2 posts tagged “action concept”

Action Concept, the crowd that makes Alarm für Cobra 11: die Autobahnpolizei, has an English trailer for the show on its site. I am surprised no English channel has ever picked up the long-running series. Sure, it’s devoid of real plot and there are inconsistencies the size of Düsseldorf itself, but my gosh, is it fun.
   The budget has been cut since its heyday and the ratings are down, but from what I have read in the German press, it still outperforms everything else in its time slot.
   One problem is that the trailer is ancient. The German accent on the American English (why do announcers in Germany all sound the same—is this the same guy as on DW-TV?) might make it too foreign for some English-speaking countries, but who cares?

   As fans can see, Semir’s partners end with Tom Kranich (played by Réné Steinke). Since then, Chris Ritter (Gedeon Burkhard) has joined and been killed off in the course of duty, and Ben Jäger (Tom Beck) has been fielding the sidekick position since. The intro is pre-Chris, though this is still the only one I can recite with my extremely limited German.
   This is the sort of show that might start off at a bad time slot on an English channel and steadily work its way to prime-time. Even if it was dubbed, I am sure it would get plenty of fans.

PS.: I have tried Vox at another office, and I have used it with another ISP. The compose screen either fails to come up or takes several hours. Something is afoot.

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 …