#Charité 2049

[eolewyn1010]

Charité, season 4 - Formulaic Writing

More complaining, because I like to put into words what I don't enjoy. A lot of words.

The writing this season felt very formulaic. As though, now that they're in season 4, there's an expected list of things that need to happen. Poly marriages - checked the bothersome queerness off your list. Nurse Kachel (who's barely more than a walking door opener MacGuffin) - checked the motherly Berlin nurse off your list. Saved your troubled birth scene for the last episode - but checked it off your list. Same patient that was brought into the hospital in episode 1 is healed and can go in episode 6 - checked the pretty book ending off your list; who cares that he stayed alive much longer than other patients who were infected much later. Both Emilia and Maral make an overblown speech at the end of the season - checked the blahblah about charity off your list (in the same manner as but even more clumsily than the end of season 3, might I add. First two seasons were not so ham-fisted about it). Ella dramatically decided to stay at Charité by the end of season 3 - so Maral has to dramatically decide to stay at Charité by the end of season 4. Check. Never mind that Rich Bitch previously told her she could work from wherever, so we don't even know why her staying in Berlin contradicts her working on Rich Bitch's project. Said Rich Bitch has to be a confusing off note because every season came up with a scene or character that just out of the blue seemed very out of place - check. Just confuse them; it's fiiiine. If you managed it with a literal historical character in her historically correct actions, you can do it again! (I think what baffles me most is that they even put in an effort to have her sound like Yrsa von Leistner.)

And there's the endless empty phrases... so much dialogue that doesn't say anything at all.

I don't know; it so often feels like they wanted to push something through without really thinking about whether it would fit well at that point, or even make sense. Like the brain hacking of Discount Daniel Sträßer. They pushed this big Red Herring on us about oooohhh, he's so shady! Watch him manipulate computers and know shit he shouldn't know! - Ha! Wasn't his choice, actually! Bet you didn't see that coming! I saw it coming from a mile away, and the way it was implemented made no sense in your own established canon. You just wanted a big drama for the final episode and thought this was clever since, you know, couldn't have a war ending or a wall refugee. Except it makes me feel you didn't think your oh-so-modern technology through.

It also feels like they didn't think every part of their medical progress through. Like - I cannot for the life of me think of a reason to take out part of an ovary from a 14-year-old to cryo-store it. She's literally 14, and from what I can tell she's healthy. There's no reason to take preventive measures so she has a chance to have kids later in life; everything points to her being well able to do so once she's at that age. I understand it as a fertility treatment, but Just Because? From what I can tell, the eggs won't go bad over the next 20 years. That's why that fucking organ is inside her body: because that's where it's doing its job once she needs it. And the whole "it's not very common anymore to get pregnant the natural way" - uh, why not? It has worked for thousands of years. I don't know why that one woman had to be fertilized in-vitro; it's never explained onscreen. Since you didn't give me a good reason, I will assume that in 25 years, we have a full-blown prenatal eugenics situation going on.

Even the climate change which is blown up to be this huge thing doesn't actually influence the everyday life of people. Houses and hospital have extensive air-conditioning. The weather is always sunny and clothing as light and breathable as possible, but that's it. They really wanted the climate change to be in there, but the only time it's present beyond the news showing burning forests elsewhere or speaking of 35°C in the early morning (not that we ever see anyone sweat, mind you) is when it kicks off Maral's bacteria plot because Greenland thawed too much. We are shown climate refugees, but none of their ostensibly so drastically changed lives.

Something that really surprised me in this show-in-the-future was that COVID-19 or maybe the avian flu or something were not a point at all. Like, no one mentioned them as the last big pandemics, no one name-dropped vaccinations or their famous makers. I am supposed to believe this is a possible future from our current point onward, so why don't you work with what you have? Instead of thawing ancient bacteria from the ice, make the spreading multiresistance the central problem. You could still roll with the bit about integrating bacteria into the human biome. Have everyone go everywhere in masks, all the time. You're trying to sell me on the dystopics of future health care systems - work with something I can recognize. Why don't you use the formula where it would make sense? The previous seasons would always reference the big medics that came before them. Wouldn't that have been a good way to ground your universe, by mentioning today's scientists and doctors as the formative generation for the 2049ers?

