The General’s Men, on MHz Choice

With the sudden rise of political assassinations in America—such as the Israeli embassy workers in DC and the United Healthcare CEO—and the disturbing support they have received from ideological extremists, we might soon need someone like Gen. Carlo Alberto dalla Chiesa. The senior officer in Italy’s Carabinieri (their military police with domestic jurisdiction) strategized the defeat of the Red Brigades and intended to employ similar tactics against the Mafia in Palermo. He was great for Italy, but came to a tragic end. The contemporary parallels are also tragic, but the Carabinieris’ service is edifyingly instructive in creator-director Lucio Pellegrini’s eight-episode The General’s Men, which premiers today on MHz Choice.

As dalla Chiesa explains midway through the series, he has only known war during his adult life. First, he served in the Army, but defected to the Resistance during WWII. Enlisting in the Carabinieri after the War, he waged a losing battle against the Mafia in Sicily before his appointment to head a new anti-terrorism task force to combat the Marxist Red Brigades’ reign of terror.

Some of his methods seem self-evident now, but at the time, they were considered radical by Italian cops. For instance, he recruited Corporals who looked like deadbeat student hippies instead of Corporals, even including a woman. Gone were their standard issue Fiats. He also played some bold gambits, like recruiting the former Liberation theology missionary Silvano Girotto, celebrated by the left as “The Machine Gun Friar,” to serve as an undercover plant. The Red Brigade were not amused, which entailed escalating danger for dalla Chiesa and his unit.

Everyone has heard of the Mafia, but Americans are woefully ignorant of the Red Brigades. Frankly, this series serves as a decent introduction to the violence and fanaticism of the terrorist group. Although the Corporals often express sympathy for the legitimate workers’ complaints the Brigades exploit (largely being working-class themselves), their terrorism is never presented in justifiable terms. In fact, it is often portrayed as quite sudden, brutal, and shocking.

Indeed, this is a terrific period piece that impeccably recreates the look and over-heated tenor of the 1970’s. Aptly, dalla Chiesa’s loyal lieutenant, Nicola Amato asserts during his voice-overs, the 1980s only really properly started in Italy with 1982, at which point the Brigade’s terrorism finally crested. Unfortunately, for dalla Chiesa, it would be a case out of the frying pan, into the fire.

Essentially, The General’s Men is three parts historical procedural and one part passion play—since we know from the prologue dalla Chiesa’s story ends with tears. However, it is all played with conviction by a large ensemble cast that completely look their parts, often in very uncomfortable ways (involving humiliating hair-styles and textiles that breath poorly).

Herrhausen: The Banker and the Bomb, on MHz Choice

Lenin infamously wrote: “the capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them.” Alfred Herrhausen wanted to loan the Soviets the money to pay for the rope. How very German of him, as Angela Merkel would surely agree. For his efforts, he was assassinated by the Red Army Faction (RAF). The banker’s final two years leading up to the assassination are dramatized in the four-part secular passion play, Herrhausen: The Banker and the Bomb, which premieres Tuesday on MHz Choice.

Herrhausen loved to be the banker people hate bankers loved. He first alarmed American banks by calling for international forgiveness of third world debt. He then alarmed American and British intelligence services with his plan to float billions in loans to the Soviet Union.

The banker saw it as an opportunity to secure a stranglehold on the Soviet market, once Perestroika reforms were successfully enacted. He also saw it as an opportunity to propel Germany into a leadership position in the EU, building it into an economic and diplomatic force that would upset the bipolar world order, at America’s expense.

Apparently, according to series writer Thomas Wendrich, Helmut Kohl shared this vision. Of course, the CIA Officer caricatures (like David Hunt, played by the very British Harry Michell) were losing control of their bladder control functions. Yet, despite his “progressive” concern for the Third World, the RAF still marked him for death, because he was still a capitalist. Despite their grisly history, the RAF found themselves down on their luck in the late 1980s. However, their Palestinian hosts in Syria slowly help hatch a plan to get them back to committing violent atrocities again.

As Herrhausen helps Kohl navigate American and NATO resistance to their Soviet overtures, he battles his Deutsch Bank board to pass a plan giving him greater centralized command over branches. Evidently progressivism was fine everywhere but his boardroom.

Wendrich essentially presents Herrhausen as a prophet, but his record is rather spotty. For one thing, he never anticipated the fall of the USSR. He just assumed Perestroika would work and Gorbachev would be their guy. He also argued the 1989 Stock Market crash would lead to the de-dollarization of the world economy. Perhaps the one thing he got right was his skepticism of unified European currency, arguing the persistent economic dysfunction of countries like Italy would lead to monetary headaches for all member states. He had a point there. Remember Greece and the other PIIGS?

Given the subtitle, Wendrich does not allow series Pia Strietmann much room to build suspense, since we know right from the beginning how it will all end. However, it certainly offers proof of lead actor Olive Masucci’s versatility. In recent years he has convincingly portrayed both Herrhausen and hedonistic filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder in Enfant Terrible, two extremely dissimilar Germans.

Miss Merkel, on MHz Choice

Angela Merkel has blood on her hands. By making Germany energy-dependent on Russia, she enriched and empowered Putin—even after he annexed Crimea and invaded the Donetsk region. Her perverse insistence on including Huawei in Germany’s telecom network, despite her own security services’ contrary advice, did more to weaken the NATO alliance than anything Trump would ever dare. If the 21^st Century is dominated by Xi and Putin, Merkel will deserve a good portion of the credit, but she would probably argue it was all worth it to sell a few thousand more Volkswagens in China. It will take a lot to level her karma (just ask the citizens of Mariupol), but maybe solving a handful of murders will be a start in the first two TV-movie length installments of Miss Merkel, which premieres today on MHz Choice.

