Inspecteur Derrick

A true classic and without doubt one of the best known German 'Krimis'. I like the episodes from the 70's and early 80's best. Not only because of the sometimes hilarious nostalgia, but the episodes were - in relation to to the later episodes, that is! - fast-paced, and much less boring.

In the 90's, almost every episode concluded in philosophical chatter and most killers were obsessed with "the beauty of death". The series moved away from the whodunnit genre, simply because viewers could no longer guess who was the killer. Even the least obvious characters turned out to have a dark side. The nicest, least suspicious people suddenly turned out to be killing lunatics with no motive but some philosophical crap, and Derrick seemed more of a shrink than an "Oberinspektor". Also, the series moved from the people-next-door environment, mostly in the 70's, to the rich people exclusively in the 90's, which made it sometimes repetitive.

Nevertheless, if you like detective series, whodunnits, and last but not least the German "Krimis", I can recommend this, along with "Tatort" and the "Der Alte" series as a close second. These three were the most popular German cop shows in the 80's and early 90's.

Chief Inspector Derrick solves crimes in Germany in an hour each. I remember enjoying this series greatly growing up in India, most because the series always brought closure each episode, and never dragged out like most other Indian detective series. Often focusing on social, psychological, or 'why did he do it' kind of themes rather than your typical whodunnit, I have fond memories of Derrick. Horst Tappert has a commanding presence as Derrick, and together with Harry and Berger (I've always thought three was too small a team) gets the criminal in all the episodes I saw. 'Harry, Get the car.' is a line that comes immediately to mind when I think about the series.

Derrick remains my favorite long running detective series, one of the several out of Germany we had a chance to see on Indian Television.

I grew up with this series too. I probably started watching this when I was 4 or 5 years old, and watched it up until recently. I normally never watch German series, but this one was something special. Todays kids may find it antiquated and corny, but I like it.

Coming from neighboring Poland, I had two German episodes in my life, both spanning a couple of years. The first one was in the 80s. I remember "Derrick" from that period, watching it regularly together with "One Case for Two" and "Tatort" productions. It was a good entertainment and helped me to learn German. Additional attraction of "Derrick" at that time was the fact that I remembered Fritz Wepper (playing Harry Klein) from famous "Cabaret" and very exciting WW-2 drama "The River Line". After leaving Germany, I always tried to remember that period of my life by regularly reading German books and watching some German productions in the original language. That way I came across the episodes from "Derrick" from the 70s, which simply captivated me. I started to understand why this series became popular in several countries. It offered a new approach by showing who has done it (like "Columbo"), but the most original for me was a combination of the crime genre with that of social drama. Some of the episodes could have been made by famous directors of the Italian, French, or Czech schools, but "Derrick" never got over-sentimental or boring. Those early episodes have almost the power of watching documentaries about the 70s. So I put "Derrick" alongside my other favorite crime TV series like "Columbo", "Taggart" or "Wallander"..

This fantastic German 'Krimi' is unique because of its sterile depiction of murder investigation. Derrick's only weapon is his reasoning. He needs no gun to arrest suspects, he fires his arguments one by one at them, so that the murderer (often a neat & rich person) simply has to surrender. The settings are always great: cool, white villas, sleazy nightclubs and, as another commenter said, an absolutely spartan office. As far as I know there are no references to the families and friends of the protagonist and his introvert sidekick Harry, and you need a magnifying glass to find frivolities like humor. The sterility and formality of the series may be repulsive to some viewers, but I think it's a haven for people that are fed up with them Hollywood-influenced police series on steroids.

There are rumors that Derrick is back on Dutch television, so: "Harry, hol' den Wagen!"