Berlin Bohème

Watched it for the first time today... won't watch it again. The acting (of all the actors, to be quite honest) is a joke. I've seen some really bad stuff over the years, but this beats about anything I've seen so far. Watching the program I ended up feeling as if the actors themselves didn't enjoy what they were doing. Part of a successful program surely must be that the people who are taking part in it are actually enjoying what they are doing. Do yourselves a favor and get some people who actually CAN act... PLEASE ??? I could imagine that, with the right group of people, this could be a rather enjoyable... and successful... project... The way it is at the moment it can't reach the likes of 'Queer as folk' and other productions of this kind... I am not saying that the whole idea as such is bad, just get some people who can carry the project.

"Berlin Bohème" was first aired in 2000 when was not at all that normal to have a gay/lesbian TV series available. It came out about the same time they released "Queer as Folk" in the UK.

Where "Queer as Folk" has its beautiful actors and great stories, "Berlin Bohème" unfortunately hasn't got very much. At least it didn't in the first season. The show got some improvements in the following seasons, i.e. more likable characters and some really funny jokes thrown in.

The greatest thing about it, though, is its campy atmosphere, the trashy kind of humour, and some great performances by Rainer Hillebrecht, Tima die Göttliche, and Yvonne Hass. The other parts are way too small, and rather forgettable, unfortunately.

All in all, "Berlin Bohème" is average entertainment, a little ahead of its time (at least in Germany), with a tiny little touch of wisdom and insight. Fun, but certainly not for everyone.

I have just seen the sneak preview of the first two episodes of season four of Andreas Weiss' absolute brilliant series, "Berlin Boheme" or as we would probably call it in English, "Bohemian Berlin". The series is full of (queer) fantasy, (male) nudity and humorous interaction between Berlin's lively gay and straight Bohemian communities. Set in the world of theatre and painters, "Berlin Boheme" explores that delectable grey area that borders on the outer limits of acceptable, established behaviour. Most of the cast are, in fact, professional actresses/actors and entertainers, but there is also a spicy sprinkling of quite gifted amateurs. Although the Channel 4 (UK) production, "Queer as Folk" has always acclaimed to be groundbreaking (and the American "QaF" website cannot be viewed from outside the United States for obvious problems with copyright) the Andreas Weiss gay-drama series, "Montagskinder", "Montagsgeschichten", "Von Mann zu Mann" and, of course now, "Berlin Boheme" outdate "QaF" by almost a decade. Even the interview that Graham Norton conducted with Andreas Weiss in Eurotrash, preceded "QaF". Oddly, "Queer as Folk" ended after one and a half seasons, "Berlin Boheme" is smashing on into its fourth season. And long may it continue. "Berlin Boheme" is excellent entertainment for those of us who are fed up with mainstream crap that drags it tits after only a few episodes.