And for the formula they failed to implement: Where the hell is Berlin this season. I know very little of Charité was actually made in Berlin, but they integrated brief scenes out in the streets, contemporary film material, shots at the Humboldt docks, the Charité bunker, churches and streets I recognized, people having at least small interactions before buildings I know are in Berlin. The show always played in the hospital, but I always knew that the people weren't locked in there; they lived in the city that surrounded them. Now all we get are a few very generic panorama shots of Berlin, and then it's either back to the hypermodern hospital (which looks nothing like today's Charité and thus has zero recognition value) or Maral's and Julia's fugly concrete house which is ostensibly in "Charité village, Brandenburg". This village doesn't exist, and the house stands in the middle of the most generic nowhere you can imagine. Which, fair, parts of Brandenburg kinda look like that in summer. But the hospital often feels like walking through a spaceship; everything is sleek and shiny and white. This doesn't feel like Charité, nor like Berlin. They exist in an isolated bubble of pretty technology and not-so-pretty CGI. The most outside we get is the ever-shouting demonstrating crowd... who are also shown in the limited space around the shiny doors. Welp. You'd think a show that plays a little after the current present is much easier to make look like today than all the historical seasons they delivered so nicely. They can make me believe I'm looking at Berlin from 130 years back, but they won't try with Berlin 25 years from now?

[eolewyn1010]

Charité, season 4 - Queerly Subverted

Turns out I can't shut up; what a surprise. So I've put my final thoughts into separate posts, in the hope that they're more readable if they aren't a half novel just smashing your dash.

Something I always liked about Charité is that, from the beginning, they had queer characters. Season 1's Therese got kicked around by the plot, but she was an important character whose story we followed alongside Ida's, and while she fell prey to Bury Your Gays, she ultimately remained the only love interest Ida kept in dear memory. I don't need to get started on season 2's Otto and Martin because that would have me gushing about their lovestory until next week. Season 3 had... well, Simone Weiser. Who was, in and of herself, a wonderful character; don't get me wrong. She just really wasn't given the space her story would've needed to unfold. I hoped that this season would do better.

...Somehow, I wound up feeling cheated.

A friend of mine said if there were no trans characters this season, they would riot. I think we can afford some rioting, because despite the setting promoting an all-inclusive, super-tolerant future, there was not a single trans person to be found. The gynecology had zero male patients, no one casually mentioned HRT, no one was addressed with gender-neutral pronouns. I really didn't want there to be a big plot around someone being *le gasp* trans, but someone around just casually existing would have been nice. But nada.

When Simone Weiser showed up last season and then just disappeared again at the end of the episode with no further discussion, it felt like they just wanted to scratch the "queer" point off their to-do list. I think when they came to this season, they had something comparable going on; they checked - "we already had lesbians, gay men, an intersex person; shit, we only have the troublesome trans people left! We can't handle this!" And someone in the scripting room raised their hand: "Hear me out: Poly marriage." You goddamn genius. This is how I feel cheated: They used poly relationships to actually write around queerness.

For one, we have the Baldwin spouses - Piet Baldwin, Evelyn Baldwin, and Rupert Baldwin. Piet Baldwin is patient 0 for Maral's plot, and I don't remember seeing him ever, at any point in the season, in an interaction with his spouses that would indicate they are in a romantic relationship. He's in a quarantine tube most of the time, but also, the spouses talk a hell of a lot more to the doctors than they do to each other. Both Piet's wife and his husband are visibly quite a bit older than him. If you'd told me they were his parents, I would've instantly believed it. Now, I'm not opposed to age gap romances, but my problem is: He might as well have been their son - it wouldn't have changed the script of their arguments or their behavior among each other one bit. We never saw them together as a polycule; the part that would have made for queer appearances was conveniently isolated from the others so they could play out what looked like a pretty standard troubled het marriage. Now, I know that a man and a woman being married doesn't equal straight; the fact that they're all married to each other is a pretty good indicator that both of the men in this relationship are in fact bisexual. It's just, we never see them even holding hands or share a gaze or anything. They are queer, but they are not allowed to look like it.

