Tatort (lit.: crime scene) is one of the oldest German TV series there are. It's a weekly Sunday ritual still observed by millions.
I could never get into it. I found it boring, like most German crime shows.
Tatort is an anthology series. The episodes are 90 minutes long. Every week you have another team in another German city and you come back to the same team and the same city only two or three times a year. And eventually, a team will be phased out and be replaced by a new team and a new city.
Every team has its own style and even you have a new team in an old city, it'll never be the same.
So, naturally, fans will argue ad infinitum who was the best team ever in the history of Tatort.
Tonight, episode 949 will be aired (the first episode was aired on Nov 29th, 1970). And the Tatort will be in Münster with Hauptkommisar (lead inspector) Frank Thiel and head of forensic pathology Professor Karl-Friedrich Boerne, M.D..
This is the only Tatort team I watch and enjoy. They have two cases each year since 2002 and this is their first one this year.
These two are like an old bickering couple with Boerne being the sophisticated opera goer and Thiel being able to enjoy a good game of soccer while nursing a bottle of beer on the couch (Thiel is originally from Hamburg and only rarely gets to see his minor league club in the stadium).
The cases the're working on are only a plot device for these two to play off each other. I never really cared who the murderer is (Well, I don't care on Castle either).
And now it's 8:15pm. It's Tatort time!
