A psychiatric evaluator is found strangled in the trunk of her car. The dead woman most recently worked on reassessing Hansi Pagel’s mental state. The man is in prison and was convicted of violence against his wife Andrea and his children. The report could have resulted in his release. Many people wanted to prevent this: starting with Andrea Pagel and her son Leo, who are happy that the aggressive Hansi is locked up. His roommate Milan Vukovic also has no interest in him staying behind alone. Doctors also still consider the choleric Pagel to be dangerous. Inspectors Franziska Tobler (Eva Löbau) and Friedemann Berg (Hans-Jochen Wagner) investigate in the forensic clinic. There they come across some irregularities.
In many episodes of this crime series, you have an early suspicion as to who the perpetrator could be. It’s different in this case: The creators (written by Stefanie Veith, directed by Stefan Krohmer) have created a thriller that is exciting right up to the end and leaves you in the dark for a long time as a viewer.
Setting a film in a psychiatric hospital always runs the risk of exaggerating the characters. In this “crime scene” it is not the patients, but above all the doctors who are portrayed bordering on ridiculous. Sometimes you don’t know exactly what is delusion and what is reality, who is the patient and who is the therapist.
How do you continue to work together when you end up in bed with your colleague? Commissioners Tobler and Berg managed to do well what many people fail in everyday life: despite their one-night stand, they have a functioning working relationship. Friedemann Berg even flirts with the fact that he has an open relationship with his colleague. In the end, Franziska Tobler even helps him cover the roof of his parents’ house. Afterwards they sit together over coffee and almost look like an old married couple.
This has become rather rare in “Tatort”: an exciting crime thriller that invites you to puzzle along. So tune in!
Tobler and Berg recently investigated these episodes:
