@write2topcat said:

I am watching episode 9 now and it is clear how Rath was set up. The priest was murdered using his handgun while he was doped up, setting him up for the murder. Predictably, Rath has chosen to cover it up by retrieving the bullet from the morgue. Presumably he is going to switch it with another bullet. The way Rath has handled this whole chain of events is another example of how writers have characters make stupid decisions to create tension. Rath should have immediately reported the incident where he was drugged and kidnapped at the nightclub. That way he would be on record as being unconscious. Medical forensics would have shown he had been drugged. Now he is digging the hole deeper.

Interesting. My take was the obvious one : he killed him in some kind of self-defense. But how does it explain his being released and stalked by the priest, whether or not the latter was killed by Rath's colleague Wolter without the consent of the Armenian ? (if that's what you're implying)

I guess I tend to write about things I don't like quite a bit. lol I guess I am getting grouchy.

If that's any comfort to you, you are not alone in the (U)boat. Indeed I find these urges to trash at anything and everything hard to crackdown or to turn into constructive criticism, especially without being redundant. On the other hand the overall market is getting more and more quantity rather than quality oriented (beyond the SFX, I'm looking at you superhero money magnets), so that a middle finger or two towards tropes overuse, "aseptization" and various subscripts that come along doesn't sound like so unjustified a way to release the pressure either.

From what I wrote above you would not know that I love this show overall. I like it much better than most of what is made in America or offered to the American market. I hope this show continues for years to come. The show begins in 1926 when the world economy was booming, except in post war Germany. It will naturally segue into the rise of the Nazi political machine and allow us to imagine the inside perspective from the German point of view. With the high quality of the show so far, I cannot wait for more.

I also enjoyed the series (2 seasons as of now), if only as you said for the time and spatial settings, and the care put into it, but I couldn't say I love it, for one main reason, quite related to your OP : the abuse made of deus ex machina events. From my poor memory : Rath taking over Kardazov's room, Rath's reunion with his brother, Moritz finding the dead young inspector, characters conveniently bumping into critical conversations and situations, e.g Lotte playing the waitress at the club during the top plotters' meeting.

One thing about the time frame. Doesn't the show start in 1929 ? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babylon_Berlin If so, and even though they didn't make a significant electoral breakthrough before the 1929 crisis, I was expecting (perhaps wrongly so) to see a little more of the NSDAP (Nazi Party).

I think we see the beginnings of the Nazi's at the end of the season after the Jewish guy, Benda, was murdered in that bombing. A Nazi takes his old job, and instructs an assistant to have it fumigated before moving his stuff inside, explaining that the previous occupant was Jewish. He calls Rath in and says he likes his work, wants him to continue, but to have another secret job as well. He will search out the undesirables. I am guessing this means political undesirables since Rath had just foiled a plot to take over the government.

I guess the show struck me as just great because it is very different from the cookie cutter flavor of American products. It doesn't come from Hollywood. I find I like watching Turkish shows, even with subtitles. They don't feel the need to check off PC boxes in their shows. It is also interesting to see the influences of that culture, which is quite different to ours, despite the western influences.

@write2topcat said:

I guess the show struck me as just great because it is very different from the cookie cutter flavor of American products. It doesn't come from Hollywood. I find I like watching Turkish shows, even with subtitles. They don't feel the need to check off PC boxes in their shows. It is also interesting to see the influences of that culture, which is quite different to ours, despite the western influences.

The very first thing I noticed in the series was the ambient filthiness (sweat, hygiene, piss and shit, suggested smells, even the light), and well, I thought we could never have had it from a big US production; had it been visually dirty, it's unlikely it would have been organically dirty, if that makes sense. Please make Holywood filthy again ! (if it ever was). Generalizing a lot from my limited and partial perspective, I wouldn't even say it's only specifically German, more like a strong contrast between old west realism and new west (ie. US) idealism.

Speaking of PC checkboxes, that may be one the things that set directors such as (late) Tarrantino, Fincher, Kubrik or Cronenberg apart from - and IMO above - the rest. On top of their technical skills, they often allow themselves to cross the yellow line. Line which, as a foreigner, I feel bizarrely drawn : for instance no problemo with gruesome violence, but when it comes to nudity and sexuality... Which sends us back to the Mayflower and the Puritans ?

Do you have good Turkish shows (not action please) to recommend ? Last Turkish movie I watched was really good... despite itself : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arpH88Mx3z4

The first show I saw was Ezel. It is dubbed in English so you don't have to read constantly and can watch their eyes more closely. I thought it was well done. It is a long play revenge plot. I also liked Kacak, a show about a former undercover cop who was almost killed by a mafia type crime family and who starts life over in a small town far from Istanbul. Things go wrong after several years when he foils a robbery he walked in on and his face hits the news. The bad guys come looking, shoot his son while trying to take him, and he goes after them once again. Presently I am watching a cop show called Behzat C. It took me much longer to become interested in it, about 6 or 7 episodes. Until I learned the main players in the homicide department it was a bit boring, as the cases were not that interesting to me. But I am up to episode 68 now. Some aspects of that culture are pretty foreign and not so easy to relate to: honor killings for one, and the need for the older brother to approve of his sister's boyfriend before she is allowed to talk to him, much less hold hands, for example. But I am enjoying the show.

Danke schön !