Farewell, Chris Ritter—another main character on Cobra 11 dies

Unter Feinden—Chris

From another of my favourite shows, Alarm für Cobra 11: die Autobahnpolizei. I don’t catch up with news from this show much since it’s in Germany and DVDs are pricey, so I treat myself sparingly and read fan sites. I still haven’t got my head round them killing off Tom (René Steinke), one of the stars, and I learned today they killed off Chris (his replacement, played by Gedeon Burkhard) at the end of the last season. (Context for non-European readers: this would be akin to making Lethal Weapon and killing off Mel Gibson.)
   The idea is to give the show more dramatic depth in the face of imported shows such as CSI, which is a hit in Germany—Cobra 11 had a reputation for being big on action but light on plot. Probably the sign of the times, and the show has run for nearly 12 years, so the change is welcome to most German viewers—though it makes it harder for people me whose German is really, really basic.
   Star Erdogan Atalay, playing Semir Gershan, is becoming Dirty Harry with all his partners dying … you’d think they were hosting Stars in Their Eyes …