Friedefeld

When I heard about "Friedefeld," I was initially skeptical. German animated series often face prejudice, but I was curious about this new attempt by ARD to present something fresh.

The animations are average, but by no means bad. In terms of content, the plot is rather random. More effort could be put into developing more complex plotlines to fully harness the series' potential. Another aspect that bothered me was the strong reliance on American humor in the dialogues. As a German production, this series has the opportunity to align more with German humor and address German themes more boldly. Nevertheless, there are many parts that made me laugh.

ARD has taken a bold step towards innovation. The show deserves recognition for its willingness to break new ground, even if it is admittedly not perfect. A promising future lies ahead if a more nuanced mix of German humor and daring themes are incorporated in the next seasons.

"Friedefeld" is really something special - an animated comedy that finally dares to be different. The series is not only mega funny, but also addresses a lot of topics without taking itself too seriously. You can tell that something new is being tried out here that hasn't often been seen in Germany. If you like biting, quirky and cleverly written animation, you should definitely check it out! What particularly impressed me: You can tell that the makers have done their homework - they know the international masters of the industry, they definitely know what's going on - but they still have enough self-confidence to trust in their own handwriting - and this gamble works out in the end, much to the delight of the viewer.

A lot of things remind me of Bojack Horseman, like the animation style and the Asian assistant, but that's not a bad thing. There are actually some really good moments that made me laugh. I absolutely cannot understand why some people think it should be rated worse than 5, perhaps the meta levels and allusions are not obvious to everyone, you should assume a bit of brain and general knowledge. For a first attempt, I think this series is surprisingly good and I would watch season 2. I would like 5.1 sound, as the sound design is correspondingly complex, so you shouldn't skimp on it. Or does the series already have that, just not in the ARD Mediathek?

This show feels super low budget. The animation looks like it could have been done by a single hobby animator on YouTube. The sound and dub quality is wacky and unprofessional. I do like the characters, many of the jokes and aspects of the storyline but the comedic timing was so off a lot of the times and it just doesn't feel like the director had a lot of experience because the overall experience of watching the show felt so off and like it was produced by amateurs. I don't know the production background so maybe there were a lot of inexperienced people working on a small budget so I don't want to hate on their work. I do think the show could have been way better with a better production quality because I feel like the writers have potential. They just couldn't develop it in this show. Overall the show is not good, but it's not horrible. I didn't hate watching it, it's just lacking quality.

The german animation genre is a ruin, this show is a further proof for it. This is show is one of the worst things I had to see for a long time.

The art style (if one can call that art) is abysmal. If you think Brickleberry or Paradies PD was badly drawn, this takes the top of ugly. Soulless, bland and uninspired. It looks like a very late 90ies flash animation by some (talentless) amateur. Even if with a tight and limited production budget one can create a decent look, shows like Bojack Horseman (which they are clearly inspired by) are a good example for it.

The animation consists more or less out of talking heads, some janky body movements and camera tracking shots where they seem to have forgotten how to ease in bezier curves.

The audio sounds at certain times like voice actors recorded it via skype on low quality. A lot of standart sound bites where used (which would be fine) but were not properly mixed down.

I wont get into the "story". They try to copy current adult animated shows, which would be Ok for me. If done well like Stromberg, Die Discounter, etc., which where clearly copies or inspired by well known shows, but worked well on their own because they understood the source material and added their own spin on it. But with this show it seems that some producer had a field day taking the fun out and tone it down for the german state tv (at least I hope that's the reason for it). It tries to be edgy but in such a cringe way that I am ashamed to concider myself a german.

Whoever greenlight this should be fired and I seriously asking myself if this is not an attempt to launder public fundings. Germany has so few 2D animated productions, none of them dared to be for an adult audience until now and I am afraid this attempt will be the first and already final nail in the coffin. Germany has a lot of talented artists, animators and filmmakers, young and old - I guess none of them were involved with this production. Shame.