Which is, funnily enough, the opposite to Lou Melnik (aka Discount Daniel Sträßer), who is allowed to look like he's heading out to CSD, but only ever has serious chemistry with Marlene. He, Marlene Hirt, and Ferhat Williamson end the season holding hands - that is, Marlene in the middle holding hands with either of the guys. There's no indication that Lou and Ferhat are dating; in fact, when they're on-screen together, they are just remarkably awkward. Which, I don't wanna shit-talk Timur Işık because I have only ever seen him in this role and can't say if he's a very lukewarm actor of if the script fucked him over, but Ferhat's chemistry with Marlene is also pretty much non-existent. Marlene and Lou have such lively discussions, sparkling eyes and smiles, and then there's Ferhat. Eh. The other polycule, who only end up as one in the last few minutes of the last episode and as such conveniently don't have to be shown going on dates together or kissing or whatever, consists factually of two pairings m/f. Again, it feels like a cop-out. And there's - Lou and Marlene were two of the few characters I actually liked; I am sold both on them and their relationship. I am, however, not sold on their polycule.

And then there's Maral Safadi and Julia Kowalczyk. The main couple, two women whose relationship is a major arc of the season. And... they look so awkward when they kiss, so stiff when they cuddle. I don't know what's wrong; they are for the most part decent actresses, and I believe them the characters are a couple when they argue (which they do a lot). I do not believe them their affections in the slightest. Is that part of Maral's workaholic deal? But then she's so oblivious of her marriage being in crisis until Julia literally yells it at her. So, what gives? It's nice to have a lesbian couple in the center of the narrative, but I get completely thrown off every time they try to sell me on the romance part. Nevermind that their resolution isn't one. Maral never says, "I'm sorry for my behavior; I have realized it was not good; I will work on this". She says, "I need you". And with that, everything is just fine again. They never work out their issues. The plot point of their son going to war is never resolved at all; that goes nowhere. Julia never accepts his decision; Maral never sits down with him to talk about it again. Whatevs.

In the end, I'm sitting here wondering: If you do it so half-heartedly, why do it at all? Either the script writers or the actors obviously didn't feel like doing queer characters.

[eolewyn1010]

Charité, season 4 - episode 6

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times... No, it was just the worst, and there were spoilers in it.

You know, it shouldn't be so easy to hack the entire hospital's system. Because it shouldn't all be one centralized system! This is not safe, and I'm judging it.

Are we supposed to feel bad for Ferhat now? Cheer him on as he's struggling to rescue his patient, who's locked into his room and unable to call for help? Well. See. It was Ferhat who brought his patient into this situation in the first place.

If she can pursue her research anywhere, why does she need to leave Berlin at all...?

Poor Discount Daniel Sträßer looks like shit. Marlene, do you have a moment to help the more likable of your boyfriends?

What a perfect timing for Maral to be locked in with a woman who's on the verge of giving birth and thus would be Maral's wife's patient! Such a serendipitous cOiNcIdEnCe!! And then she says, "my baby isn't due before seven weeks from now" as if that wouldn't guarantee her to be in labor by the end of the scene.

"Photovoltaic systems are so last decade, honey!" I wish the oh-so-modern technology this season would be a little more than a shiny gimmick.

"My life is so haaaaard! And I won't acknowledge my part in that." Maral, would you like some cheese with that whine?

As for pregnant ginger lady, woman up and tell your boyfriend he's not the baby daddy.

This spiral staircase is stupid. I'm not even sure it was there before. This shot of Ferhat heaving himself upstairs is stupid. This architecture is stupid. Everything is stupid.

How. How did she go from first aches to full-blown 45-seconds labor pains in such a short time? They can't have been in there for longer than twenty minutes!? That ain't healthy.

"You've given birth already; you know how to do it" - oh, well, in that case! Why need gynecologists at all? *headdesk*

Remember season 1 when the midwife failed at an external cephalic version of Mrs. Ehrlich's baby? Yeah, so, Maral, who has zero gynecological training, succeeds with that. Cool. I'm still not sure how the baby doesn't strangle itself on the umbilical cord during this little twist maneuver.

Sitting through an external crisis together makes talking out your relationship issues and acknowledging the behavior you need to work on superfluous, you know? Marriage salvaged, Maral's character development = 0.

For being seven weeks early, that's a big baby.

For having just been given birth in, that hallway is remarkably clean. Did she just cross her legs on the placenta and shit?

Ferhat being all drama llama about saving his patient whom he's so close to, dragging him into his arms and all, was such a homoerotic set-up. And then he didn't even resuscitate him mouth-to-mouth. Cowards.

Nice of the systems to go back online before poor Minister Blowhard gets a scar from his surgery or something equally horrifying.

The Red Herring of Discount Daniel Sträßer being responsible for the hacker attack is out of proportion.

