Spuren

This miniseries was inspired by - but not a retelling or adaptation of - a series of murders in the south of Germany and Austria several years ago. The setting is a prosperous set of villages where virtually everyone knows everyone else which led to tensions and missteps in the investigations.

Things were pretty true-to-life inasmuch as even in the most beautiful of environments ugly racism reared its head on more than one occasion.

There was only going to be one way to solve these crimes and that was by painstaking police work, not inspired guessing. The special team assembled ticked all the boxes and came through in the end.

I really enjoyed this as much for the settings as the twists and turns and ups and downs of the investigations. I hadn't been sure I'd like it but I did and would recommend it.

'Spuren' is rather different to a normal crime drama; it's closer to a reconstruction of an actual murder investigation. As someone who visited southern Germany a lot during the late 1990s, I can vouch for the accuracy of the aesthetics; and the story is also very believable: the investigation is slow and hard and characterised more by gradual shifts in direction rather than wild turns in the plot. The relationships we see between colleagues have a slightly hackneyed feel in places but are also believable. It's actually quite refreshing to watch a series where not every detail has obviously been placed to set something else up. The underlying tale is of course decidedly bleak; to see if they caught the perpetrator in the end, you'll just have to give it a watch.

This is not an action-packed police procedural thriller but nor is it a cozy 'Krimi' full of comic relief and overly laced with the characters' private lives. Based on real events but without becoming a docudrama, while it lacks the intrigues and cliffhangers of made-for-TV plots it still has enough suspense surrounding the meticulously pursued forensic trail to make it a worthwhile watch. For fans of police procedurals it's a down-to-earth window not only on the way the police work in rural Germany and collaborate with their European counterparts, but also an insight to German culture. Fluent speakers of German will enjoy the soft tones of the regional dialect, while for others, the subtitles leave nothing out. For fans of all types of the serious side of the genre it is well directed, well acted and it won't disappoint but if police procedurals are not one's thing, then best give it a miss rather than a poor review.

This four part German series is inspired by real events that took place in southern Germany. As it opens a young woman goes out for a jog; she does not return and is reported missing. The police, many of whom know the local community well, start a major operation to find her. Eventually a body is found and suspicions about the identity of the killer are raised... then a second woman is murdered; the MO might be different but police fear they may be dealing with a serial killer.

I thought this was a solid drama. The pace might not be fast but that suits the story as it captures the fact that real investigations take time; often a long time. There are some events that defy genre conventions in an interesting way. The cast does a fine job and the setting is, as one has come to expect of the genre, quite scenic. I'd certainly recommend this to fans of Euro-crime.

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

This must be the most unexciting crime thriller I have ever had the misfortune to watch. Totally bland cinematography, numb acting, implausible dialogue, actions and reactions from every single character throughout. No suspense whatsoever, no leads for viewers to follow, hardly even any red herrings. Why anyone greenlighted this project is the only real mystery here.

These problems are shared with many "based on a true story" dramas, but rarely has less effort been made to create something worth watching.

Series like Heimat and many others have shown that even Germans can create great drama, but this is just a huge dissapointment.