Merkel has retired to the Uckermark countryside, without any visible guilt or shame. She just wants to walk her pub, Helmut, and bask in the gratitude of the world’s dictators. However, dead bodies start to turn up around her, which is why her husband Joachim Sauer and her “Guarding Tess” protection agent, Mike start calling her “Miss Merkel,” in honor of Miss Marple.

In “Murder in the Castle,” Merkel is just starting to adjust to retirement and life as a local celebrity. As such, she reluctantly agrees to attend the local lord’s restaging of his ancestor’s murder—and wouldn’t you know it, history repeats itself. Somehow, he was poisoned in the wine cellar, which was locked from the inside, lazy Inspector Hannemann writes it off as a suicide. Of course, Merkel knows better.

The surviving family, an ex, the sort of ex-step-daughter, and the resentful current trophy wife are all suspects, as is Marie Hortsmann, who carries the victim’s unborn baby and his ironclad non-disclosure agreement.  At least Stefan Cantz’s adaptation of David Safier’s novel winnows down to a full two suspects, which is one more than you usually get from detective shows.

Katharina Thalberg definitely strives for Jessica Fletcher vibes, but her Merkel carries a lot of baggage. Her chemistry never quite clicks with Thorsten Merten as “Achim” Sauer, either. His performance is the wrong kind of sour, depicting the former camera-shy spouse-of-state as rather pompous and socially awkward. Frankly, Thalberg develops better rapport with Tim Kalkhof as her constantly stressed-out bodyguard.

Frankly, the second mystery, “Murder in the Graveyard,” features better supporting work, especially including Sven Martinek, playing mortician Kurt Kunkel, who is called to collect a murder victim from the cemetery, which obviously seems somewhat ironic. Naturally, Hannemann decides the victim just got drunk and accidentally buried himself, after smacking the back of his head with a shovel.

Merkel and Mike quickly discover the deceased had been blackmailing Charu Borscht, the unfaithful wife of Kunkel’s rival undertaker. Her secret lover happens to be Peter Kunkel, the mortician’s son, who also happens to lead the local Satanic cult.

TouTouYouTou, on MHz Choice

In the 1980s, France still had Yves Saint Laurent, but America had leg-warmers and spandex. They had Mitterand, but we had Reagan and contrary to what you might have heard, America in the Eighties offered far more professional opportunities for women. Consequently, an American spy reluctantly posted to France on an industrial espionage assignment has two potent weapons at her disposal: aerobics and feminism. French aerospace hardly stands a chance in co-creators Geraldine de Margerie & Maxime Donzel’s ten-part TouTouYouTou, which premieres today on MHz Choice.

Karine Lurdou could have been a great airplane designer, but instead she married pompous Didier, who treats her like a live-in maid, while he flails about hopelessly as a clueless executive at the Blagnac aeronautic company. Their daughter Laura hates them both—but her mother really can’t blame her. She pretty much hates herself too. Jane, the super-fit American expat uber-cougar who moves in next door does not exactly boost her self-esteem either.

Yet, that is ironically what Jane seems determined to do. She convinces Lurdou to try her aerobics classes at the community center. The 1980s craze had yet to reach Blagnac, so the moves and the style are all new to Lurdou and her friends. Her best friend, Mapi (who also happens to be the mistress of the aerospace company director) is skeptical, but Lurdou is receptive. Frankly, she gets the most of Jane’s message of physical and emotional empowerment, but she is also the only one who starts to suspect their aerobics instructor is a spy.

Obviously, there is an anti-American bias baked into TouTouYouTou. However, Alexia Barlier is so terrific as the jazzercizing Mata Hari, she almost single-handedly flips the audience’s nationalistic loyalties. It isn’t just her wardrobe. Barlier is enormously charismatic and caustically droll. Watching her scheming and skulking about is highly entertaining.

Claire Dumas is also very good as Lurdou, convincingly portraying both her outer and inner transformations. In fact, the strength of their two performances makes the somewhat ambiguous conclusion so counter-intuitively satisfying.

The Roots of Evil, on MHz Choice

Many American serial killer movies predictably depict the serial killer as a Jesus-freak. In this German thriller, the serial murderer was warped by Norse mythology. It is a case that involves two seemingly contradictory yet intertwined toxic belief systems: one is old and pagan, while the other is the recently discredited Communism of the bad but not so old GDR. Two cops, one from the East and one from the West, investigate the pre- and post-Unification killings in the six-episode The Roots of Evil, directed by Stephan Rick, which premieres Tuesday on MHz Choice.

The Cold War was not kind to Ulrike Bandow, because of her mother’s unsuccessful escape attempt to the West. She and her younger brother Marc largely survived thanks to her father, an honest cop, who was killed under mysterious circumstances. That left her to largely raise Marc on her own, when their mother’s second attempt succeeded.

Not surprisingly, she followed in her father’s footsteps, serving under his old partner, Jurgen Dubbe. She prefers to do her own lone wolf thing, but she must accept a new partner from Hamburg, Koray Larssen. Maybe she should be more suspicious regarding his willingness to work in the provincial former GDR, but she has issues distracting her. Marc has fallen in with band nativist thugs, to ingratiate himself with the stepfather of his new girlfriend, Sabrina. To make things even more awkward, Sabrina’s mother, Chista Schreiber, is Bandow’s estranged childhood friend.

