Kohlrabenschwarz

In my opinion, this weird little show is definitely one of the best German productions from recent years. Mostly set in Bavaria, it follows a psychologist working for the police who stumbles upon an increasingly unsettling series of cases. The common nominator: All crimes are committed by people following old myths and fairytales.

While the show mainly consists of mystery/crime elements and the general tone is rather dark, it does not take itself too seriously. There are a lot of humorous moments as well. The characters are (mostly) charming and somewhat unusual.

The cast, led by Michael Kessler, is magnificent. Not that many "big" names, but it looks like they were born to play those roles.

Visually, I loved it. There are a lot of beautiful shots and locations and the calm camerawork fits the story very well.

The first season is a little short (only 6 episodes, around 40 minutes long), but it makes for a great binge watch. I hope we get to see more soon.

Having already known the Audio-play (with mostly the same actors, some of them in different roles) I very much enjoyed the visual adaption of one of the most impressive german production in younger TV-History i have seen.

Set in Rosenheim, it might be inevitable to think and wait for the "Rosenheim-Cops" , a rather light-heartet german crime-Series. Well, "Kohlrabenschwarz" couldn't be more different. Very dark, sometimes too dark for me (I was warned ;)).

The opening reminds me of the weeping angels (don't know if that reference was intended) and the music of it (as of the whole series) is spheric and fits very much to the pictures, apart from... well the Leimotiv is (in a different version) already known from an "Bernd-das-Brot"-Show. That is a bit irritating.(But not a reason to take a star from that review) In Episode 3 there is one bigger scene simply done for the show: Schwab reading the book in the Church on the pulpit . Well, that is a bit too.. well how to say... obvious. And I wonder why are they always chasing the murderer at night

So I give 9,5 of 10, very much hoping for the next seasons to come soon. Thank you everyone who was involved in this. I want more. Much more

PS: Each of the actors is cast perfectly. But knowing the voice of Christian von Aster as Erdmann this is the only moment I couldn' forget that it started as an audio-play.

The show tries to create some gruesome circumstances and situations and then removes much of that weight with intersparsed humor. Unfortunately, this balancing doesn't quite work here. As a comedy it's much too underplayed and as dark fantasy it doesn't let you suspend your disbelief. They should have gone all serious and left out all the relationship and workplace bickering.

Kessler does a surprisingly good job as the rattled psychologist considering his mostly comedic resume but some other comedy actors are clearly miscast, like Alexander Schubert.

The scenes are very dark sometimes but the setpieces are beautiful and ominous.

Overall, it's an enjoyable watch but there's nothing that warrants repeated viewings.

To be honest, I don't watch a lot of German film productions because frankly, many of them are full of clumsy dialogie which throws me off and keept me from getting immersed in the story. I only gave "Kohlrabenschwarz" a chance because it was created by Tommy Krappweis, whom I knew to be a fantastic author with refreshingly-creative ideas, capable of writing thrilling stories, which - in contrast to most other German productions - would never lack a good amount of clever humor.

All of that would not have been worth anything if the actors hadn't delivered a convincing performance, but luckily, every single casting choice was a brilliant one, and I honestly was hooked from the first minute on.

When you throw a thrilling crime drama in a blender along with some mystery and a good deal of humor, that's when you get Kohlrabenschwarz. I know it sounds weird to combine these three, but trust me, this show is SO worth your time, and I almost dare to _promise_ you that you'll be well entertained.

I wish there were more German shows of this high value.