The fifth season of the crime series “Murder with a View” starts on April 16th at 8:15 p.m. on Das Erste. In 13 new episodes, Cologne detective Marie Gabler reluctantly investigates various murder cases in the fictional idyllic Eifel village of Hengasch – she wants to go back to the big city. It is the second season with Katharina Wackernagel (45) in the lead role.
In the first three seasons (2008-2014), Commissioner Sophie Haas, who was also transferred to the province against her will, and her local police colleagues Dietmar Schäffer and Bärbel Schmied took care of solving the murder cases in Hengasch. The popular three main characters were played by Caroline Peters (52), Bjarne Mädel (56) and Meike Droste (44).
After an eight-year break from filming, there was a new beginning: in spring 2022, Erste broadcast the fourth season with the completely revamped team. This team with Marie Gabler, Heino Fuß (Sebastian Schwarz, 40) and Jennifer Dickel (Eva Bühnen, 27) was also able to inspire the audience and also impressed with good ratings.
“We were very happy about the brilliant audience response to the new start,” the broadcaster quotes the producer team around Jakob Claussen, Thomas Klimmer and Amelie Syberberg. The success is “impressive proof that the basic dramaturgical concept of Fish-Out-Of-Water with an urban world view in the village cosmos of Hengasch is timeless.” The filmmakers also see this as confirmation of “the power of regional storytelling.” Because hardly anything was changed in the setting of the series, the Hengasch universe.
When asked about the “Hengasch universe,” leading actress Katharina Wackernagel named the three most important points in a recent interview with the broadcaster:
“1. The Aubach, the village pub and rumor mill. 2. Chalet Schwanenstein, but unlike the pleasant name, this is not a castle, but the abandoned Hengasch campsite where Marie Gabler lives. 3. Foot and Dickel , heart and soul of the Hengasch police station.”
In the new season, fans can look forward to strange and mysterious things, among other things. “Everything in Hengasch is strange, of course; the mysterious stories definitely include a UFO landing, a repeating Saturday and a man-sized dead raccoon in the pond,” Wackernagel reveals.
“A real potpourri of mysteries and surprises: aliens, cuddly toys, returning ex-wives, love crazy people, corrupted footballers and marmots who greet us every day,” adds Sebastian Schwarz and adds in summary: “Insanity, but what beautiful insanity.”
And Eva Bühnen also oracles about the extraordinary episodes: “One can definitely be excited: because time cannot always be relied on and, in addition to sacred cows, completely other things find their way to Hengasch – one might think, from another world …”
In addition to the interpersonal quarrels, the first episode is all about Marie Gabler moving out of her chalet. But hardly any villagers want to rent to the commissioner. When Waltraut Runkelbach (Friederike Frerichs, 80) does find someone and shows the policewoman the apartment of an unpleasant tenant, the man lies dead in his bathtub.
But that’s not all, Marvin Hartwigsen (Stefko Hanushevsky, 44), the internal auditor from the Cologne police headquarters, actually threatens to close the Hengascher station – now the problems for the inspector and the village really begin…