When a ritualistic murder victim is discovered, Bandow is alarmed by the resemblance of her wounds to some marks found on Schreiber decades earlier. At the time, she claimed to be abused by a mysterious group of men somehow related to her state orphanage. Bandow’s father and Dubbe discredited her story. Not surprisingly, Bandow’s friendship was collateral damage. However, the disappearance of a second girl quickly convinces Bandow and Larssen they have a serial killer on their hands, one possibly related to Schreiber’s orphanage.

At least Ingrid Heisler, the weird girl from the prologue, probably will not be his next victim, even though she found the first victim. Her family’s rustic lifestyle and her knowledge of runes and “the old way” apparently creates a feeling of kinship for her heavy-breathing observer. Being weird probably does not hurt either.

Many of the themes and plot elements of Roots of Evil are very much like those previously developed in Divided We Stand. Both series focus an odd couple pair of cops from West and East Germany, investigating a crime that dates back to the recently fallen Communist regime. However, Roots has a darker tone that sometimes borders on serial killer horror. It is also less preoccupied with the politics of post-Unification and culture clashes between East and West—it is still there, but it is not as fully explored. The killer’s sinister paganism is the series’ driving engine.

Regardless, Henriette Confurius and Fahri Yardim are both quite good as Bandow and Larssen. They are rock-solid handling the procedural business, but as Brother Marc, Filip Schnack’s teen angst is abrasively annoying. Cloe Heinrich is excellent as peculiar Ingrid, but Rick just cannot find the handle for her scene stalking or being stalked by the killer. Instead of building terror, these sequences are confusing and uncomfortable, in a “what am I watching?” kind of way. That is somewhat surprising, because Rick rather deftly helmed the not-classic, but still impressively overachieving Val Kilmer B-movie, The Super.

Agatha Christie’s Criminal Games: The 1970’s, on MHz Choice

Few writers have been ripped-off as much as Agatha Christie. Seriously, how many And then There Were None clones have you seen? With that in mind, who could blame the Christie estate for cutting some licensing deals that are rather distantly related to her printed words? Swedish television developed a series based on Sven Hjerson, the meta creation of Hercule Poirot’s occasional companion, mystery writer Ariadne Oliver. Similarly, French TV has very loosely adapted some of Christie’s mysteries, with completely original characters in the ongoing series Agatha Christie’s Criminal Games. After seasons set in the 1930s and 1960s, the mysteries shift to the “Me Decade” when the ten-episode Agatha Christie’s Criminal Games: The 1970’s premieres today on MHz Choice.

In some ways, Captain Annie Greco is a feminist trailblazer, but she is also a tough cop, freshly assigned to city of Lille. Most of her insubordinate subordinate detectives are both sexist and incompetent, but Max Baretta has promise. His deductive instincts are not bad, but he has been banished to file room, because of his anger management issues.

Greco assigns Baretta as her partner, but his career resuscitation will come at a price. He must attend sessions with Rose Bellecour, the extremely fashionable psychologist they meet on their first case. Thanks to her parents’ cosmetic company, Bellecour has become the confidant of actress Anna Miller, whose co-star (and abusive ex) has just been murdered.

As the only episode of the season largely “inspired” by a particular Christie novel, Endless Night, it is not surprising the like-titled episode is one of the most successful of the 1970’s. It also has one of the best guest-starring turns from Romane Portail as Miller. Those who prefer to watch rather than read Dame Agatha might know the 1972 film with Britt Eklund and George Sanders. If so, they can surely guess the killer, but that means Flore Kosinetz and Helene Lombard rather faithfully adapted it for Criminal Games.

The other episodes, which are almost wholly original, are more hit or miss. However, it is worth noting “The Mice will Play” incorporates elements of The Mousetrap, with a mystery that hinges on an unwanted baby given up years prior. Poor Baretta also has a rare chance for healthy romance with Flore, an up-scale” “hospitality worker,” nicely played by Aude Legastelois.

Unfortunately, the bickering cats-and-dogs chemistry between Arthur Dupont and Chloe Chaudoye as Baretta and Bellecour gets very tiresome. Emillie Gavois-Kahn wears much better on viewers’ nerves over time as the no-nonsense Greco. However, her supposed obliviousness to the romantic interests of Jacques Blum, the coroner, also starts to wear thin. Furthermore, the hippy-dippiness of her new residence, the Nirvana Hotel, really gets shticky.

Secret in the Mountain, on MHz Choice

The picturesque Austrian village of Altaussee probably boasts the only working mine that also features an art exhibit. There is a good reason for that. During WWII, the salt mine served as the secret hiding place for art looted by the National Socialist regime. You might remember scenes of its liberation in George Clooney’s The Monuments Men. Screenwriter-director tells the story from the perspective of the miners in Secret of the Mountain, which premieres Tuesday on MHz Choice.

Sepp Rottenbacher keeps himself to himself, but not his childhood friend, Franz Mittenjager, who is widely known to supply food to the band of deserters encamped in the mountains. That secret is a little too open for his own safety, but his equally rebellious wife Leni would not have it any other way. Slowly but surely, the villagers are also becoming more defiant, as they receive news of the Axis’s military defeats.

The mines might not seem like a good place to store art, but the temperature and humidity in the deeper shafts were almost perfect. Their depth also provided protection from Allied bombing runs. Unfortunately, Hitler decided to destroy the Altaussee mine and all the art stored within, as part of his scorched earth strategy. Blowing up the art would also obliterate the village’s primary source of employment. Of course, the fanatical National Socialists do not care, but the catastrophic prospect finally shakes Rottenbacher out of his apathy.

