Babylon Berlin Season 3

I loved the first 2 seasons. Really gave a great sense of the time and place.

I really do wish they had done more with the drag-king singer

Oh good. I've been waiting for it to come back. Anybody know if that Italian series, was it Suburra?, is coming back?

Is it all in subtitles? Did it originally air in Germany?

The drag king singer is in the new trailer.

Bump

I’m trying hard not to stay in all day and binge watch.

Can’t wait. Excellent series.

Voluptuous Panic is the perfect companion book to this series. I hope we see some homosex this season. Gays flocked to Berlin in the '20s as there were sex workers to satisfy any fetish you could think of and some you never imagined.

Thank you OP

ive tried thrice to view it.....alas...….zzzzzzzzz

how rude, the episode where the man hid in the shit hole , to escape the killers. arrrrhhhhgggg

The new season is a little confusing so far. I can't quite figure out who this handsome mustachioed daddy is who got released from prison.

I like the new biug song for season three, sung during an Ufa film shooting close to the beginning of episode 1.

*new BIG song--sorry

The daddy is named Walter Weintraub, and has some sort of relationship (familial?) with the Armenian.

the woman who plays Betty Winter, the actress who is murdered, looks sort of like Chita Rivera in the 1970s.

In episode 4 a fat old walrus forces a guy to blow him. That is not the kind of homosex I wanted to see.

The storyline of Season 3 is a mess. I still enjoyed the acting and it was worth watching but nowhere near as good as 1 and 2.

The book it's based on is not as good as the one used for S1/S2. In spite of that, it was still a good watch.

It was heaven, pure heaven😽

A falling-off from the first 16 episodes, alas. The mock expressionist horror-musical is ludicrous, as is the serial killer plot.

Graf, the gay character, has a more significant role. It's like the producers finally realized there were actually 100K gay men in Berlin in 1930.

The politics is spot-on, though.

I can live with season 3 being of slightly lesser quality, because Volker Bruch remains a hot piece of ass. Speaking of which, there wasn’t any male nudity this season, was there?

R15, the guy who is released from prison is the brother of the Armenian, who is a hot piece of arse. I love this series. The quality of the production is fantastic. They did a superb job at recreating Berlin in 1928/29.

The police commissioner who was killed at the end of season 2 was played by an actor whose father was Willy Brandt, the famous West Berlin/West German politician.

Ugh, the tension leading up to the execution was exquisitely painful.

[quote] the guy who is released from prison is the brother of the Armenian, who is a hot piece of arse.

Yes, he's really hot. I can't believe he was in love with his best friend/or brother's wife. Man, she was hard to look at. They couldn't case a better looking actress?

[quote] The mock expressionist horror-musical is ludicrous

I'm glad they inserted that in because the movies of that era-- German Expressionism-- were historically significant, they were over the top and wierd but they greatly influenced future cinema. It showed how decadent and strange life was during the Weimer Republic before the fall and the rise of Hitler.

R25 You’re right. Berlin in 20s and early 30s was place of all kinds of so called strange things. Everything was possible. Art and culture were ultra modern. People wanted to try weird tough things, also sexually. Very open minded city. Gays were accepted and all kinds of sexual adventures were happening. If one wanted something different Berlin and Paris were places to be. Sadly it ended in mid 30s when evil darkness filled Berlin.

Season 3 was a hot mess.

R27 In what ways? I think its a very dense show that makes you work hard to follow it and requires a lot of a viewer, but they did a great job of wrapping up a few of the threads that hark back to the start of the series, some threads like the movie studio they introduced this season and launched a foundation for the future seasons.

Our two leads keep evolving in quite likely ways and the actors give wonderful performances that continue to draw me in and route for them, and while there is some possible future relationship tensions, it is very subtle and not a dominant arc. And foremost it is visually stunning both in its interiors, street scenes and natural settings. That meeting in the woods of yellow aspen trees between the guy who setup the maid and the heavy who has all the power was breathtakingly beautiful and then heart breaking.

[quote] [R25] You’re right. Berlin in 20s and early 30s was place of all kinds of so called strange things. Everything was possible. Art and culture were ultra modern. People wanted to try weird tough things, also sexually. Very open minded city. Gays were accepted and all kinds of sexual adventures were happening. If one wanted something different Berlin and Paris were places to be. Sadly it ended in mid 30s when evil darkness filled Berlin.

Indeed it was. Last summer, while in Berlin, I went to a museum exhibit about the life in the Weimar Republic. Among other things, it was a very sexually liberated place, the likes of which were not seen anywhere else until, maybe, SF and NYC in the late 60's-early 70's. The government funded institutes for research of human sexuality, one could buy gay/lesbian magazines at newspaper stands, etc.

