Tobler and Berg are not necessarily the most fiery "crime scene" investigators. As an alternative to all the over-the-top big-city cases, that's actually totally fine. However, for the second time in a row, the creators are confusing reduced speed with yawning boredom.
There is probably no other television format in Germany with such fluctuating quality as "Tatort": Sometimes there is really good television entertainment, mostly there is mediocrity at the end of the week and every now and then there is an absolute total failure.
But no matter how good a case is (in the eyes of the critic), writing about it is actually always a nice job - if only for the lovely mail you get when readers disagree.
It's different with "The Looks of Others", and unfortunately not in a good way. Sure, 3 out of 10 points in the quick check, that basically calls for a slating. Followed by the question of what has become of the Black Forest "crime scene" that started so promisingly after nine episodes and a corresponding review. But that would simply be a bold copy of the review that colleague Ingo Scheel wrote in February about the last case in Breisgau: At that time there were also 3 out of 10 points for "Sara's confession", among other things because the main suspect "with a mixture of telegenic sadness and a fair amount of indifference".
The main suspect in the new case has a different name, but apart from that there is a high risk of déjà vu: "Sandra Vogt (Lisa Hagmeister) behaves completely apathetically and seems hardly interested in what is happening," we state in the current quick check. In both films, this is a rather unfortunate directorial decision, after all, commissioners Tobler (Eva Löbau) and Berg (Hans-Jochen Wagner) are not the most fiery investigators on Germany's streets by nature.
Already clear: The Black Forest "crime scene" was created from the beginning as an alternative to the sometimes over-excited big city cases. But a reduced pace and less investigative extravagance don't have to mean a loss of suspense. The fact that SWR is now dishing up such joyless fare for the second time in a row is a bit perplexing.
It's a particularly bad thing, because the subject deserves a better narrative: "The Views of Others" tells a family tragedy and wants to raise the question of where we stand as a society. What holds us together, what separates us, how our life together can look like in the future. But for all the big questions, this "crime scene" is more than a size too small. To quote my colleague Scheel again: "In the end there is helplessness and the hope that things will soon pick up again in the Black Forest - in general, what a backdrop that has increasingly receded into the background, yet it is so promising."