Even though Secret in the Mountain was produced for Austrian television, but it is a high-quality period production, with some surprisingly sophisticated characterization. Unlike many “reluctant heroes,” who cannot hardly wait for their awakening of conscience, Rottenbacher’s change of heart is a bitter, hard-fought process. Likewise, the miners’ “courtship” of SS Officer Ernst Kaltenbrunner to countermand the Altaussee’s standing orders for destruction gives the film an ironic twist. However, it is worth noting Zerhau’s screenplay largely lets the mining village off the hook for collaboration, while short-changing the efforts of the American Monuments Men to secure the imperiled art beneath Altaussee.

Alter Ego, on MHz

Inspector Dea Versini’s imaginary friend is sort of like Harvey, but instead of a big white rabbit, “Jimmy” looks like a slightly cheesy James Bond knock-off. She knows he really doesn’t exist, but he is a helpful sounding board when she faces problems in her investigations or in her personal life. That happens often, particularly with the latter. Of course, she tries not to advertise his existence (in her head), especially not to her by-the-book partner in MHz’s new French series Alter Ego, which premieres tomorrow.

Single-mom Versini is a highly intuitive detective and a total mess in nearly every other way. Fortunately, her long-suffering Captain (or whatever the French equivalent) usually lets her work alone. However, he insists she partner up with Matthieu Delcourt, a fast-tracked detective temporarily assigned from above. The chaotic Versini and the meticulous Delcourt mix like oil and water, but there is also a mutual attraction neither wants to admit. Yet, they wind up rolling together in the back seat of Versini’s car late in the first episode, not that Jimmy judges her for it.

It is also obvious right from the start Delcourt has his own secret agenda. However, he and Versini will still manage to clear new cases by the end of each episode—judging from the pattern established by the first two.

The pilot episode is surprisingly clever, using viewers’ expectations against them when a muck-raking environmental journalist is murdered. Their second case hits pretty close to home for Versini when a doctor is murdered at the hospital where her husband works. That is how he refers to himself. Versini prefers the term “ex-husband.” However, they still work together pretty well as parents.

The whole imaginary friend thing sounds pretty shticky, like an early 1980s Tim Conwy sitcom, but creators Stephane Drouet, Lionel Olenga, and Camille Pouzol lean more towards neurotic deep dives into Delcourt’s subconscious, sort of like Play It Again Sam, but Jimmy is a lot goofier than the Bogart Jerry Lacy played in Woody Allen’s mind.

1989: a Spy Story, on MHz

Before 1989, if you were named in Stasi records as a mole or an informant, you could count on that intel staying secret. After 1989, you were potentially in a heck of a lot of trouble. That is the position Saskia Starke finds herself in as a mole in America’ West German embassy in Sven Bohse’s 1989: a Spy Story (a.k.a. Wendezeit), a film produced for German television, which premieres this Tuesday on MHz.

Actually, Starke is not the original name she was born with. However, as the daughter of a high-ranking Stasi agent, she had to do her duty, assuming the identity of a West German leftist, who defected to GDR. The real Starke had been estranged from her former National Socialist parents, so it was easy for her imposter to re-start her life fresh in West Berlin.

Eventually, she married her husband, a diplomat in the West German embassy and wormed her way into an in-country analyst gig with the CIA. Yet, it was only by luck that her colleague Betsy Jordan blabbed during a dinner party about an operation to pick up a Stasi defector who could burn her. Starke manages to liquidate him before his rendezvous with the CIA, but that tips off the Agency that they have a mole in the embassy. It will be Jeremy Redman’s job to find the deep-cover Stasi agent. Supposedly, he is the one who sleuthed out the Walker spy ring—and he immediately suspects Starke.

She was once a true believer in Socialism, but Starke's faith has been shaken. However, she still ardently believes in staying alive and at liberty. Given her circumstances and shifting beliefs, her reactions to current events in the GDR are quite conflicted, but she has to put on a happy face at work. She also totally freaks when she learns her rebellious daughter has been secretly seeing an East German punker, for so many reasons.

1989 is a really smart and sophisticated espionage thriller (written by Silke Steiner) that has a lot of le Carre-esque betrayals and shifting loyalties, but is consistently critical of the Communist experiment in misery. It definitely looks and feels like 1989 (wasn’t that a great year) and Bohse keeps building the suspense as Redman gets closer and closer to uncovering Starke’s secret mission.

UFOs, on MHz

The French Space administrations office for UFO investigations, known as GEPAN, developed such a flaky reputation, it rebranded several times, changing its acronym to SEPRA and then to GEIPAN. Didier Mathure was maybe part of the problem. The closed-minded director of CNES assigned him to be the interim head, in order to clear its cases and shut it down. However, Mathure ill-advisedly develops Fox Mulder-like tendencies in creators Clemence Dargent & Martin Douaire’s UFOs (a.k.a. OVNIs), which premieres tomorrow on MHz.

Mathure was an elite scientist at CNES until the rocket he dedicated the better part of his career to exploded after take-off. As penance, the slimy agency director transfers Mathure to GEPAN, with the clear expectation he will close it down, stifling all talk of UFOs in the process. However, the perverse combination of Mathure’s spectacularly bad PR skills and his naïve misapplications of scientific method have the opposite effect. Interest in UFOs boom, along with reports.

Mathure does not necessarily believe one way or the other, but veteran French Air Force officer Valerie Delbrosse does. In fact, she encourages (blackmails) Mathure to make his findings public. However, that would hurt his ex-wife Elise Conti’s prospects of securing a high-level appointment at the European space agency. Still, he is starting to admit there might be something to a handful of select cases his predecessor started investigating, before disappearing on a sudden leave of absence.