R28, when you write a thoughtful comment like that, I realize how lazy my comment is. To clarify, the serial murder story line was sloppy and overwrought for me. I think I was so impressed by Seasons 1 and 2 that Season 3 seemed inferior by comparison. Of course, it's still better than 99% of what's produced today. The costumes alone -the simplicity of all that everyday brown and grey and tweed- is so interesting.

Besides being so beautifully disturbing, this show has helped me understand German politics a little better. The decadence of Wiemar Germany is shocking and there will never be another Berlin like that.

Pretty good show, but the lack of perfume is astonishing! Lol, strange article of what perfume they would have worn during the days of Babylon Berlin.

I am not through the entirety of season 3, but I do find the film really annoying. German Expressionism was early 1920s. It was already passe by 1929. I also hate that it appears that they are introducing a "Hel" character to save the film. The film Metropolis was two years earlier; so, the idea of a robot had been done before.

It also really irks me that none of the women wear makeup unless it is a nightclub scene. None of the women wear makeup during the day.

Apparently, how could that type of film-making be passe if Metropolis was made in 1927? The talkies came around late 20's. The weirdness and decadence of that era persisted until Hitler completely took over (around 1930s) and the filming represented the mood of that time.

Why would women wear makeup during the day? The female protagonist and most of the females represented are poor and makeup was probably not worn on a regular basis. Makeup was probably expensive and made from harsh chemicals in those days. The actress wore makeup occasionally.

R33, You seem to be conflating two comments into one. German Expressionism in film was 1918+ The Cabinet of Dr Caligari was 1920. The version shown in Babylon Berlin with the painted shadows and weird angles was certainly was passe by 1929. As camera movement and editing is continued longer.

Metropolis is not really German Expressionism. There are a lot of styles in the film to represent the various levels of society. The prevailing design styles are modernism and Rudolf Steiner style organic architecture, not German Expressionism. Again, you do not see the DR Caligari style design elements that are used in the Babylon Berlin Film.

Below is a list of German Expressionistic films. Note that 8 of the 10 films are before 1925 and that the description of Metropolis acknowledges that the film combines many different styles. (The same reason that the 1920 film Destiny was left off the list, which is a pretty good indication that Metropolis was shoehorned into the list even though it really doesn't belong there.)

As for using the 1927 robot "Hel" trope in the Babylon Berlin film would have been considered lazy writing and derivative in 1929.

One of the defining elements of Weimar decadence was the use of makeup, often heavily. Makeup was advertised in the most ordinary women's magazines of the time. The actress that Charlotte Ritter is sleeping with would wear noticeable makeup. Pancake makeup so heavy her skin did not show. Rath's wife would wear some makeup, at least face powder and a bit of rouge. Her hair would be styled as well, not the shaggy mess she wears. Esther Kasabian's makeup is modern day, not 1929. The communists would not wear makeup, obviously. The producers seem to be taking the opposite approach and have no makeup or styled hair rather than risk being anachronistic or alienating viewers be using accurate makeup. I guess this goes along with the use of newly composed music rather than period music.

Can't believe Charlotte underwent the ultimate DL fantasy of getting spit-roasted by a group of German soldiers and no one has mentioned it so far!

Yeah, and she got to keep her day job as State's detective.

^^This is one of the plotholes of the series. Charlotte needs more money so she works part-time as a dancer/prostitute and doesn't feel like it would jeopardize her job? What if someone recognizes her?

Just catching up to this thread.

• Walter Weintraub is not the Armenians' brother, BonniePrinceCharlie, he is is best friend and partner in crime (literally in this case.)

• Walter is having some sort of affair with the Armenian's wife Esther, it's unclear whether it's just flirtation and kissing or if it's more. Walter and Esther appear to be Jewish as well.

• Other than a DL Aspie, the movie subplot made sense from a storytelling perspective as it played up how avant garde Berlin was at the time, just before Hitler came to power. Plus it looks great from a cinematic POV

• Many women in Berlin worked as prostitutes at that time, it was not as shameful as it would be today. The economy was a shambles and they needed to eat I guess.

• The series diverges pretty sharply from the books. In the books, there is no Helga, Anno remains dead and Charlotte and Gereon are a couple from the start--she is a middle class girl who is in law school, but who wants to be a policewoman and she and Gereon meet that way

• That said, the plot about the serial killer and actresses and movies is the plot of one of the books, it's just be rejiggered for the series

• Graf is not gay in the books and there is a sort of gay sex scene with him and his boyfriend but it's very, well, German.

• The subplot about Anno in the series is the only part that's confusing--still not 100% sure if it's supposed to be real or a figment of Gereon's imagination, given that Anno seems to exist below the streets of Berlin.

