Spuren des Bösen

I am trying to get into this, to overcome the so far unpleasant female police detective. The 5 rating given here by one reviewer expressed. Some of what I feel. I chose it for the 8 IMBD rating but there were only 3 reviews so it may be deceptive.

Beautifully done...in everything. Strange that some rated this show low and complained that it IS SLOW...not sure what they expect, Star War movies or something?

First, there's the lead, Heino Ferch: tremendous presence and excellent actor. (If you happened to see Downfall, he played Albert Speer.) Plenty of great supporting actors. Secondly, thoughtful and intense stories, in my opinion; he is a tortured but arrogant psychologist, not a detective. It is deadly serious so if you prefer wise-cracking, quirky detectives and happy endings, seek elsewhere. Set in Austria with gorgeous backdrops despite its admittedly downbeat tone.

If you love Vienna, you will love this one. Brock is cool and stories have necessary twists. Supporting characters and their actors sehr gut. But Wien is the best part. I particularly love Brock und Tochter jogging park, always giving a nice Flakturn shot!

This is a slow and heavy going series at times but it will eventually get to the point at the end. The main character is a grim looking man who walks around in a long dark coat, looking a bit like an unemployed vampire. The plots take a long time to get to the point, and seem to draw heavily on angst ridden people whose lives are really quite messed up. The supporting characters like the innkeeper and housekeeper play roles that seem to have no real bearing on the story and one can only wonder what their actual role in the series might be. The camera technique focuses a lot on extreme close ups of eyes, ears, and mouths, and with what appears to be a minimal use of makeup, the results can be quite disastrous at times as every skin blemish is exposed. My guess is that this is made for a very specific market, and therefore would not be a huge success globally.