Jaccaleaut

The show frequently shows nice views of the city of Leipzig.

I'm afraid that this is the only favorable remark I can make about this show. It is probably the worst murder mystery series I've ever seen. All cases are extremely unrealistic (much more than usual) but appear to be meant realistic. Each storyline has a complete turning point every five to ten minutes (makes 4-5 such surprising developments per episode). This means that the end is not usually predictable but despite that I could never feel any suspense.

The actors are unable to alleviate the abstruse and convoluted plots. Their characters are the generic combination of some young inspectors (presumably deemed attractive, of both genders) and a senior supervisor. None of them creates the impression of an authentic police officer. Again, this may be due to the hopeless stories. But maybe not.

This series is about the retired police inspector Hannes König, concerned with murders in and around the lovely town of Bamberg, Oberfranken, Northern Bavaria. He is helping (or helped by) his successor, the young and all but conservative Axel Hübner. The cases are as realistic as you would expect from an above-average TV series, and this might be actually reason enough to like the story.

But the special charm of this series lies in the way how the peculiarities of Franconia (Franken) are depicted. It starts with the vineyard where König lives, continues with the distinct dialect of the coroner and various other characters, and culminates in an authentic presentation of the savoir-vivre in the area. I don't know any other series that represents Franconia in such an intriguing manner as this one.

Transfer Miss Marple to Bavaria, and this is what you get. Of course, it can't be bad (as long as you like the style of Agatha Christie). The cases that Sophie Mayerhofer has to deal with could just as well appear in an Agatha Christie novel or in "Sophie"'s American counterpart "Murder She Wrote" which was not canceled after only one season.

But somehow, I can understand this. Similar mystery series had their great time in the 80s, and "Sophie" just came out too late. Second, the characters remain indistinct and can't really appeal to the viewers. This is sad because actually the cast is fine: Enzi Fuchs was an excellent choice for the part of Sophie (though she had some rather dumb parts in other TV series), and Jörg Hube as her brother and police commissioner has always been a good actor.