UFOs plays a lot of its X-Files-style business for laughs, particularly an alien-abducted flamingo and the bawdy postcards Mathure’s missing predecessor sends the staff, which they assume are clues. However, the underlying conspiracy narrative is still sufficiently interesting that it would probably still hold up if the tone were more serious. The late 1970s milieu adds a lot of funky texture (the references to the under-appreciated The Invaders are especially on-point), but the series sometimes fudges a little. Technically, Albert Barille’s Once Upon a Time…Space aired after Giscard’s presidency, but whatever.

Regardless, Melvil Poupaud, radically playing against type, is the engine that drive the show’s comedy. He is a lot like Fraser Crane—often painful to watch, but somehow, we keep rooting for him. He also has terrific chemistry with Geraldine Pailhas, who is highly entertaining when cutting him down to size. On the other hand, the shtickiness of Vera Clouseau (as the hippy dippy GEPAN receptionist-case interviewer) and Quentin Dolmaire (as the Trekker computer specialist) gets a little tiresome.

Premonitions, on MHz

You Know how Tolstoy wrote unhappy families are always unhappy in their own unique ways? Well, the Jacobs’ dysfunction is in a league of its own—of fantastical dimensions. The Jacobs all develop a “gift” that always manifests itself in a different way. Those powers can be dangerous, but the family would also be in great peril if they were ever discovered, as they very well might be in Patrick Lowell, Estelle Bouchard, and Charles-Olivier Michaud’s ten-part French-Canadian series Premonitions, which premieres tomorrow on MHz.

Clara Jacob is the matriarch of the Jacob family, but she is definitely a cool grandmother. She even wears a snappy fedora to prove it. Her power is the ability to see into the future of anyone she is not related to by blood. That comes in handy for her chosen line of work: professional gambler. She tends to know when hold them and when to fold them.

She has few qualms about wielding her powers, but her son Arnaud considers his “gift” an intrusive violation. He can read people’s minds and even get in there to erase memories. Having sworn off using them, he has been plagued by severe migraines. His sister Lilli on the other hand, constantly employs her powers to bewitch potential lovers. That seems like a bad idea, but viewers will halfway sympathize when they see the burn scars on her back.

As a teen, Lilli was thrown into a bonfire by a shadowy member of a witch-hunting cult dedicated to killing so-called “aberrations” like the Jacobs. Unfortunately, one of the last survviors of the brethren will try to use her latest “lover” to get to the Jacobs. Arnaud tried to wipe Pascal Derapse’s memories of Lilli, but being out of practice, he might have erased too much and maybe even left a mental connection to himself behind.

Premonitions is an unusual and addictive take on the themes of superhero franchises like The X-Men and Heroes. Although we root for the Jacobs, the plain truth is Derapse is a victim of the family several times over. First Lilli’s enchantment drives him into a state of psychotic jealousy and then Arnaud really does a number on his head. Yet, when the vicious brotherhood enters the picture, Premonitions even takes on some elements of the horror genre (much more so than Firestarter).

Regardless, Pascale Bussieres is a terrific lead as the steely Clara. She also has some keenly compelling and deeply conflicted chemistry with her ex, Jules Samson, who remains a close friend of Arnaud’s. Nicely played by Benoit Gouin, Samson provides sympathetic human perspective on the chaos that unfolds.

Marc Messier is creepy as heck as William Putnam, the aberration-hunter, while Eric Bruneau is spectacularly unhinged as the brain-scrambled Derapse. Likewise, Mikhail Ahooja is impressively squirrely playing Arnaud, especially when under the influence of Derapse.

The Marnow Murders, on MHz

These bad guys represent an unholy alliance everyone can root against. Two German cops will stumble across a GDR conspiracy involving the Stasi from the East and a Big Pharma company from the West. Unfortunately, their dealings followed according to the Stasi’s code of ethics—and inevitably it was average East German citizens who paid the price. Someone wants to keep their dirty business safely buried in writer Holger Karsten Schmidt’s eight-episode The Marnow Murders, which is now streaming on MHz.

Initially, Frank Elling and Lona Mendt assumed their first victim was killed as revenge for his crimes as a pedophile, based on evidence found at the scene. Then they are called to another crime-scene with a body murdered in an identical manner. Shortly thereafter, forensics informs them all incriminating material found on the first victim’s computer was planted post-mortem. Clearly, something fishy is afoot, but a strange woman claiming to represent a group of sexual-abuse survivors offers the financially-strapped Elling a sizable bribe to bury the case.

Elling suspects there is something wrong with her, but he takes the down-payment anyway. Rather inconveniently, the shadowy cabal uses video and audio recordings of the transaction to blackmail him. Even though he was an idiot, Mendt loyally agrees to help him deal with the extortioners. However, they will have to keep everything secret from Soren Jasper, their third subordinate team member, even though Mendt has been sleeping with the younger (and very much engaged) junior cop. Meanwhile, the killer continues to pile up more bodies.

Things get extremely messy incredibly quickly in Marnow, named for a former GDR lake resort town, which all of the victims were somehow connected to. There is also a hospital there that has long been the subject of rumors. In terms of ideology, this series is scornful of anything big, including the big business of the West, the big oppressive government of the former East, and even the big dumb bureaucracy of the cops’ provincial police district.

Elling and Mendt probably have more narrow escapes than Dexter Morgan and end up with nearly as much blood on their hands, accidentally, metaphorical, and sometimes through very direct blundering. This case is just physically and emotionally exhausting just to watch, but Schmidt masterfully manages to cook up one-gosh-darned-thing-after-another to throw at them.

