The TV comedy “Stromberg” made the mockumentary genre, a fictional documentary, big in Germany from 2004 onwards. More than ten years later, the series “jerks” with Christian Ulmen and Fahri Yardim surprised the audience with improvised texts.
The young creators of the Amazon hit “Die Discounter” combine both formats and are quite successful. From Wednesday (November 22nd) the streaming service will show the ten episodes of the third season.
The focus is once again on the young and work-shy team of supermarket manager Thorsten (Marc Hosemann), who, like Bernd Stromberg, goes through life quite clumsily in his private and professional life and is always concerned about his own advantage. For example, when he wants to come across as diverse as possible in a commercial for his discount store and inadvertently uses racist and homophobic clichés.
Or when he wants to impress the kebab seller with an order in Turkish and asks every halfway Arabic-looking customer for help.
It’s embarrassing moments like these where the series based on a Dutch format still shines. The protagonists’ often slightly bashful looks into the camera continue to be an integral part of the “discounter” humor, which primarily attracts young people.
In the third season, the team from the “Kolinski” supermarket has to move from Altona to the low-income Hamburg district of Billstedt. Store detective Jonas (played by theater actor Merlin Sandmeyer), who has become a fan favorite – including on social media – gets significantly more airtime.
Heinz Strunk with a guest appearance
Behind the improv comedy are the Hamburg twins Emil and Oskar Belton (24) and Bruno Alexander (24), who also conceived the series “Intimate”, which is not entirely suitable for young people, with two friends and their production company “Little Brothers”. For this, the creative filmmakers recently even received the television award jury’s sponsorship award.
The new “Discounter” episodes, which are very entertaining at around 25 minutes, also feature a few guest appearances. For example, from writer Heinz Strunk (“The Golden Glove”) as a strict supermarket manager who borrows some sayings from his character in the Ballermann series “Last Exit Schinkenstraße”. Football star Mats Hummels and singer Peter Fox have already appeared in previous seasons.