See? He wants to live after all! So Ferhat was right to do what he did and will suffer absolutely no negative consequences for being a horrid doctor and human being! ...I hate everything.

"annoying stubbornness"? Yeah, that and the violation of his patient's rights.

Oh, boy, where do I begin to count what is wrong with the big resolution of "Discount Daniel Sträßer's brain chip was hacked and he had no control of his own actions"?

It directly contradicts established canon. Remember Ferhat's "no one but yourself can enter your own thoughts" talk with that little trauma patient? Yeah. Apparently, the person-coded accessibility of cerebral technology doesn't apply when the plot says so.

This chip is programmed to intervene in the regions of his brain where the epileptic seizures occur. How, just how does that translate to hypnotic control of his actions and suppression of his ability to make conscious decisions? Has a neuroscientist had a look at this part of the script?

Obviously, it was the Evil Redhead SJW. We get it; you people think demonstrators = terrorists.

If this is something that is possible, why on earth are these chips legal at all? Are you telling me the doctors who developed this method of epilepsy control didn't know how extensive the chip's access to the brain is?

We can programme people to do our bidding from a distance. We can do surgery across two continents. We cannot call the godforsaken security in the building to tell them there's a terrorist attack going on and one already identified person needs to be restrained.

I expected them to at least dramatically slice out the chip.

For good measure, we get a scene of Dylan kowtowing before Maral and telling her that Charité neeeeds her. idgaf anymore.

Clichéd speech about charity, check.

Why does 2049's Yrsa wear a shoulder harness à la Daenerys?

"I can't get my will?? Inconceivable!" Ok, Rich Bitch's offended face is a little funny.

Discount Daniel Sträßer is now wearing a headband instead of the chip, as he was recommended way back when. Unhackable and dating! He and Ferhat each are holding hands with Marlene. Poly yes, gayness nuh-uh. Ah well, at least Marlene gets one person in her life that might be nice company. Not you, Ferhat.

This trophy is fugly. Is that art, or does it go into the trash?

Her son is in the audience, but I think the conflict about his choice of job doesn't get resolved.

"Some self-deprecating comments on myself in my speech and hypocritical blahblah about responsibility makes all my bad deeds undone!" Maral has the balls to talk about responsibility and welfare. Shoot me.

And now I'm supposed to read, too? Previous Charité protagonists had the decency to speak their epilogues themselves.

"ending the age of antibiotics" - no, honey, the age of antibiotics is ended by the spreading of multiresistant microorganisms. Gosio's, Ehrlich's, and Fleming's works aren't hypothetically supplanted by Little Miss Ego's success; they are very realistically endangered by the sheer speed with which bacteria mutate.

My final line would be: "Neither Maral Safadi nor Ferhat Williamson are ever held accountable for their respective malpractice."

I'm gonna write a little "Final Thoughts" bit as a summary of some points on the season and for additional notes. But overall, wow, the show really unlearned what made it strong in the first place. I was so sure I would hate the futuristic setting. I don't. I hate the character writing. These people suck.

[eolewyn1010]

Charité, season 4 - episode 5

*chanting* We will, we will spoiler you! *clap! stomp-stomp clap! stomp-stomp clap!* We will, we will... Oh, yeah, the episode!

Yay, Maral was right all along and there will be no consequences for her selfish and dangerous behavior. Oh jooooy.

"You're not in a physical state to treat him." ??? Dylan, how about she's still suspended and not allowed to treat him?

Why is Dylan the one who is told that he was all about his ego? While Maral will be celebrated as a selfless heroine of modern science. And doesn't even need to lie in a quarantine tube.

Good of her to remember she has a family. And nice of her to lie to her dying father.

Heh, Seda and Nils make for such bitchy exes. They must have been one hell of a couple.

I admire Julia for her restraint. I would have slapped her.

One two-faced hypocrite is not enough; we also need Emilia!

A big chunk of Germany is on fire, but they expect me to believe that climate refugees go there to escape fires in the US. Sure.

They also expect me to believe that Maral is all about family suddenly when she ignored her wife for most of the season, was having shouting matches with her mom, forgetting to talk to her kid about his poor life choices, and snapping at her father.

"It's all about meeeee! Wahwahwah! If it isn't about my heroic deeds, it's about my tragic errors!"

I'd like to point out that Ferhat just stole his completely paralyzed patient's talking device and locked him into his room. This man should not be a doctor. This man should be in prison.