As Elling, Sascha Alexander Gersak often looks like a homeless derelict on the verge of cardiac arrest, but viewers sure can believe he is the cynical screw-up of the force. Petra Schmidt-Schaller also makes Mendt quite a self-destructive hot mess. Honestly, their department needs much better psych screening, but it is highly compelling to see them work a case with such grave stakes.

Gela Babluani’s Sekta

Russians have certainly had their share of personality cults. Of course, Stalin is the most notorious for ruling through his cult of personality, but he really wasn’t that much more extreme than Lenin before him. Clearly, Putin has used them both as models, but he never has never been able to carry the “Dear Leader” mantle with the same credibility. Frankly, that makes any talk of cults in Russia rather gutsy, but Georgian filmmaker Gela Babluani dives in with both feet, depicting not one, but two dangerous and deranged cults in the 8-episode Sekta, which is now streaming on MHz.

Demidov is an aloof alcoholic who does not suffer fools gladly. He is not much fun to be around, but he is an effective deprogrammer of cult-members. He largely operates outside the law, since his M.O. involves the kidnapping of his “clients.” Ironically, there is an undercover cop on his team, Koreyets, who infiltrated Demidov’s operation before he realized the cults they fight represent a far greater danger to society.

Their latest case will be the well-heeled Nika, who has been selected to be a human sacrifice by the Primordial, a powerfully-connected sect led by the shadowy Berk. Her parents demanded Demidov have a nurse present for the deprogramming, so he hired the down-on-her luck Lilya. It turns out Lilya can well relate to Nika’s experiences, because she too was once part of a cult. Lilya was the wife of the wildly psychotic John, but she came to her sense after barely surviving a Jonestown-style mass suicide he orchestrated. Lilya is determined to protect her daughter Kira from her father’s legacy and influence, but there is no denying the girl is a little spooky.

Babluani broke-out internationally with 13 Tzameti and the English remake 13, but at this point Sekta probably represents a comeback for him. It is certainly translates well for Western audience, because it incorporates some mildly supernatural elements into a deeply paranoid thriller. The pacing probably would have been tighter and tenser if the eight episodes could have been condensed into maybe six, but isn’t that always the case?

The Fox, on MHz

She was trained to do evil, but now she uses her skills to solve crimes. That is not exactly how Anna Marie Fuchs saw it, while she was blinded by her Socialist ideology, but her relationship to her former Stasi masters is definitely complicated. There is a new murder for each episode, but Fuchs keeps wrestling with the same historical baggage throughout the first season of The Fox, which premieres Tuesday on MHz.

Fuchs is somewhat unusual amongst former Stasi agents. She was both tried and acquitted of treason. Her earning power is still limited, but she keeps rejecting job offers from her former boss, Olaf Ruhleben, now the powerful president of a dodgy private security company. Suspecting (with good reason) Ruhleben was behind the abduction and forced adoption of her presumed-late son, Fuchs distrusts her old colleague, but she still keeps trying to pump him for information.

Almost by accident, Fuchs teams up with naturalized Youssef El Kilali, the husband of Simone Pabst, the pregnant proprietress of her favorite coffee shop. Suspiciously, Pabst’s wastrel brother has disappeared, following the murder of his squatter mate. The couple contracts Fuchs’ services with a decidedly low stakes deal, but she and El Kilali work so well together, they decide to open a detective agency.

Their first case with a proper retainer is a bit of a family affair. At first, they are hired by a provincial anti-development activist, but when she is murdered, her daughter maintains their services, even though the son-in-law is a leading suspect. Meanwhile, Fuchs uncovers clues that suggest her son Florian might not have died in a GDR orphanage, as she was told.

Things really come to a head in the fourth episode, when Fuchs intends to confront her ex-husband regarding their son, only to watch as he is gunned down by a mystery assassin. Their family history was about as complicated as it gets. She was assigned to spy on him, but Fuchs only recently learned she was also his snitch assignment as well. Fuchs continues to deal with family issues in the fourth episode, while a new case hits close to home for El Kalili’s family.  Frankly, the fifth installment, a murder set within the fashion world, is a bit anticlimactic in comparison to the previous two episodes.

Each of the episodic mysteries are okay, but not remarkable. The chemistry between Lina Wendel and Karim Cherif is also pretty good, but not extraordinary. What really distinguishes the show is the murky but fascinated intrigue derived from Fuchs’ Stasi service. Clearly, the oppressive group remains a source of mystery and fear for average Germans. You really get a sense of how the crimes of the Socialist era continue corrupt and warp German society.

Wonderland, on MHz Choice

Sometimes, it isn't just the music. We miss the clubs themselves once they are gone, so we want to recreate them (and the memories they facilitated). We realize this only too well now in New York, after news of the Jazz Standard’s closing. Hopefully, they can successfully relaunch themselves in the future. Tony Beliani never lived to meet his son, but Beliani junior still tried to recreate his father’s swinging 1960 Biarritz nightclub in modern day Paris. Somehow, a luckless loser manages to travel back in time from the new club to the original in writer-director Herve Hadmar’s 6-episode time-travel fantasy Wonderland (a.k.a. Romance), which is now streaming on MHz Choice.

Jeremy has been underachieving since failing out of medical school. After his wife divorced him, he has been living with his sister and her kids. Frankly, getting a job at the rebooted Wonderland club is a step up for him. Beliani was skeptical, but he managed to talk himself into a job, through his knowledge of jazz and retro mixed drinks. On his first night, he is struck by a photo of a beautiful woman on the beach with her back turned to the camera. While cleaning up, he puts a vintage Odetta record on the turntable and finds himself transported back to the 1960 club.

