Thuringia, a little more modern

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A new crime series from Thuringia should “enrich” the ARD Thursday evening in 2023 – and that could actually be something. The now repeated opening film “Death on the Rennsteig – Eye for an Eye” starts off a bit too “big” with ritual and serial murders, but is based on an interesting team and definitely strong nuances.

No place, no matter how small, no matter how remote it is in Germany, can hide when the crime thriller designers on local television are looking for new locations. Three years ago, the Rennsteig had to believe in it, a destination previously known more for hiking routes than ritual murders. But what is the provincial accusation? In the beautiful state capital Erfurt, which has a population of around 200,000, there is actually the LKA unit of operational case analysis (OFA), which is now being repeated in the first film of a planned MDR crime series “Death on the Rennsteig – Eye for an Eye” (director: Maris Pfeiffer, book: Jens Köster).

In principle, this is a team of “profilers” who take on or advise on difficult cases in the region. In “Eye for an Eye,” viewers enter the very special world of the OFA through the eyes of the newly arrived psychologist Annett Schuster (Kristin Suckow).

A refrigerator on the Rennsteig

On their first day of work – as the crime cliché would have it – there is a large refrigerator on the Rennsteig overlooking the Wartburg, in which a victim known as “Richter Merciless” is dead and tied up in a prayer pose waiting to be found. OFA head Marion Dörner (Anne-Kathrin Gummich, the mother of actress Nina Gummich), Jan Kawig (Bernhard Conrad), Sabine Limmer (Berit Künnecke) and forensic pathologist Vanessa Sun (Jing Xiang) investigate the bizarre murder. However, not without scattering a few relationship clues between the lines.

“Wow, you’re so beautiful,” is the first thing the doctor says to the new psychologist on a forest path – and in this tone it continues every now and then between the “pure” crime plot. In the OFA team, which is strongly female and sometimes diverse to fluid, you can hear lively, clever dialogues and modern self-reflections, which are also well acted. These moments contrast the more conventional processes as far as the crime thriller is concerned.

An author who knows how to do it

The strong women are joined by the somewhat shy Jan Kawig (Bernhard Conrad), a trained carpenter and living alone in the country, who goes to church with his lunch break sandwiches to think and is a home-loving Thuringian through and through. With the actor Bernhard Conrad, who himself comes from Weimar, the currently very popular Berliner Kristin Suckow (“Ottilie von Faber-Castell – A Courageous Woman”) and acting professor Anne-Kathrin Gummich, in whose “sausageous” authenticity you can also, funnily enough, recognize her daughter, the production has a great cast together, which is also completely equipped with Eastern roots.

Because of these strengths, you shouldn’t be put off by the first 30 to 45 minutes of “Death on the Rennsteig”, whose hunt for a serial killer (after the refrigerator death, other religiously contextualized victims follow!) is a bit too grand. A less large crime world with boldly labeled profiler vests, CSI echoes and David Fincher moments would probably have fit better with the tranquil, pretty Thuringian ambience. After the team introduction and breathlessness of the case subside a bit in the middle of the film, the crime thriller offers above-average complex characters and pleasantly clever dialogues. The experienced screenwriter Jens Köster (“ZERV – Time of Reckoning”) is responsible for this.

Real Eastern biographies you can touch

The bottom line is that the first episode of “Tod am Rennsteig” (director: Maris Pfeiffer) leaves you with a somewhat ambivalent impression. One recognizes ambition and potential, but the fear of exploding expectations when it comes to the conventionally “breathless” criminal case is still a little too great here – which makes the new ARD Thursday crime thriller a hybrid between “surprisingly inspired” and “extremely conventional”.

With 6.63 million viewers and a total market share of 23.8 percent (for boys it was 9.4 percent), “Death on the Rennsteig – Eye for an Eye” was well received when it was first broadcast. The second film “Death on the Rennsteig – House of the Dead”, which the first will repeat on Thursday, July 23rd at 8:15 p.m., also achieved comparable values ​​in March 2025. Two more films are currently in development.

(This article was created in cooperation with teleschau.)