Der Tatortreiniger

This is a character driven sitcom. Might be too much dialog for some people. I like it a lot. The humour is quirky and subtle. Whether Schotty is dancing in a bunny costume for extra cash,getting back some Nazi bullies or stuck in a magicians chest with a gay man talking about their hopes and dreams , there is never a dull moment.

I'll just endorse Laura's excellent review above and keep this very short.

Der Tatortreiniger is outstanding -- a seriously funny series with plots that are a wonderful combination of the surreal and the mundane and writing that is breathtakingly clever. Bjarne Madel and the guest actors in each episode deliver the rapid-fire lines with perfect throw-away understatement.

It's rare to find myself laughing out loud almost all the way through any show, let alone each one in a series. What a treat! Thank you MHz indeed. Can't wait for the DVD release.

Found this on MHZ a couple of years ago and was immediately enamored with it. Laugh out loud surprise moments are my favorites here, those times when out of nowhere, something absurd will happen, often something shocking or even terrible, but within the context of the plot, truly funny (the show gives us permission to laugh at these absurd moments, despite the often tragic circumstances preceding them). When that happens, I'm glad the show is subtitled so I don't miss the dialogue that's occurring when I'm laughing. I really started to appreciate it after about 3 or 4 episodes, at which point I realized that one is really a little morality play. But its morality is not foist upon you, Instead, it draws you in, dipping its toe into the human condition with humor, and along the way invites the viewer to do the same. The shows often end abruptly, but the result is that the 'moral' center of the episode sticks with you. It brings you to the point where you really start thinking about the particular topic of the day, and then it leaves you there. I.e., It doesn't finish the thinking for you. It explores some often compelling moral and philosophical issues, and the diversity of human beings, with humor and, importantly, compassion. That balance makes it and its stories accessible and not "preachy". I hope MHZ shows more recent episodes (the last 2 I watched were from 2014) because I'm really curious to see how the show evolves.

The show is very good. Most of the times.

Some episodes are better than others but the writer has a brilliant mind with a dry and dark humor.

This is not so often to get from women writers. I was surprised that the scripts were written by one person. There are so much bizarre situations and pointy dialogues that I thought that have to be a team.

The acting is good and some of the guests for example Viviane de Muynck in Tauschgeschäfte do outstanding work. It seems to me that they saw a chance for an impressive performance and used it.

The directing is not much to mention. And it looks like the show has not much money. But that is not important because the best thing is the good writing.

Very German seems to me that the show has to go a long way to get to its right place in the public. It seems to be hidden in the corner of the NDR. As someone said correctly. There ore not much funny shows in Germany.

Bjarne Mädel displays his acting abilities once again, yet this time he'S not playing a man child like he did in Strommberg. This time he's the every-man with a rather unusual job. He's the one who get's paid for cleaning up crime scenes. However it ain't the cleaning that's entertaining , it's the people with whom he gotta deal while cleaning up. Nazis,Vegans,Murderer,Reality TV Stars,Shaman Priests, just to name a few. The jokes are sometimes on him, and sometimes on the person that he encounters. Right now "Crime Scene Cleaner"(or Der Tatortreiniger" in German)is one of the few good German productions on television. other memorable German TV shows are:"Circus Haligali" and "Walulis Sieht fern"