Oktoberfest: Beer & Blood

...and this is the most luscious, condensed, fun to watch account of how it could have been when the former "quaint and grubby" Wiesn turned into gigantonomy, something utterly reflective of an industrial age reaching an early fruition point.

The depiction of typical Bavarian-style exclusionism on the one hand, sociability on the other is spot on. An endeeringly raw, crude, diverse look at the changing-of-the-guard unscrupulousness that marked the turn of the last century. While some performances seem strangely (purposefully?) over- or underacted, some story beats a bit oversimplified, overall level of production, direction and acting is spectacular, especially for a German production.

Grumpy critiques in the vain of "well, that's not how it was" would be mistaking verissimilitude for truth. This is fiction at its best, grandiose, pompous, an exuberant bouquet of fascinating characters.

The show will move to netflix in a few months where predicting an international mega success would be no witchcraft.

This is not a billion $ Hollywood production. But they were able to create an 1900 atmosphere with detail and a story that keeps you enthusiastic. I expect a season 2 to come.

...but it's pretty entertaining and an easy watch in just six episodes. The producers take some bare-bones history of the 1900 Munich Oktoberfest and gussy it up with Peaky Blinders-style violence, sex and gloriously squalid settings (as others note, production values are top notch). The storyrunners do a good job of closing off most of the plot lines by the final chapter but things end on a somewhat ambivalent note - keeping the door wide open for season 2. And please, watch it in German with subtitles - and maybe have a lager while you do.

This is a highly entertaining and dark story about love, intrigue and murder around the the 1900 Oktoberfest.

It's beautifully shot and the actors are top notch! Clearly this is aimed at an international audience and I'm sure there will be a second season!

This is very loosely based on real events. "Loosely"? Maybe I should say infinitesimally. The character of Curt Prank is meant to have been based on that of a real person, Georg Lang, who erected the first large beer tent at the Oktoberfest. However, that person was not the first one to have had the idea of installing a large-capacity facility there, but he was more persuasive than his predecessors.

Money has been spent on this production. The sets are lavish and cover a huge area although at times one can see that the inns and attractions are simply facades - there were a few careless camera shots.

For dramatic interest, the characters and their motivations have been sensationalised. Even in turn-of-the-century Bavaria struggling under a mentally-ill king, I doubt that rich, important people could have been bumped off or beaten nearly to death without proper investigations and then repercussions.

I didn't know that, as part of its "place in the sun" that Germany had colonised Samoa. This gave an out to the murderers in the story. It's a real indictment of the times, though, in the attitudes towards the "savages" who earnt their living by pretending to be cannibals.

There's scope for a second season although I don't know if one will ever be commissioned as this was meant to be a mini-series. If one came out, I'd certainly watch.