In the new “Tatort: A Friend, a Good Friend” (November 13, 8:15 p.m., the first), everything revolves around the topic of friendship, as the title suggests. But even a cold-blooded murder occupies Prof. Dr. Karl-Friedrich Boerne (Jan-Josef Liefers, 58) and Commissioner Frank Thiel (Axel Prahl, 62). A lawyer is found dead in his office and it seems the mafia is involved. While Thiel takes up the investigation, Boerne has to deal with completely different problems.
Prof. Dr. Karl-Friedrich Boerne gives a farewell speech to his old and good friend Friedhelm Fabian (Jan Georg Schütte, 59) and his wife Veronika (Proschat Madani, 55). The two want to move away from Munster. Commissioner Frank Thiel, assistant Silke Haller (Christine Ursprechen, 52) and prosecutor Wilhelmine Klemm (Mechthild Großmann, 73) are at the celebration and listening to Boerne’s words. Meanwhile, on the other side of town, a dissatisfied client threatens his lawyer Nikolas Weber (Hadi Khanjanpour, 40).
The next morning, Thiel is called to the office and finds Weber dead. This looks familiar to him – it is the house and court attorney of Nino Agostini (Claudio Caiolo, 56). The commissioner would credit the mafia boss with the murder. But the murdered man’s former colleague, Erik Nowak (Hendrik Heutmann, 39), is also suspect. Because he spent the past few weeks in a psychiatric clinic. But right now he is visiting his father on a farm in Münster.
Meanwhile, Prof. Boerne is struggling with the consequences of the long night of partying. Haller did not escape the fact that Boerne mourned almost more about Veronika’s departure than about Fabian…
Definitive. The most recent Münster “Tatort: Propheteus” (March 2022) tried to score with an unusual story about potential extraterrestrials and conspiracy theories. But the plan didn’t work out – many fans were disappointed and couldn’t do much with the thriller and the unusual story. In the new case “A friend, a good friend”, those responsible have refrained from experiments. Instead, the viewers are treated to an exciting and rather classic thriller.
For this, the screenwriter who has already written the cases “Mirror, Mirror” (2018) and “Long Live the King!” was brought to the side again. (2020) was responsible for. In the new case, Benjamin Hessler (born 1978) sheds light on the legal scene and focuses on the topic of friendship. The latter is defined in the script as “a form of love, that is, as a mystery,” as Hessler explains to the broadcaster. “Like love, friendship is essentially non-rational, and can be just as blind.” And that is exactly what is almost fatal to Prof. Boerne in the film.
The camera and editing team around director Janis Rebecca Rattenni (39) provides special moments. Because the regularly used split screens are well placed, make the thriller fast and make it look modern. The biggest challenge at the Münster “crime scene” is, however, “finding the balance between crime and comedy,” Rattenni knows. That was wonderfully successful in “A Friend, a Good Friend”. Fans of the duo Boerne and Thiel get their money’s worth, because the friendly exchange of blows between the two is not neglected.
A small flaw, however, is the portrayal of mafia boss Nino Agostini. Unfortunately, the character is too cliche. The wealthy Italian sitting in his villa adorned with columns and statues is a bit too much of a good thing. Otherwise, the supporting actors, above all the improv star Jan Georg Schütte, are convincing across the board. You’re groping in the dark until the end, which keeps the tension high. In summary, it is a Münster “crime scene” as most people would like it to be.
