Posted on 02/12/2018 1:12:00 PM PST by Rummyfan
The successful but hard-drinking detective has been a staple of film noir since the days of Humphrey Bogart. But it’s not very often that you see a police detective addicted to morphine. Babylon Berlin, the subtitled German TV series whose first two seasons debuted on Netflix at the start of the month, is a look at a 20th century Pompeii – you know there are no happy endings for the characters in a series set in Weimar Germany in 1929.
In Chinatown, Jack Nicholson tells Faye Dunaway that back when he was a rookie policeman assigned by the police force to work in Chinatown, things were so confusing, politics and morals shifting so quickly, he was ordered by his superiors to do “as little as possible.” Babylon Berlin depicts a Weimar as the ultimate Chinatown where what was reality today might not be the same tomorrow.
The show, based on the novels by Volker Kutscher, reportedly cost $40 million to produce, and while there are quibbles here and there about some individual elements (I’ll get to those), it looks like a cross between Boardwalk Empire and a steampunk version of Blade Runner – alternately dark and gleaming, as anything involving the Weimar era should be. It’s hypnotic television -- I had to deliberately pace myself while watching it, rather than go full-on binge watching over a night or two.
(Excerpt) Read more at pjmedia.com ...
Netflix bookmark.
There’s another new TV series called “Counterpart” which also takes place in Berlin. I can’t help but see it as a metaphor for the old Berlin Wall days when one side lived one way and the other quite another. In this series though the two sides are parallel universes with duplicates of the same people with different lives. Sometimes a person is born on one side but miscarried on the other. It’s an interesting a fairly well acted show so far after 4 episodes.
I have to watch this. Maybe it will help me polish my verrostet German.
There have been two or three more sequels, but I have not seen them.
I always understood Heimat to mean “Homecoming,” but the Wiki synopsis seems to emphasize the idea of “Homeland,” which gives it a more sinister Nazi affiliation, which, in my opinion, the first two parts never had.
I have only seen the first two parts, which came out in 1984 and 1993. There are a total of 24 episodes in the first two parts, for a total of around 40 hours.
The first two parts cover 1919 (Homecoming soldiers), through WW2 (more Homecoming soldiers), then through the youth led social turmoil of the 1960s.
Both parts use an ensemble of many of the best German actors in that period, but there are also many non-actors who were hired to add “realism,” which, in my opinion, weakens both parts.
Re: “Babylon Berlin” on Netflix
Also: See my Comment #5 on the “Heimat” series.
And if you subscribe, what kind of electronics do you need to get it on your TV?
I’ve seen it. It’s a good series, with sixteen episodes. In the beginning there are about four or five subplots all going at the same time, but it clarifies as you go along. Some of the characters are unique and memorable, like Wolter, Charlotte, and the Armenian gangster, Edgar.
I just started watching it, it reminds me of the Bernie Gunther novels by Philip Kerr which are excellent
bmp
Where can I watch this show Counterpart? I am already watching Babylon Berlin.
I heard that the show makes the first German Chancellor, Konrad Adenauer, after ww2 to be a closet homo. Which is not true as far as I know and care. Also that was not in the book that the show is based on, so I didn’t plan to watch it.
Being a good scientist, I observe and take notes.
I subscribe to Netflix, Prime, Brit Box and Acorn. We are evaluating to learn what to keep and what to dispose.
Netflix is I think $12/ month now and is probably the best. Prime comes with the amazon prime deal so theoretically costs nothing. In my view the best stuff there must be purchased at additional cost. The Net Flix programing scope is very very broad. It is too broad to describe in detail. Net Flix has a good variety of Canadian TV that is very good
Brit Box is British TV and costs $6/mo. It has the really good classic Brit TV stuff and some that seem pretty current. We like Brit TV because it is not only good, but clean.
Acorn is $4/ month and is also British but also considerable Australian and even New Zealand TV. The latter is like American TV used to be and is very good.
We have a line up consisting mostly of Netflix and then the british stuff. We watch almost no american broadcast or cable programing. any more.
There are several ways to access streaming TV. First, you must have a broadband internet connection and a router. Then you need a wireless device to receive the signal. There are several. The one we have is ROKU and it is versatile and is changing to accommodate the rapidly changing streaming concept. Apple TV and Amazon Fire Stick are others.
On ROKU, in addition to the pay channels there are tons of free channels. All this is in rapid change. That is, all of this is in flux and changing rapidly. For instance there was a free channel called Crackle that had lots of free movies with commercials. Recently Crackle was bought by Sony that now has it’s movies there and has commercials. Sony is a big player. Also, recently, ROKU introduced a new ROKU channel with very good movies and very high class commercials by big time advertisers.
We have Spectrum as our Cable and Internet provider. Spectrum developed a Channel that can be steamed by ROKU. Crazyness
Lastly, At the direction of a FRiend, I got the You Tube channel on ROKU. I learned that the amount of programming on You Tube seems boundless. I have been watching what seems like an endless variety of WW II pieces on the most arcane of subjects. You Tube also has ancient episodes of Peter Gunn and Spenser for Hire . I have only scratched the surface on You Tube.
Hi Hot
Subscription runs $8/month for one screen at a time in HD (720p), $11/month for two screens at a time in full HD (1080p), and $14/month for four screens at a time in Ultra HD (4K).
I pulled this from Netflix’s web site and is probably U.S. pricing. https://www.netflix.com/signup/planform
Amazing amount of content. You can watch on your PC/Laptop/Smart Phone/Smart TV, or via your regular TV via a Roku or Fire Stick (additional cost for either device).
Just remember that you need high speed internet for a interrupt free viewing experience.
Thanks.....I’ve had an Amazon Fire Stick for several months that has been “jail broken” (whatever that means) I only tried it out a couple of times but had problems with the movies I was watching. If I paused the movie, I couldn’t get it to start up again and would have to find another source to stream the movie. It was a pain so I threw it in the drawer and left it there.....LOL!
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