The confused Jeremy wanders the beach, until he happens across a party, just in time to save a reveler from drowning. She is the younger sister of entitled Chris Desforges, who happens to be engaged to the mysterious Alice, the very woman in the photograph. The Desforges immediately welcomes him into their circle, but as Jeremy (assuming the identity of his old, cranky med school teacher) observes their group dynamics, he realizes he has been sent back in time to save the moody Alice from the ominous fate hanging over her. He also falls for her hard, which makes things increasingly awkward around her violently jealous fiancé.

Wonderland is a terrific time-travel romance that incorporates strong mystery-thriller elements. It takes a decidedly dark turn when it reveals Alice’s secret, but it makes perfect sense in light of France’s 20^th Century history. Admittedly, the ending does not make much sense (it probably should have concluded five or ten minutes sooner), but most of the time travel stuff is quite effective—especially the frequent reappearances of the fateful Odetta album. The selection of her haunting “Deep Blue Sea” is also tonally perfect.

Grace Harte, on MHz

The Ostan Harte is like an Irish Fawlty Towers, but it is more run-down and less welcoming. For years, Grace Harte wanted to renovate, but her husband Leo and his domineering mother were happy with how things were. However, succumbing to the temptations of infidelity after her mother-in-law dies, leads to dramatic noir consequences for the title character in creator-writer Antoine O Flatharta’s Gaelic-language Grace Harte, premiering this coming Tuesday on MHz.

Hotel Harte is closing for the season, just like they always do. Sadly, it will be Madame Harte final season ever. Grace figures this is the time to finally modernize the premises, but Leo lashes out and closes down whenever she broaches the subject. That in turn drives her into the arms of Danny McDonagh a young surf-bum with a dodgy past. Pretty soon, McDonagh starts making suspiciously vague offers to “help” Harte with her husband problems. As Leo’s jealousy escalates, Harte leaves an ill-advised voice message asking just what he might have in mind.

Without consulting with Harte, McDonagh seizes an opportunity to take care of her husband permanently—or so he thinks. Keep in mind, the body is not immediately recovered. Nevertheless, Harte is ready to move on. She is unaware of whatever McDonagh did or did not do, but the media frenzy surrounding her husband’s disappearance is exhausting.

Filmed in an arresting black-and-white, Grace Harte looks even more noir than it is. In terms of genre and tone, it sits in an interesting place nestled somewhere between The Postman Always Rings Twice and the stormy Richard Gere infidelity drama Unfaithful (remade from a Claude Chabrol original). Visually, GH is about as cinematic as TV gets, thanks to the windswept coastal landscapes and Dave Grennan’s distinctive cinematography, which serve them so well. You can easily see why people here might go a little crazy.

Kieler Street, on MHz

It isn't witness protection, because nobody who avails themselves of Omega's shadowy "relocation" services ever talks about their past. Jonas Schulman (as he is now known) was once a hardened criminal, but he spent all of his big score to restart his life in the quiet Norwegian town of Slusvik. He never looked back until forced by a nosy neighbor. Consequently, "Schulman" starts to suspect he is not the only client they relocated to Slusvik and some of them might be rather dangerous. The paranoia brews slowly, Scandinavian-style in Kieler Street, a 10-part series created and written by Stig Frode Henriksen, Jesper Sundnes & Patrik Syversen, which premieres today on MHz.

Since moving to Slusvik, Schulman married Elin and developed a positive step-parenting relationship with her daughter Sophie, but neither knows anything about his true past. Nobody does, until his neighbor and AA-partner Geir confronts him with research exposing the gaps in his legal record. It isn’t just Schulman. Half the neighborhood is in Geir’s potential blackmail file. Although Geir offers to bring Schulman in on his scheme, the former criminal is not about to take any chances, so he resorts to his old ways to solve the problem.

Of course, that just raises further issues, like body disposal and the like. Unfortunately, Sophie’s beloved cat Kaspar will be lost (presumably fatally) during the chaotic, extemporized process, which leads to no end of headaches for Schulman. Frankly, most viewers will be even more annoyed by all the whining over poor dear Kaspar than he is. Ironically, just when he assumes his crime has been exposed, it turns out the police actually discovered another body—that of a fifteen-year-old girl, presumably in Slusvik for a summer concert. Schulman also assumes the killer is a former shady criminal type like himself, who bought a new life in the formerly peaceful village.

Kieler Street is a slow-brooder, with a little too much emphasis on the “slow.” Arguably, the series could have benefited by being condensed to an eight- or even six-episode run. Nevertheless, it excels at creating a paranoid vibe and a general sense of unease. Schulman (and viewers) are keenly aware nobody might be whom they present themselves to be, because knows full well that he is not. The writer-creators consistently spring wicked new complications for Schulman, while skewering the provincialism of Slusvik (especially the busy-body denial of their mayor and the dark legacy of the turn-of-the-Century founder, Haakon Walter).

Pieges, on MHz

Elsa Aubry is about to receive an Indecent Proposal, but it won’t jeopardize her marriage—just her soul. Some unknown benefactor will offer her one million Euros, ostensibly as an inheritance, if she simply kills someone, who supposedly really deserves it. The dedicated wife and mother is not a murderer, but she desperately needs the money. Of course, the offer is also not as straight-forward as it is initially presented in creator-co-writer Chris Lang’s two-part French drama Pieges, which premieres tomorrow on MHz Choice.

Clearly, murder is not an enforceable contract item, but the lawyer Dugard maintains willful ignorance. He merely schedules a meeting with Aubry and gives her a flashdrive with a video file to be watched in his absence. If she refuses, Aubry still pockets 5,000 Euros for her troubles. However, if she returns in three days, she will learn who she must kill and when.

