Deutsch Plus

I've just finished watching season 1 and am pleasantly surprised. Far better than expected, this neat series is both helpful and entertaining. A tad irritating with repetitions initially, it's generally nicely paced and not as stiff as most German courses. I found it more than watchable - a bit cheesy, but entertaining nonetheless. There's humor(and not too "Krautsy" at that), romance, suspense, daily routine, and the gorgeous shots of Koeln's skyline. The script is well-written, albeit not devoid of some stereotyping. I'd be inclined to compare it to a soap opera, which is probably the ceiling plot-wise for any foreign language course series. Plus it's got that awesome, early 90s feel about it. Mullets, floppy disks, VCR tapes, etc, this one took me back to my childhood days.