I'm ever so impressed with the subtlety with which they're trying to convince me that Discount Daniel Sträßer is in cahoots with the Evil Redhead SJW.

"I look like 100 years old." Yeah, and you behave like 5.

Ah, this season's Yrsa von Leistner! I was wondering where my jarringly random, not-contributing-to-the-plot thread was. Took me a while to understand she wasn't a hallucination of Maral's.

She even sounds like Yrsa von Leistner back in season 2.

"Stop the aging process" - she's quoting the most whacko of election advertisement, and I'm supposed to take her seriously? Nevermind that she's very visibly one of the 1%; of course, we're talking treatment for the rich and beautiful elite. And tbh, I just don't think highly of people who strive for immortality beyond a long and healthy life. Age with dignity, maybe?

Minister Blowhard is ignoring the nurse to talk about the doctor's achievements. I hate him already; you needn't be so in-your-face.

Are the demonstrators throwing blood bags!? What a waste of limited resources.

Ferhat is one more of those "it's about me" types. Marlene's patient just died on her in surgery; maybe notice that she's down instead of going on about your unethical handling of your patient?

Does anyone actually expect Maral to work for Miss Neverage? She is already exasperated with her, which, finally I agree with the main protagonist on something!

It couldn't last longer than a moment. See, when Maral attempts a risky treatment on a patient, it's better to try than do nothing. When Seda does the exact same thing - she's a horrid egotistical bitch who just wants to be right. Ladies, gentlemen, and gentlefolk, our protagonist is the most self-unaware, self-righteous hypocrite I have seen in a long-ass time.

I also have second thoughts about Maral being able to remote-activate Seda's locator. There's massive stalking potential in that use of technology.

"killed the person most important to me" - way to prioritize your loved ones, dickhead. That's a rude thing to say to your mother. You also wanna tell your kid and your wife that they come in second-place?

These unclad ceilings are fugly. Why are all the pipes and wires out in the open? Is that safe?

Is that a coffin? Why is it, like, a glowy egg?

See, Ferhat's ability to move autonomously takes precedence over his patient's ability to move autonomously.

"I'm not happy with you." Standing ovation to Julia!

And the eeeeevil demonstrators prioritize their anti-reform message over human lives. Lest we forget that people who want social equity are terrorists. But honestly, Minister Blowhard has been set up as such an unlikable character that I don't have a lot of sympathy for him.

I'm a tad less exasperated than I was at the end of the last episode, but that's probably because now that Maral has been proven right, she stops being so obtrusively annoying because the writers remembered that they have to twist her around to a Happy End. Still incredibly rich of her to call Seda self-centered.

[eolewyn1010]

Charité, season 4 - episode 4

I'm here to spoiler, and don't say I didn't warn you!

"Two more Paleobacterium deaths" - not Maral's very first patient tho! He will conveniently stay alive until the very end.

Does anyone else think it'll be a depressing blow to Julia to come home and find that, when Maral finally puts in an effort into unpacking boxes to furnish their new home, all she unpacks is her work stuff?

"Extreme heat wave continues" - but we won't show our protagonists sweating! They have to look like models.

It's not that actress' fault, but her facial structure reminds me uncomfortably of season 2's Magda Goebbels. Plus, she's 1st, dressed like she has too much money (and she probably has if she can afford 4 in vitro treatments), and 2nd, remarkably unscathed for someone who has recently been in a car accident that ended fatally for another participant.

Julia. This woman is pregnant and very freshly widowed. Refer her to grief counseling?

Nurse Kachel is only around to literally open doors and talk some platitudes in Berlin dialect, huh?

Nice of Maral to give away a ticket for an event she planned to go visit with her wife. Oughta be good for the marriage.

Also, what do you mean "men's team or women's"? Does that mean sports are still segregated in a way that makes them inaccessible to nonbinary people?

Dylan, just report her. At this point, her trying to treat a patient is illegal. She should not even be in the tract.

With the background that Ferhat probably attempted suicide at some point, it feels hypocritical of him to be opposed to his patient choosing death over a living situation he deems unbearable.

Wait a minute. She's 16 weeks into pregnancy and already knows her baby is gonna be a boy. But Julia's test was the first that turned up the microplastic poisoning? How quickly does that develop / how incompetent was her previous doctor?

Come on, Julia, you can't be surprised that she's desperate to keep the baby.

I'm not entirely sure why they have to plant the child back in at all. If they have artificial (and completely disease-free) wombs at their disposal, wouldn't it be the safest course to keep the fetus in there until maturity?

It's very rude to develop a revolutionary kind of surgery and then not haste to train others to do it when it treats an issue that a ton of people worldwide are likely to have. 1st season at least had a reason for not many doctors knowing a certain kind of surgery - modern medicine was in its baby shoes and worldwide networking was scarce and slow. But with all that technology? Get teaching!

If you're suicidal, try romance! It solves all depressions! ...Honestly, fuck Ferhat. For someone who also gets to do psychotherapeutic treatment, he's so bad at human emotions.

Marlene is one of very few characters this season I give a damn about, and she's being stood up by this dumbass Ferhat. Ugh.

Maral. Wine is not a balanced diet.

"You wanna talk about your work? No, I get to complain about my work now!" Maral, you suck as a wife.

And then, literally just after that, she has the absolute GALL to accuse Julia of not listening to her about her problems! What the actual fuck. Maral, you suck as a wife!

You also have no right to deny Julia information about her son.

"From my perspective, yes." Have you ever talked to your wife in the past weeks, even once? Sheesh.

That telling-off was so overdue. So obviously, the next thing Maral does? Get drunk, be a workaholic, and go to extremes to prove a point! Woo! It's feminism when it's women who make the bad choices! I hope she knows she's on one level with Robert Koch now. And that is so not a compliment.

Discount Daniel Sträßer would seem even shadier if I he weren't surrounded by bad CGI.

Thanks, Nils, for calling Maral the asshole that she is.

Emilia, if you think Charité has to protect its precious reputation, you go and solve the medical mysteries yourself.

Wow. Wow, Ferhat. This episode is titled "Courage", not "Violation Of Your Patient's Bodily Autonomy". wtf, why is this guy a doctor.

Dylan, you should have Maral arrested. She's a walking (ok, lying-down) breach of infection protection law.

Way to go, Julia! And please change your gloves before you operate any further. That's fucking disgusting.

Does anyone else find it sus that Dylan, Maral's declared but male rival at the hospital whom she keeps trashtalking and tyrannizing at work, gets to look so much more affectionate with her than her actual wife?

Thoughts on this season's questionable queer rep aside - my problem is that Maral's behavior doesn't feel as though she wants to save lives. It feels like she wants to prove at any cost that she is right. That is an unsympathetic feature in everyone and a potentially catastrophic one in a doctor. And Ferhat isn't far behind. Are these supposed to be protagonists?

[eolewyn1010]

Charité, season 4 - episode 3

Here there be spoilers, and unasked-for snark.

Discount Daniel Sträßer in a skirt! I appreciate that someone is bringing in a little gender.

And an eeeeevil redhead whose behavior makes me think she's his ex. They were definitely social justice warriors together, so of course she has to be rude and pushy lest we forget that demonstrators are Not Nice People. This is growing tedious.

"I'm gonna treat him the way I think is right without your agreement" - Dylan is right; Maral is riding her boss hubris.

Oh no, not another "let me show you with these random objects I have at hand" simplified explanation. That was already so patronizing when Ella did it last season. Stop treating your audience like idiots! Especially on ground of an entirely unproven theory. I've never heard of this "integrate the bacterium into the biome" approach; sounds like potentially kicking off unpredictable changes in the body. I need a rl medic on this.

"Dylan tries to hinder my work" - no, Dylan offered the patient and his spouses an established therapy. You come up with wild speculations, that the patient's spouses turned down, not Dylan.

Can Seda and Maral just once talk to each other like normal people?

Watching people lying around with their eyeballs twitching under their lids. Is this Avatar?

So this woman is from the US, and they had her be a climate refugee? That is 1) not entirely logical because at least Saxony is canonically burning already, too, nevermind that Brandenburg has a lot of flammable area, and 2) cowardly of the writers. Lean into the dystopic possibilities of the next elections and make her a political refugee, goddammit!

Why did she push her treatment through when the family already turned it down? She knows she cannot treat him against consent. Buuut the plot gives her a free ticket anyway. Sure.

It feels ridiculous to listen to Emilia whine about lacking finances while she's sitting in an office the size of a ballroom, walls clad with shiny wood and huge windows to a nice garden.

"You should become a surgeon" - yeah, because if there is one thing the past seasons have taught us, it's that the only medical staff that matters is the doctors. Fuck nurses, amirite? Someone please shoot me.

If your big job project gets discontinued, try romance! What kind of logic is that? I hate it when "date a new person" is treated as the solution to a shitty life situation.

I have a pet peeve: Medical staff wearing their long hair loose on the job. Fucking put it up, you're in a hospital / lab!

...This promise sounds hollow, Maral.

Wait, Julia's sister lives in the US?? But she's speaking accent-free German? With both her sister and her son? And the surname? I thought they were from Germany.

The guy with the queerest vibes is the one the narrative makes look the shadiest. I feel so bad for Discount Daniel Sträßer it makes me almost use his actual name, but I don't want to to kill my running gag.

Thank heaven for Nils; without him being kind and caring to his daughter-in-law, I'd be so sick of this family's dynamics.

Hey, finally some natural-looking affection between Maral and Julia! So of course Maral has to ruin the moment. "Everything is about meeeeee!"

The promise was empty. Great way to treat your co-workers, Maral. Why is she so arrogant?

Consequences for misconduct? It's more likely than you- Yeah, no, let's see how long that lasts.

So this is my turning point for Maral's character. Now she's getting on my nerves way more than I like her. And the episode overall leaves me disgruntled. Why is everyone so unpleasant?

[eolewyn1010]

Charité, season 4 - episode 2

Onward and upward, or maybe downward. Abandon all unspoileredness, ye who enter here.

Everyone's whining about wanting to go to the beaches. It's 2049; have you looked at the ozone layer? Just stay home in your bathtub, you're safer there.

Love how they depict demonstrators who fight for social equity as rude, nonsensically pushy, and prone to verbal abuse. Kiss my red proletarian ass and ACAB.

Enter Discount Daniel Sträßer. Gotta love his style; they make him look like a gay stereotype all while he's eyeing up Marlene. Can't get too queer here.

You know, for people who have been in a locked-in state for months or years, they all look remarkably physically fit.

Now Seda is snippy to Julia, too? Why does everyone snap at her?

Cool, an ancient disease from the ice. I remember a Stargate SG-1 episode with the same plot point.

"You talk like a politician" - yeah, perhaps because you're trying to load a politician's responsibility on her.

Discount Daniel Sträßer really thinks a discreet lil' tiara is such a bad fashion statement that it makes a more risky treatment of his epilepsy preferable? Whatevs, honey. If anyone ever wants to implant a chip into my head, I'll riot.

Why is everyone so awkward? Don't they have good actors or is the script so bad that they didn't feel like putting some life into it?

Accidentally pouring stuff over her bacteria? Woo. I can hear Alexander Fleming roll his eyes at the subtle reference.

I just realized that Timur Işık doesn't actually have a scar on his cheek. Why did they add one? Does that serve a purpose for his character? Does it belong to the "jumped from a rock into the sea" story? Because that doesn't sound so much like an accident as a suicide attempt.

Maral and Julia still don't look natural when they kiss.

She accuses him of not taking socially and financially disadvantaged people into regard, and he quotes Margaret Thatcher at her? LMAO

Heh. Seda may be self-righteous and difficult to talk to, but I like her passive-aggression against Minister Blowhard.

Yet another scene of people taking Julia's friendliness weirdly. Is everyone autistic in 25 years?

Aw, I like Marlene and Discount Daniel Sträßer together (yes, the character's name is Lou, who cares). Perhaps because I'm desperate for a little actual chemistry and people not being awkward to each other all the time.

If this wing of the hospital isn't even in use anymore, why are the lights on everywhere?

The bad horror movie of last year called; it wants its walk alone through an abandoned hospital hallway scene back.

Seda has some serious balls, but just tossing Marlene into her shenanigans without asking is less than ideal.

"Operating with outdated machinery" - chill out; haven't you watched the earlier seasons? They've operated people with a dirty knife, some curses and prayers, in candlelight, and with no clean water, and yet they lived on to make mediocre TV.

Ok, so this is neat and all, but couldn't they have managed working through that with regular psychotherapy? He's not even a psychologist; he's a neurologist, isn't he?

Also. I re-checked the scene. I thought the girl just spoke with her mother's accent since it's not the father's - but the mother doesn't have that accent either. So where did the kid pick it up? Do the children of the 2040s not learn speaking from their parents?

We have yet another parent unloading their issues on their kid. Hurray. Dude, good parenting is definitely not forbidding your daughter to grieve just because you can't handle it.

