“Days That Were Not” tells the story of the death of a sadistic principal. The ingredients for success, elite women’s group and crime, work.
Anyone who has devoured the series “Big Little Lies”, “Vorstadtweiber” or “Desperate Housewives” should not miss the new German-Austrian TV series “Days that didn’t exist”. The first shows the first two of eight episodes on February 14 at 8:15 p.m.
Don’t be fooled by the cumbersome title, which perhaps would have been better if it had been subtitled, because what the audience is served here is absolutely worth seeing. It’s about dramatic relationship issues, settling accounts with merciless powerful people and things as terrible as a dead child and a dead elite school principal. In a typically Austrian manner, all the bitterserious things are told with lots of pointed situational comedy and intelligent puns.
That’s what “Days That Weren’t” is about
The morning image of black SUVs and sleek sports cars in front of the “Sophianum” makes it clear: this is where parents take their children to an elite school. Among them are Miriam Hintz (Franziska Weisz, 42, “Tatort”), Doris Hauke (Diana Amft, 47, “Doctor’s Diary”), Inès Lemarchal (Jasmin Gerat, 44, “Croatia Crime”) and Christiane Boj (Franziska Hackl, 39) – four women who have been friends since their own school days at the “Sophianum”. Together they have lived through ups and downs, joys and sorrows, successes and defeats. They are close, but there is also something between them.
Miriam, a successful prosecutor and mother of three, has secrets. They not only cause her marriage to Joachim Hintz (Andreas Lust, 55, “The Ibiza Affair”) to fail, they also force Miriam to make a decision.
Doris successfully manages a trucking company. If it weren’t for her dominating mother Berta Hauke (Jutta Speidel, 68, “Um Himmels Willen”), who in turn messes up Doris’ life with her secrets.
After years in Paris, Inès returns to Zollberg – “the richest community in the country,” it says at one point. She hopes that her old home will now also be that of her family. Her drug-addicted son Olivier Lemarchal (Etienne Halsdorf, 23) sees things differently.
Writer Christiane deals with what is probably the worst loss a mother can suffer. She finds her way back to life in small steps, but does she also find her way back to her husband Filip Boj (Stefan Pohl, 42)?
And as if that wasn’t enough, Commissioner Elfriede Grünberger (Sissy Höfferer, 67) and her colleague Lukas Leodolter (Tobias Resch, born 1996) from Vienna unexpectedly appear to investigate an old death: “Paul Paulitz falls from Paulsdamm to the Paulstal”, for the discarded investigators, this cold case is about the question of whether it was an accident, suicide or murder. The investigation into the death of “Sophianum” director Paulitz (Harald Krassnitzer, 62, “Tatort”) puts the trust and solidarity of the four friends to a hard test – keyword: “I know what you did”…
Brilliant script and surprising cast
The intelligently knit, exciting and never blatant plot with pointed dialogues and many flashbacks was penned by screenwriter Mischa Zickler (b. 1966, “Tatort: Die Faust”). Little funny scenes loosen up the nightmares, dramas and injustices again and again. An example:
After a suggestive comment from her 14-year-old daughter under a social media photo, Doris (Amft) and her husband, Sebastian Gerlinder-Hauke (Rick Kavanian, 52, Bullyversum star) want to know if the daughter is already having sex. “Are you having sex?” Doris asks without any warning. “It’s an ambush,” the daughter tries to appease. “Can you please answer your mother’s question?” Sebastian demands. Sarah Hauke (Niobe Eckert, 16) counters this very slowly: “Do I have sex? – That’s such a nice question, an answer would make it completely worthless …”
By the way, Kavanian is one of the big surprises in the cast, which is not lacking in surprises. In “Days that didn’t exist” those responsible for casting actually showed courage and not only hired the Bully co-star as a likeable and completely stupid husband, father and TV chef. Hamburg’s Wanja Mues (49, “A case for two”) is also convincing as Inès’ French husband, Etienne Lemarchal.
Another big surprise in the cast is Jutta Speidel as the dominant head of the family. You’ve never seen her like this before. The styling, looks and demeanor are reminiscent of Meryl Streep (73) as Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada (2006). And the Austrian Sunday crime star Harald Krassnitzer has probably never been as evil and sadistic as he is here.
Speaking of which, this is all as of the first four episodes. This film team around the directors Anna-Katharina Maier (born 1984) and Mirjam Unger (52) would also be able to believe that in the end the friendly TV chef Sebastian (Kavanian) is the killer or maybe the grandmother of the commissioner, who spends hours with travels by train to give the granddaughter a home-baked cake at the train station and then drives back again – another one of those fine little ideas…
If you can’t wait until the last episode is broadcast: All eight episodes have been available in the ARD media library since Sunday (February 12).