#anyway i sadly don't have time to make edits/gifs atm but i'll start that up once the show hits netflix

[moon-yean]

babylon berlin thoughts

I finally found the time to finish Babylon Berlin and alsdkfjalösdjkf!!! Guys, watch it when it comes to Netflix on January 30!!! (Serious spoilers behind the cut, don’t read unless you’ve seen it all. I mean it. This show relies heavily on twists.)

Can I just say... Regierungsrat Benda ??? What the hell ??? Everything about that storyline was killing me already anyway because of the inherent tragedy but wow @ the show making one of the nicest characters kill one of the other nicest characters + his little kid. Just... what the hell. I was ready to rip my hair out.

On that note, still mourning Jänicke!!! When they showed Charlotte sitting with his parents and them congratulating her on her new job... just, stawp. Stop killing me. Why are all the death scenes in this show both the best (in the way they are shot and the tension is built and just alöksdjfölajsdf) and the worst (because they keep killing the characters ppl might actually care about most)?

ngl I cried during a bunch of episodes, you can guess which.

And the end... wtf there were so many crazy twists in this show, I totally didn’t see this coming (until they started the flashback to the wedding of his brother and we see him turning around and I recognized the actor who plays the doc). And I just realized that that’s the reason the mob boss (Edgar~ ok is that even his real name) had the painting of Anno’s horse!!! Though this raises all kinds of questions about Gereon’s dad and the prostitutes shooting that little home vid in that location because uhmm that dude is also Anno’s dad and did Anno know and was he involved with that or what?! He was involved with the blackmail, right? Just wtf?! 

Also that ep with the assassination attempt during the Dreigroschenoper was awesome and makes me crave an Assassin’s Creed game set in that era. I dug it when that storyline got video game-y, less so when it became comic book-y (the train fight with Wolter... everything was so great until they started to actually green screen fight each other on top of the train, that shit was goofy and silly but ok I’ll let it slide because I wanted Wolter dead the minute he forced Charlotte to take him on as a “customer” despite her refusal plus he was just a corrupt and repulsive dick in general, the actor was great but I totally didn’t get how reviewers apparently loved his character or found him super funny or something?).

Also can we just talk about how this show was able to give me the most profound history chills with the most subtle moments? Or not even just the subtle ones. When General Seegers revealed his anti-semitic colors to Benda I was ready to jump through the screen and throttle him. Not that any of that is a surprise but... the fact that it’s kept on the down low all the time makes it so much more shocking when it erupts out in the open.

Speaking of which, Fritz and his friend, whatever his name was, were so clearly up to no good in hindsight. Like these two dudes are the only ones who ever mention Hitler in passing. Surprise surprise. Ugh!!!

The show is somewhat maddening but that’s the time it’s set in. Just makes you want to scream, knowing where everything is going. 

Yeah idk I have so many thoughts but I’m just glad the show’s been renewed. The whole cast is so perfect and I love Gereon and Charlotte and if they iron out the kinks and tighten the plotting, this could become, like, the best show of all time. It’s super well-directed and -acted and I’m surprised the different styles of the creative team didn’t show through more but yeah, they need to smoothen the writing a little bit and make it less convoluted.

But there were so many standout scenes and sequences, some of the best on TV this year imo. Aside from everything I’ve already mentioned, how great was the episode where Gereon tells the story of him and his brother on the battlefield? Or the scene where he breaks into Wolter’s apartment? Just so well done and filmed, damn. And I love how they really took the time with some of those scenes and luxuriated in them long past the point where other shows might have gone. It makes the balance on the whole a bit uneven but it produces these really memorable pieces.

Oh yeah and if I want something from S3-onwards, it’s that the show should ease off on making Charlotte a broken mess and damsel in distress, S2 kind of really hit the brakes in terms of her character development. Liv Lisa Fries was amazing and kept it coherent but more of her S1 self pls.

And also, can the show please run for enough seasons that it doesn’t end in 1938 during the November progroms like the books apparently will?! Like damn, that would be the most depressing series finale ever.