"Shooting people more precisely will make it all more safely, and so I shall bring peace." I hate this kid. Are we going to back to war is cool again? And Julia is presented as an unreasonable nag for being opposed to it. Fuck this.

Real cool of Maral to fuck off from an argument with her wife to go be a workaholic. God forbid we communicate about our discrepancies. Nah, talk to some bacteria instead.

When you only have 6 episodes at your disposal, it's really not good form to wait with introducing major players up until episode 2. I know Ferhat already showed up in episode 1, but only to be inexplicably rude to Julia for a few seconds. And Discount Daniel Sträßer is entirely new to the bunch. Even if I'm biased against the premise, I think this could have been done better.

[eolewyn1010]

Charité, season 4 - episode 1

Alright. Let's do this. Consider everything past this point a spoiler, and yourself warned.

The dramatic lighting and music (vocalizing instead of the instrumentals that dominated the Charité music over three seasons) make the first scene appear very stylized, like a theater play. I don't hate it, but it sure is something else. I guess they broke with the continuity when they chose this season's setting.

Post-Corona, and she's not wearing a mask in surgery? Consider me unimpressed.

Ew. What did that poor greenscreen do to you?

"fires in Czechia coming closer to Saxony" - 2049 taking notes from 2022, huh? Ever so optimistic.

At least we get pretty lesbians. In fond memory of Therese...

They sure took the fashion choices in an interesting direction. And by that I mean, eurgh.

Who is this slimeball and can I castrate him.

Heritage of the last several seasons: An uncouth but motherly nurse with a heavy Berlin dialect; every generation needs one.

See, if you can 3D-project shiny holographs into the middle of the room, you should adapt your architecture. An auditorium that uses this technology should be built in a circle around the projector so everyone has the same chances of seeing the goddamn things! Logic, anyone?

In about 25 years, colors in architecture will have died out for good. Depressing, but not unlikely. The look of this place is giving me anxiety.

This woman's mouth movements don't fit her words at all. Why is she dubbed, and why so poorly?

"I don't eat sweets." *has sweets standing next to her* Is she dumb, or does she think Doc Safadi sr. is dumb?

Oh, nice, they have a botanical garden!

Super-quick zoom! Do you see our modern technology? DO YOU SEE IT YET!? More zoom! Sheesh, cut it out.

Why is everyone so awkward / impolite to Julia? Because her wife is pushing the health reform?

Poly marriage. Nice. ...and also, Nachtigall, ick hör dir trapsen.

Maral is ever so charming to Dylan. Isn't it nice to condescend to your co-worker from day 1?

Oh, nice, they all have universal translators. I get that they want to put in a lot of international variety, but why does the girl not speak any German when her mother does?

Take out ovarial tissue? From a teenager??? If she ever decides to have kids, can't she start by trying it the more obvious way? Why take it out in the first place? It's well-kept in her body, isn't it?

This mother is the worst.

Julia actress's delivery of her lines is very inconsistent. Some scenes, she plays good; others, she sounds like a third-grader reciting Erlkönig.

Did they steal that shot from Tatort: Der Herr des Waldes?

This concrete house is as fugly on the inside as it is on the outside. Thanks, I hate it.

Ehm. Okay. ngl, Martin's and Otto's PDA looked a lot more believable. Can you at least commit to your gay smoochies?

Why does the Armenian-German kid have a French name?

Brat wants to join the army for his democratic values. What, does he want to bring freedom to the poor savages? Gawd.

Starting to think Nils and Seda aren't a couple anymore, which makes the friendly relationship they have all the nicer.

Rest of the family is bitching. Greeeaaat.

Giving your doctor false medical information before surgery? Sure, why not! Is everyone here an idiot?

I don't really vibe with these extreme zooms.

Now she's wearing a mask - that's barely even covering her chin, nevermind her nose. Why is this so inconsistent?

Really good of you to treat a dying patient in hearing distance to another patient who has the same disease. Like. Just lock down sound transmission to the neighbor quarantine room?? Why is everyone so illogical?

Yeah, fuck. He's only a background character, so we give up after three attempts.

Maral got her self-righteousness from Seda, huh?

Yay, pandemics! Every generation needs one.

This all sounds very negative because I'm not terribly into the speculative future setting, but honestly, I don't hate watching it. My engagement with it is low in comparison to previous seasons Charité, but it still is interesting. And I'm kinda committed to the trash factor.