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katherine_b at 09:13pm on 20/01/2005
katherine_b at 09:13pm on 20/01/2005I watched this first episode of the series "The Elephant" (Der Elefant - Mord verjährt nie (The Elephant - Murder never goes out of date, a reference to litigation laws in Germany)) which just aired on SBS and I think it was fantastic!
The premise: Matthias Steiner is a detective who works on cold cases who has a photographic memory. Shame on me, I haven't seen the US "Cold Case", so I can't compare the two series, but I thought this had all of the great elements of CSI, but with a slightly healthier dose of inter-departmental rivalry and without one person doing the work of several (at least in this first episode). Steiner and his partner, Julia Gerling, are joined by Andreas Zier, who seems to have a slightly different agenda. They are being pushed by Frau Dr. Krueger, the team's boss, who during this episode managed to get information that hasn't been provided by Steiner or Gerling, with the assumption being that Zier was giving it to her.
The first episode: Steiner is drawn to a case that he had been briefly involved with six years earlier when a girl is reported to have been found in the streets. It turns out that she has the same name as the child who was murdered in this earlier case and is the younger sister of that dead sibling. Steiner takes her home and finds other weird things - the living little sister (Suzanne) is dressed the same and has hair and necklace the same as the deceased sibling. He has the body of the original Britte exhumed and finds that she was poisoned, as the toxicology report stated, but also that there were other poisons not picked up on the scans at the time. The mix of drugs convinces him and his team that Britte could not simply have gone into the cellar and accidentally drunk the poison, as was first thought.
Questioning the family doesn't get them far, except accusations that their lives are being ruined again (they have moved house since the original event, and the mother went so far as to go to Switzerland to have Suzanne. The family consists also of a second sibling, Nicole, who was about sixteen when Britte was murdered. Steiner and Gerling question the family and also Nicole's former boyfriend, Claudio, who says that he loved Nicole, but that Verena, Britte's mother, felt that he wasn't good enough for Nicole and that she was just a trophy for him. She argued with him (incidentally at the same time Britta was ingesting the poison of garden pesticide and anti-freeze, among other poisons) and although he wrote to her, Nicole never wrote back to him.
A red herring is thrown into the path with the revelation that the father, a piano teacher, had a conviction three years earlier for sexually assaulting a seven-year-old girl. Krueger at once gets a warrant for his arrest for the murder of Britte, but Steiner is not convinced that it was the father, believing him when he says that the child's mother overreacted. Taped interviews with Britte (before her death, naturally) show that her father never played 'bad games' with her. The father is released without charge.
Nicole, however, discovers that her mother had planned to call the police and charge Claudio with having sex with a minor (Nicole, who was under-age at the time). The family begins to break apart, as Steiner had thought would occur, and Steiner himself begins to suspect that Britte was not the intended target of murder, as no one seems to have motive. There has to be a more likely victim - such as Verena.
It is discovered that Nicole went with her mother to Switzerland, where Nicole was sent to a doctor - but not a psychologist, as Steiner had first assumed. The doctor is a gynaecologist. Nicole was pregnant. Claudio, it seemed, had had sex with her, as Verena had thought, and Nicole gave birth to the second Britte, her 'sister' Suzanne. It seems that Nicole could no longer deal with her mother's control and also the truth about her daughter and filled one of her mother's chocolates with poison. Verena was distracted by Claudio and Britte ate it instead. Then, when Claudio wrote to Nicole, Verena hid the letters.
*whew*
*emotionally drained*
Great show though!
One of the nicest things is that, although the pilot episode (which aired tonight) was first shown in Germany in 2002, the rest of the series only aired last year, so hopefully, if they make a second series, we should get it relatively soon and not be too far behind, as we are with American shows.
The premise: Matthias Steiner is a detective who works on cold cases who has a photographic memory. Shame on me, I haven't seen the US "Cold Case", so I can't compare the two series, but I thought this had all of the great elements of CSI, but with a slightly healthier dose of inter-departmental rivalry and without one person doing the work of several (at least in this first episode). Steiner and his partner, Julia Gerling, are joined by Andreas Zier, who seems to have a slightly different agenda. They are being pushed by Frau Dr. Krueger, the team's boss, who during this episode managed to get information that hasn't been provided by Steiner or Gerling, with the assumption being that Zier was giving it to her.
The first episode: Steiner is drawn to a case that he had been briefly involved with six years earlier when a girl is reported to have been found in the streets. It turns out that she has the same name as the child who was murdered in this earlier case and is the younger sister of that dead sibling. Steiner takes her home and finds other weird things - the living little sister (Suzanne) is dressed the same and has hair and necklace the same as the deceased sibling. He has the body of the original Britte exhumed and finds that she was poisoned, as the toxicology report stated, but also that there were other poisons not picked up on the scans at the time. The mix of drugs convinces him and his team that Britte could not simply have gone into the cellar and accidentally drunk the poison, as was first thought.
Questioning the family doesn't get them far, except accusations that their lives are being ruined again (they have moved house since the original event, and the mother went so far as to go to Switzerland to have Suzanne. The family consists also of a second sibling, Nicole, who was about sixteen when Britte was murdered. Steiner and Gerling question the family and also Nicole's former boyfriend, Claudio, who says that he loved Nicole, but that Verena, Britte's mother, felt that he wasn't good enough for Nicole and that she was just a trophy for him. She argued with him (incidentally at the same time Britta was ingesting the poison of garden pesticide and anti-freeze, among other poisons) and although he wrote to her, Nicole never wrote back to him.
A red herring is thrown into the path with the revelation that the father, a piano teacher, had a conviction three years earlier for sexually assaulting a seven-year-old girl. Krueger at once gets a warrant for his arrest for the murder of Britte, but Steiner is not convinced that it was the father, believing him when he says that the child's mother overreacted. Taped interviews with Britte (before her death, naturally) show that her father never played 'bad games' with her. The father is released without charge.
Nicole, however, discovers that her mother had planned to call the police and charge Claudio with having sex with a minor (Nicole, who was under-age at the time). The family begins to break apart, as Steiner had thought would occur, and Steiner himself begins to suspect that Britte was not the intended target of murder, as no one seems to have motive. There has to be a more likely victim - such as Verena.
It is discovered that Nicole went with her mother to Switzerland, where Nicole was sent to a doctor - but not a psychologist, as Steiner had first assumed. The doctor is a gynaecologist. Nicole was pregnant. Claudio, it seemed, had had sex with her, as Verena had thought, and Nicole gave birth to the second Britte, her 'sister' Suzanne. It seems that Nicole could no longer deal with her mother's control and also the truth about her daughter and filled one of her mother's chocolates with poison. Verena was distracted by Claudio and Britte ate it instead. Then, when Claudio wrote to Nicole, Verena hid the letters.
*whew*
*emotionally drained*
Great show though!
One of the nicest things is that, although the pilot episode (which aired tonight) was first shown in Germany in 2002, the rest of the series only aired last year, so hopefully, if they make a second series, we should get it relatively soon and not be too far behind, as we are with American shows.
drained
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