At first glance, everything seems perfect in the life of Evita Vogt (Laura Louisa Garde): huge house, charming husband (Golo Euler), two cute children. The mid-thirties makes her money as an influencer and has built up a huge fan base. Under the name “MagicMom” she shares every detail of her everyday life as a mother with her followers. But then Vogt is found hanged in her kitchen. Chief Inspector Frank Thiel (Axel Prahl) and Professor Karl-Friedrich Boerne (Jan Josef Liefers) find out that it wasn’t a suicide. So who had the successful businesswoman on her conscience? Thiel and Boerne encounter a jealous neighbor, a competing influencer and numerous haters that Evita Vogt dealt with online. In addition, it turns out that there was also a crisis in the Vogts’ marriage.
Societally critical, dark, difficult topics: Many “crime scenes” were recently not suitable for a relaxed Sunday evening. The Münster duo has always been different. How Boerne and Thiel are discovering the internet and the social media world in their own way this time is fun. Thiel, for example, does not understand what all the videos that Evita Vogt posted on her profile are supposed to do. His assistant Mirko Schrader (Björn Meyer) explains it quite simply: “Money.” And the fact that the term “beef” does not stand for beef, but for a tangible dispute, is also completely new to Thiel. Boerne, on the other hand, with his huge ego, already senses the great career as an influencer. Director Michaela Kezele and screenwriter Regine Bielefeldt created TikTok-like clips in which Boerne speaks directly to the viewer and shares his wisdom. A stylistic device that fits the topic and provides variety.
As modern as the film wants to be in terms of the internet and social media, it unfortunately comes across as old-fashioned in some of the comments on the subject of gender justice and equality. Boerne etches that probably no woman would be familiar with physics. Assistant Schrader calls a suspect “bitch” and Thiel is “annoyed” by the whole gender issue. The fact that public prosecutor Wilhelmine Klemm (Mechthild Großmann) wants to create a position for a sensitivity officer doesn’t really justify all the sayings. You could have just left it.
Thiel and Boerne are like an old married couple. They have been investigating together for 20 years. In their new case, things are comparatively harmonious between the two, even if Boerne occasionally presses ahead and divulges investigation internals without permission. For reconciliation, there’s an ice cream at the Münster harbor. In the end, the decisive clue to solving the case does not come from the two men, but from Boerne’s assistant Silke Haller (ChrisTine Ursprechen).
Light fare on Sunday evening: The “Tatort” from Münster delivers an hour and a half of escapism – feel free to tune in.
Thiel and Boerne recently determined in these cases:
