Deutschland 83 - General Discussion

[Irlandesa]

I finished the series.  It was another good season.  I was surprised the most tense moments came with Tina. 

I thought the Valdez part of the finale was bizarre and felt out of place but the ending montage was pretty powerful.

[eejm]

I absolutely loved Nina and Hartmann showing up at the end.  I really hope those two are a couple.  It would be perfectly bizarre and bizarrely perfect.

1 hour ago, Irlandesa said:

I finished the series.  It was another good season.  I was surprised the most tense moments came with Tina. 

Ditto, I really enjoyed Tina’s story in both 86 and 89.  I’m a little surprised there was no cameo from her brother this season.

Edited November 21, 2020 by eejm

[TimWil]

When exactly did the time jump from November 1989 (the opening episode when the Wall fell) to March 1990 take place? I thought the events of this entire season only occurred over the course of a few weeks at most.

I was a tad annoyed at Walter saying to grandson Max that he was impressed about the youngster faking tears at his father’s “funeral.” The poor kid did actually lose his mother only days before so why wouldn’t his tears have been genuine? I do like how in German “actor” is “schauspieler.”

Deutschland ‘92: Mr. and Mrs. Schmidt could be fun. I’d like to see Martin/Frank get drunk with Yeltsin and Tina finding Kristof reduced to selling drugs in a Moscow nightclub.

Edited November 23, 2020 by TimWil

[Yeah No]

On 11/21/2020 at 11:29 PM, TimWil said:

Deutschland ‘92: Mr. and Mrs. Schmidt could be fun. I’d like to see Martin/Frank get drunk with Yeltsin and Tina finding Kristof reduced to selling drugs in a Moscow nightclub.

I expected it, but I was sorry to see the series end.  I would have loved it if it were a regular series just continuing indefinitely.  There are just so few things I like as much as this on TV anymore.  I wasn't unhappy with the ending, although it was a little anticlimactic.

[Roseanna]

On 10/22/2018 at 2:22 PM, John Potts said:

He is deceiving everyone around him with the ultimate aim of bringing down the West German State. I'm not denying he's doing it for the right reasons, but that sounds pretty villainous to me (and yes, I would say the same about the Jenningses, or James Bond when he acts against foreign governments).

Not at all.  How could he?

The real danger in the first series is that both sides are afraid of the other side that they believe would attack them. From the perspective of East German intelligence they are only preparing for defend their country. Martin's job is to get the precise information, not only about the weapons of the other side but most of all what their aim really is.  (Cf. the episodes in The Americans when the uncertainty after the murder attempt on Reagan who is now in charge in White House makes the Soviet believe that there had been a military coup in the US that is going to attack the USSR.)  

In the second series the matters are gets really muddy. Needing sorely currency in order to survive as the Soviets can no more help them, the East Germans compromise their ideology: they let a Western medicine company to test a new medicine with their patients without their knowledge and use the cover of "Love Boat", cruising prizes to excellent workers (pointing both an American series and the Nazi cruising arranged by "Kraft durch Freude", ie. "Strength through Joy") to carry weapons that West German company has sold to the South Africa's apartheid government (albeit with a plan to let ANC to rob them). And one HVA officer even send a coded warning about an bomb attack aimed at American soldiers in West Berlin.  

In the third series the CIA wants recruit some of those HVA officers who have lost their job! 

On 11/3/2018 at 7:48 PM, Gillian Rosh said:

I love how much this show continues to surprise me.

That!

Plus, characters are really many-sided.

[Roseanna]

On 11/21/2020 at 6:13 AM, eejm said:

Ditto, I really enjoyed Tina’s story in both 86 and 89.  I’m a little surprised there was no cameo from her brother this season.

Yes!  And I really hate her interrogator. The actor was a good choice: he could present so many faces: from a dad troubled for his sick child and a sympathic listener to the cold manipulator ("the truth would harm his children") and a dark accusor ("bad mom", "criminal").

He really has a black heart. He didn't just "follow orders", he surely could have got another job but I guess there were benefits he didn't want to lose. Before all,  he showed no remorse.

Instead, Tina acted according to the doctor's ethic when she refused participate in doubtful things. After her family was denied the permission to legally leave her country (which is a basic human rights), she and her husband made a bold choice that would have succeeded without a coincidence (radio program where Tina's tapa was presented). They did nothing immoral, It was the state that did. 

[Roseanna]

On 11/22/2020 at 6:29 AM, TimWil said:

I was a tad annoyed at Walter saying to grandson Max that he was impressed about the youngster faking tears at his father’s “funeral.” The poor kid did actually lose his mother only days before so why wouldn’t his tears have been genuine? I do like how in German “actor” is “schauspieler.”

Max' mom had lived a long time in Moscow, so probably she had become a stranger to him, she just continued to be "away" like she used to be.

The grandfather's words that Max would play "real" seems to imply that Max would become a spy, too.

For of course the end (the Cold War has ended, spies are no more needed) was ironic. 

[Roseanna]

To me, the worst was the scene where Valdez tortured Martin in order to make him confess - it didn't matter to him whether he was guilty or not.

Leonore was an ideological fanatic, but Valdez showed how the Cold War made men worse.  

[Milburn Stone]

I got turned on to this show last week by the Streamageddon podcast. (Which I recommend.) So I'm only about halfway through the first season.

The thing that keeps going through my head is, how could a show be so much like The Americans, and yet also feel so fresh. It's definitely the same experience; and some of the incidents could be taken out of one show and dropped in the other, and vice versa. Yet I have none of the been-there-done-that feeling that usually comes along with that.

[Milburn Stone]

On 11/3/2018 at 10:11 AM, wanderingstar said:

Great episode! All the action in the refiinery in Angola was great. And that tableau of the soldiers and Gary grabbing for the money, then shooting each other over it - don't know if I have ever seen anything like that on TV before. 

That tableau! It was like a Jackson Pollack. I love that they held on it so long--long enough to study it as a work of art.

[Milburn Stone]

A heads-up. Through sheer luck I returned to finish up watching the final season a couple of nights ago, and saw "Expires Monday" as a little tag in the corner of the show's avatar on Hulu. So if you still have episodes to watch, it would seem you have 48-72 hours to watch them.