Die Cleveren

One of the most interesting German crime series consists of a pilot film and a total of six seasons of eight episodes each. Interestingly, the last season was three years in the making. Yet these were not the only problems that affected broadcasting around the world. Today, the complete series is available on DVD, and in addition to the brilliant psychology doctor Dominik Born (Hans-Werner Meyer), we can also look forward to all three of his colleagues, i.e., the chief police commissioners Eva Glaser (Astrid M. Fünderich), Isabel Becker (Delia Mayer), and Katrin Rasch (Esther Schweins). Dominik has a very interesting relationship with each of them, so in addition to the cases, which are mostly solved by initially profiling the perpetrator, there are also some sharp dialogues and here and there some decent playful team shootouts with the professor-pathologist Konstanze Korda (Barbara M. Ahren). She is wonderfully jealous of Dominik and thus none of his partners have it easy with her. However, some episodes are quite harsh and others truly require knowledge of the previous plot, although it shouldn't be a problem to randomly start watching the series. I started out that way myself, and now I mainly return to episodes that mix serious cases with internal irony and humor. I could recommend most of the episodes, but I mostly prefer the following from the third and fourth seasons: Jungfrauenschnaps, Der Vampir, Stuttgart Rot, Zwillinge and the double episode Die Göttin. The final sixth season features three double episodes and if you really want to enjoy the series, watch Kinder to the very end. Besides having an interesting case, a few private stories are also resolved. (01/25/2009)