• The scenes with Moritz and the Hitler Jügend show you just how organized the Nazis were and how they were embedding themselves into German society long before they came to power.

• The Horst character pretty clearly seems to be a reference to Horst Wessel of the Nazi anthem, the Horst Wessel song-- Wessel was also involved with a prostitute named Erna whom he'd met in a tavern and was also killed by a heavily tattooed communist in his apartment

The contradiction of that time and place -fastidious Catholic Germany and the tolerance for whores and drugs- is fascinating.

R39, only the area around Munich is staunchly Catholic. It is not as if the Lutherans are any more tolerant of prostitution, but Germany is not a Catholic country.

It's a gorgeously filmed series, but half the time I had no fucking clue what was going on.

Cologne too R40--that is actually a plot point in the book and the series, that Gereon (who is named for some medieval saint) is Catholic and his parents are religious and here he is in Lutheran Prussia and suddenly being Catholic makes him something of an outsider.

Loved the Wendt actor, aka Scarface. Very handsome.

That was a nice gay happy ending for the photographer.

Glad Rath finally split up with that skaggy sister in law.

Is Psycho Nikoros in season 3?

Just finished the series, really enjoyed it. A bit messy but overall I thought it was terrific. I read the book it's based on (The Silent Death) and as said above the series really departs from the novel. Babylon Berlin is one costume drama where the costumes don't look like costumes. The clothes look authentic, unobtrusively so. Unlke other dramas like Mad Men or Downton Abbey. The gay cop's critic boyfriend skewered the pretensions of the silly expressionist movie, calling it out of date, nice touch. Anyway, I miss the show already.

The opening scene, with the nearly catatonic Rath coming down the staircase as corpses appear all round him, had me from hello. (Is it too DL to admit it also reminded me of Scarlett ascending the staircase in GWTW in high dudgeon, while all around her is the clamor of the start of the war?)

I concur with R28 about the atmospherics, but also point out that the scenes where the Nazis are in the ascendent contrast sharply with all the other scenes. It's all been dark, drab and poor, or else the dark glamorous expressionism of the movie and the nightclubs, but suddenly when we're with the nascent Hitler Youths or with Wendt in his own environment, everything is clean, crisp, widescreen and colorful. (Also true back in Season 2, of the sequence when Greta meets the boys on the island, who turn out to be Nazis.) I find this a fascinatingly counterintuitive approach, since script-wise they are by no means stinting on the evil the Nazis represent. In fact, one of the interesting things about this season was hearing all the "old guard" who are still in power unable to get any kind of imaginative grasp on how far it could go. A bit like listening to our own politicians a month or two ago.

I think the clean, crisp scenery is meant to represent the sanitizing intentions of the Nazis. Superficially they wanted to pull Germany out of exactly what we've been looking at in this show, and into health, sport, Wagner operas, Aryan good looks, military discipline, etc. That was the surface, and you can see the appeal, especially to the middle class. But the show already has the NSDAP completely pegged as getting their real power from taking every advantage they can of the muck, and adding to it.

Thank you YMF (R38). I have not watched the entirety of Season 3, so I was making an educated guess as to the relationship between the Armenian and his business partner.

To add to what others have already noted...people experienced many things in the twenties: experimentation and liberation in the visual and performing arts, architecture, music and in their personal lives. You cannot underestimate the impact of the First World War on Germany, but also on many other countries. In America, there was the expression, "How are you going to keep them down on the farm, after they've seen the lights of Paree..." The twenties were in many ways more liberating than the sixties.

Yes, as this series shows well, there is this tremendous tension between experimentation/liberation and a still very conservative society. The twenties were Janus-faced.

Just now watching the ambush on the truck where the assassins used American Thompson sub-machine guns. Seemed very odd. A very quick google search doesn't find any link for this weapon to Wiemar Germany.

Why would a German production sop clearly concerned with authenticity have their characters import very expensive American ordinance when 1920s Germany had been producing its own SMGs since 1918.

R38, wasn’t Anno the guy who conducted that “mental telepathy” forum where the subject went nutso and one of the cops vomited?

Speaking of bodily fluids I’d swallow every drop of teutonic joy juice from the actor who played Wendt. That is one fucking hot daddy. Ice blue eyes, cleft chin-wowza.

Season 4 has to be something of a time jump. Season 3 took place in way too narrow a time frame (five weeks).

Why, r50? If they jump too much they jump right up to the Reichstag fire and then forget it.

R51, the Reichstag fire was in February 1933. I think the time jump should be from 1929 to 1932.

Poor Gräf and/or his lover will no doubt be sent to concentration camps before the 1930s are over.