Pastewka

If you know a little bit German I recommend watching "Pastewka" on amazon prime - especially the first five seasons are hilarious!

It is loosely inspired by "Curb your Enthusiasm" with Larry David but it does not take place in fancy Beverly Hills but in a somewhat run down apartment building in an also somewhat run down residential area in Cologne.

And that's a good thing!

Pastewka lives in that house with his girl friend, his brother, niece and an annoying female student downstairs.

The first five seasons are the best, because they are quirky, funny, totally political incorrect, intelligent and just hilarious.

You also feel like at home in that apartment building with these crazy Pastewkas and their entourage.

In season six they all move to the outskirts of Cologne into some fancy big house.

Season six and seven are still very good, but now they live in a boring posh area and all the fun and craziness of living in a diverse inner city area is gone from the series.

In season eight Pastewka and his long-time girl friend (finally!) split up, he lives in a RV, all the sympathetic and quirky characters in the Pastewka universe are gone and the series becomes almost depressive.

All the fun of watching this show was completely ruined.

The only good thing is that his annoying girl friend is gone too (and the bad actress who played her).

She was as much hated as the wife of Bryan Cranston (Walter White) in "Breaking Bad".

Can you imagine "Curb your enthusiasm" suddenly taking place in some boring midwestern suburb without Leon, Jeff, Susie or Funkhouser, while Larry lives alone in a RV???

Sounds extremely stupid but that's exactly what happened with the "Pastewka" show in season eight.

It became so bad so that I almost left the show then and there.

But fortunately it became better during the second half of season eight and season nine and ten are really great and hilarious again.

If it were not for his annoying ex-girl friend showing up again.

And I thought they had finally gotten rid of her!

Well, that's what fast-forward was invented for.

Other than that, I highly recommend this series :)

Unfortunately even the two last seasons (8 & 9) which are ok can't change my negative impression regarding 1-7. My main gripe with this series is how unsympathetic each and every character in this series is. They are labeled as family, friends and colleagues but each and every interaction between them is filled with venom. It is pretended that Bastian is the central egoistic character while I don't see anybody in there who's not.

I enjoyed the show. Very funny and I'm not german so I leaned new stuff. Would definitely recommend someone to watch it who is looking for a good laugh.

Outstandig german comedy serie.

The first 5 or so seasons are somewhat conventional comedy with standalone episodes (all of about 30mins). With continuity what concerns the actors and figures, but lesser what concerns the overall story. Nevertheless, it is not the usual comedy delivering cheap laughs every 2 minutes. The hole serie has excellent and very elaborated scripts with good stories, which slowly build up to fewer funny moments. In this regard it is an intelligent comedy with limited, but mature jokes that are really funny. No cheap, cheesy sketch-like usual stuff, nor the usual sitcom-like rushed action. Also the background stories do reflect a variety of everyday human conditions. Season 8 was a somewhat different approach with fewer explicit comedy elements, more focused on telling an odd and strange story, I still liked it. Season 9 switched to complete continuity of the story and IMO excels also with a somewhat hidden criticism of the shallow productions of the german TV, which in fact is very dependant on the contributions of the state TV under public law and fees.

A very good serie. And it has to be said, within german standards, absolutely outstanding. An exception within the flood of conventional, political correct and boring german series, where there seems to be truly a conspiracy for a focus on the inflational production of mediocre or average BS.

An insider tip for foreigners settling in the german language area and getting used to it.