Aubry’s first instincts were to go to the police. However, her husband Marc convinces her to at least take the 5K. They are already struggling to make ends meet, even before her Leukemia-survivor daughter Zoe suddenly suffers a relapse. Ordinarily, Aubry would never entertain such an offer, but when Zoe’s only hope is an experimental treatment in Chicago not covered by insurance, Marc is willing to consider it for her.

The format of Pieges is relatively unusual these days, consisting of two hour-long installments, but it divides quite evenly, both in terms of narrative break and emotional tone. In fact, Pieges is quite effective and compelling, because Lang and co-writers Julien Teisseire, Claire Lemarechal, and Simon Jablonka go micro rather than macro when they reveal the truth behind the secret conspiracy. Instead of an international internet cabal, what is going on is actually deeply personal.

The likable and sympathetic Aubry family dynamics further raise the stakes. It is rather notable and refreshing that Marc is Aubry’s second husband, but Zoe fully accepts him as her father figure. As a result, we can credibly accept any decision they might and still root for them.

Ole Bornedal’s 1864

It was a bloody year. While Americans were killing each other at the Battles of Atlanta and the Wilderness, Denmark sent out its army to be slaughtered by the Germans. It seems like inconceivable hubris in hindsight, but the tiny Scandinavian country expected to win in short order. Instead, their crushing defeat sent them reeling into modernity, at least according to Ole Bornedal’s epic Danish miniseries 1864 (trailer here), which releases today on MHz Choice.

Although Bornedal is best known for genre films like Nightwatch and Just Another Love Story, he has already had a go at historical dramas with I am Dina. However, 1864 is much greater in scope and touched on still sensitive Danish national nerves. Conceived and filmed as a straight-shot eight-hour feature, it was broken up into hourly installments by Danish TV. As is usually true of sweeping historicals, both the poor and the privileged are represented, but in this case, some of them knew each other before the fateful war.

The reason Denmark was so confident at the start of the Second Schleswig War was because they had won the first one in 1851 so handily. Like many of his comrades, tenant farmer Thøger Jensen made it home to his wife Karen and young sons Laust and Peter, but his infected war wounds are an ominous site. The landed Baron’s only son Didrich also returns damaged from the war, but it his case, the stress and shame of his cowardly conduct (papered over by his father’s bribes) have corroded his soul. The Jensen brothers become a target for bullying, especially when they befriend Inge Juel, the new estate manager’s twelve-year-old daughter, whom Didrich creepily fancies as well.

In the early 1860’s liberal reformist Prime Minister Ditlev Gothard Monrad is openly campaigning for war, stoking nationalist fervor over the Schlewig question. As the matter then stood, the German-speaking enclave maintained a degree of autonomy as a Grand Duchy within the Danish state. For Monrad and the National Liberals, anything less than full Danish integration was unthinkable. However, Otto von Bismarck had learned from all the flukes and mistakes that led to Germany’s 1851 defeat, which would be quite unfortunate for new recruits like the Brothers Jensen. Even worse, they find themselves serving under the contemptible Didrich, who is recalled to duty at the rank of captain.

They will find at least two comrades who have a knack for keeping their men alive: the valiant Second Lieutenant Wilhelm Dinesen (real life father of Karen Blixen) and the leathery veteran corporal Johan Larsen. They both also take comfort from corresponding with Juel, but Peter is unaware Laust violated their unspoken gentleman’s agreement by sleeping with her. All of this family drama and national angst unfolds as a punkish teen working for a meals-on-wheels agency reads Inge’s handwritten memoir to her aged grandson.

The deeper you plow into Bornedal’s decade-spanning saga, the more it starts to click. Frankly, if half the scenes of the bratty young Jensen Brothers in short-pants had been cut, it would not have hampered plot or character development to any appreciable extent. The contemporary wrap-around segments are also quite contrived and unnecessary. However, the battle sequences are impressively mounted and the political intrigues are thoughtfully realized, thanks to Bornedal’s use of the nonfiction books of historian and series-advisor Tom Buk-Swienty as a blue-print. If you enjoy negotiating table drama, his screenplay does a nice job of integrating a good deal of Danish into the narrative without it feeling exposition-y. This might be Denmark in the mid-1860s, but it is clear how dangerous it is to relinquish control of military strategy to politicians and the press.

Pilou Asbæk (A Hijacking, Game of Thrones) might be the most recognizable cast-member, who really goes all in, wallowing in self-loathing misanthropy as the increasingly pathetic Didrich. Jakob Oftebro looks the part of the more dashing Laust Jensen, but Jens Sætter-Lassen gets the better speeches as Brother Peter, carrying them off quite well. However, the real star is the witheringly intense Søren Malling as the battle-hardened, but compassionate Larsen and the real discovery is Johannes Lassen as the fiery Dinesen.

1864 definitely has the look of big budget tent-poles, thanks the crisp vistas lensed by Bordenal’s regular cinematographer, Dan Laustsen and the smash-up battle pyrotechnics. After watching all eight hours, you will conclude Danes are lucky to be speaking Danish rather than German. Imagine if congress and the media had second-guessed George Washington’s strategic retreats, much like what happened to the admittedly eccentric Gen. De Meza? Despite some concessions made to the TV audience (that means you, moody teen with the piercings), 1864 is definitely a smart, grand-scale tragedy that pay dividends to attentive viewers who invest the time. Recommended for fans of old school epics, 1864 starts streaming today on MHz Choice.