Kleo

Throw together Kill Bill, Killing Eve, the 80s, the 90s, rolled up blazers, techno space ships, a red suitcase, Jellla Haase, Dimitrij Schaad, and East Germany.

Mix it all up, shake it well, add some sunshine, palm trees, and over-the-top flame-throwing, and you come over to the other side of the Berlin Wall. With delight, excitement, entertainment and pure fun.

This is a wonderful retelling of parts of life in East Germany and some secrets that are just shy of being true. Maybe what you see is true. And maybe not. But then again when you're rolling with the punches with such mirth does it even matter?

To not watch this show is a mistake you must not make. Ignore Kleo at your own peril.

Auf Wiedersehen.

That actor absolutely killed it with his character, Sven. It was for me the star of the show. He is so expressive and his comedic timing is spectacular. Why Hollywood didn't take better notice of his talent, I don't know it yet. He had a small part in Killing Eve, but I think he deservs more notorious works in the mainstream. I hope to see him in more English speaking productions. Another performance that I found amazing was the deranged character of Uwe. I wish he had a longer participation in the series, his parts were very short between scenes. Last but not least is the main character Kleo, with a strong resemblance to Villanelle in Killing Eve but a bit less psycopathic. An excellent performance from Jella Haase.

This eight part German comedy-drama opens in 1987. Kleo, an assassin working for East German State Security, the Stasi, goes on a mission to West Berlin where she kills her target in a night club. The authorities there believe the dead man overdosed but a single policeman, Sven, who saw Kleo prior to the death believes it was murder and provides a sketch. Nobody takes him seriously but a copy of his sketch makes its way to the East. Here Kleo finds herself arrested on trumped up charges. She is jailed and remains there until the wall comes down two years later. Once released she is determined to get revenge on all those who betrayed her and determine why they did it. Meanwhile Sven sees her picture among files of recently released Eastern political pictures and it determined that he will arrest her for the 1987 murder.

I really enjoyed this series; it blended drama with humour successfully and is set at an interesting time in German history; the short time between the wall of the wall and reunification of the two Germanys. The humour doesn't get in the way of the drama; much of it is provided by Kleo's accidental housemate Thilo, a perma-stoned West German, who claims to be from the planet Sirius B, planning to introduce techno music to the East before returning home, and at other times is fairly subtle, like the squeaky footwear Kleo wears on one job. The drama works too; there are plenty of tense moments and even a degree of tragedy. The cast is solid; especially Jella Haase as Kleo, Dimitrij Schaad as Sven and Julius Feldmeier as Thilo. Overall I'd certainly recommend this.

These comments are based on watching the series in German with English subtitles.

I am a big fan of the Deutschland-83, -86 and -89 shows that have been released on Amazon Prime in the past years. Those shows are about the Stasi, the secret service of East-Germany. This in the times just before and after the Berlin Wall fell.

In Kleo - released by Netflix - you get a similar atmosphere of the above-mentioned Deutschland-shows: the look-and-feel just transports you back to the end of the 80's and beginning of the 90's.

What is however totally different is the dark humour that is included in Kleo. The screenwriters clearly were inspired a lot by the movies of Quentin Tarantino. I see especially back elements of Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill.

When I started to watch the show, I really was very sceptical during the first episode. I honestly have to admit that during the first 15 minutes I had no clue of what to make of this show. But when I was in the second episode, I was sold to the show. It is absolutely a more than worthwile watch.

I should also note the surprising good acting of the main actor Jella Haase. She really does an outstanding job. This since she had to play al lot of different roles as a assassin in disguise. I truly enjoyed how she played all those different roles...

Dark humour. Often farcical killings. A German mix between Nikita and Kill Bill.

Jella Haase is very good here.

The choice of music scores is spot on.

Entertaining and fun.