Crime scene: Among wolves
This is what the audience can expect on Boxing Day
Lena Odenthal (Ulrike Folkerts, right) and Johanna Stern (Lisa Bitter) investigate the new "Tatort: Unter Wölfen" in the milieu of the doorman.
© SWR / Jacqueline Krause-Burberg
In "Tatort: Unter Wölfen" on Boxing Day, Lena Odenthal and Johanna Stern have to solve a murder in the bouncer scene.
On Boxing Day, the ARD relies on its longest-serving commissioner. In the "Tatort: Unter Wölfen" (December 26th, 8:15 pm, the first), the Ludwigshafen investigators Lena Odenthal (Ulrike Folkerts, 59) and Johanna Stern (Lisa Bitter, 36, "The Sleeper") deal with bouncers . With a murder in the club scene, the two immerse themselves in a world that Odenthal is almost doomed.
This is what "Tatort: Under Wolves" is about
Timur Kerala opened a new, hip club in Ludwigshafen and considers himself the new boss in the security business. But one night he is dragged out of his car and murdered. Lena Odenthal and Johanna Stern initially suspect that a competitor is behind the murder. Gerhard Arentzen (Thure Riefenstein, 55) quickly falls into the sights of the two inspectors. But he is not impressed by the events and considers himself inviolable.
Arentzen has excellent connections to politics, as government agencies are outsourcing more and more security tasks to private security companies. When Kerala's ex-wife Daphne (Annika Blendl, 39) and their daughter Tanja (Lucy Loona) are finally targeted and threatened, Odenthal pulls out all the stops. She is determined to hold Arentzen accountable and thus ends up in the line of fire herself.
Is it worth switching on?
Yes and no. There have definitely been better "crime scenes" with Commissioner Lena Odenthal. Your 72nd case, "Unter Wölfen", is only slowly getting started, although the basic story of looking behind the scenes of private security companies is actually exciting. Only towards the end does the thriller take off. The bosses of the security services with their expensive cars, attack dogs and bodyguards in black suits also seem too clichéd.
However, the idea of pulling up the crime thriller like a western is great – with Lena Odenthal as sheriff. "For me it is a 'crime scene' according to the classic Western mentality. And Lena is – in the end – the lonesome sheriff", explains director and author Thomas Bohn (61) the broadcaster. And in fact, it takes on a powerful opponent alone – including a showdown and a surprising ending.
According to Bohn, Ludwigshafen is ideal as a Western backdrop. "The many industrial structures that were built into a city for a very specific purpose give Ludwigshafen something hard and pragmatic." In the cities of the American West, beauty was also not in the foreground. "First and foremost, a city had to function. There was always something very inspiring about this tough aesthetic for me." The fact that the villain has set up his headquarters in an old train wagon also creates a Western feeling.
A supporting actor provides a little bit of surprise in "Unter Wölfen": none other than the former "Switch reloaded" star Max Giermann (45) slips into the role of club owner Peter Berg in "Tatort". Even if the scene is only a few minutes long, it should still be a highlight for one or the other.