with the story line. Unnecessary. So for this reason I give it six stars. And the last thing that I thought was a little unnecessary, Was the attire of the leading lady. Um, Aren't you a police officer? Where is your uniform, lady? When everyone else is wearing jackets and long sleeves, a tank top seemed ridiculous. In... Every... Scene. Like I said, this was a rainy days binge watch for me, and I enjoyed it.

This series is interesting enough to watch, but unfortunately is not told in a very coherent manner. The scenes do not flow in a manner that enables viewers to understand the events. There is little context provided so the dots do not always connect up in a way to produce a smoothly flowing narrative. Some scenes just seem to be out of sequence and irrelevant to the main plot. The constant use of flashbacks at very awkward moments is distracting and confusing. The series is watchable but does tend to drag a bit. It is the lack of connectivity between the scenes that make the series incomprehensible at times!

This was a cop drama that had several strands with some of them having happened in the past and retold as flashbacks. This didn't make for a particularly cohesive story even though events in the past impinged greatly on the present-day investigation. At times it was rather hard to get the various timelines and events meshed together and melded in one's head.

There were a few loose ends too - we never got to know who the top dog was for instance. Where did the junkies go after eviction? And a couple of scenes were not credible - falling from a very tall building is fatal but not in the series - the guy was out of bed within a couple of weeks. These aren't strong enough hooks to be cliffhangers.

However the plot moved on at a fast pace involving input from family members as well as normal and methodical police work. On balance I'd say that I enjoyed the show.

Edit: There are no "spoilers" here in the sense used by this site. Please don't flag it again.

This six part series is set in what was a coal mining area of East Germany; now the mining has stopped and there are plans to attract tourists by converting the huge pits into lakes. As the story opens the body of a teenage girl is found on the shore of one of these lakes. Maik Briegand, a local man who now works for the national police force leads to investigation with new partner Annalena Gottknecht. There are quite a few suspects; the homeless man who found the body, her boyfriend, a local policeman who is involved with her mother, a property developer and a group of environmental campaigners based in nearby woods.

I thought this was a solid murder mystery that is told effectively. Key characters are quickly introduced as the investigation gets underway. Good use is made of the fact that this used to be East Germany with older residents missing the certainty of a job in the mine while younger people want nothing to do with polluting coal. There are enough suspects to keep one guessing right till the final reveal. The cast does a solid job. Overall a decent murder mystery set in an interesting location, worth watching if you enjoy the genre.

These comments are based on watching the series in German with English subtitles.