Hello awake This series is not for the tired, it is not easy to look away. Legal Affairs puts down a maddening pace. Quick changes. Image blurring. Handheld camera use. Cell phone messages appear, headlines, tweets. The chat flow of our babbling social media world prevails, the dance on the “boulevard” conjured up by the laconic-cool title song. The viewer has to be on the quivive like at Sherlock, otherwise he’ll only get half of it. What a shame with these smart stories and entanglements from the Berlin media republic, filmed in glossy turbo direction and exquisite pictures by Randa Chahoud and Stefan Bühling (camera: Julian Hohndorf, Jan Prahl).
A night bus has crashed, the driver should be to blame. Extended suicide? “Psycho-mother kills 16 people,” says the Breaking News. A case for star lawyer Leo Roth, who skipped the film premiere, in which she was stumbling across the red carpet as a VIP and quickly dictating a lawyer letter into her cell phone. Time is money and Roth is efficiency. You can also expect an hourly rate of 500 euros. As a media attorney, she represents the rich and celebrities with her noble law firm. Trick a series star out of his TV contract so he can film with Quentin Tarantino. Becomes active when a fake video is circulating on the net that shows the son of a celebrity director having oral sex. Such things.
But sometimes Roth also works pro bono, for money. But only if it serves your own reputation and the best possible story. For example, in the case of the #death bus, where she does not represent the bus company, but the penniless Spanish family of the injured driver. In order to counter their media prejudice, it first boosts the image of the dead: poor, exploited precarious workers without breaks. And does what she will often do in the eight episodes: a deal with the tabloid press or optionally with the public prosecutor Thilo Hinrichs (Sebastian Hülk), with whom she was once a relationship, which she is far from over. In order to assert her interests, the lawyer sometimes trades in insider knowledge or does what is called blackmail. Their threats with claims for damages running into the millions are also very effective.
What a caliber of woman! Frank Underwood recently smiled so coldly
Leo Roth smiles as coldly as Frank Underwood does his intrigues House of Cards. Their power and self-confidence are also carved out of the same undergrowth. And how Lavinia Wilson, always dressed in innocent white, plays it with all elegance, has international class. The hello-here-I-come-twist with which she swings her bag on the table is an announcement. In addition, the machoism of their bosses. Your troubleshooter slogans: “We can do it”, “I’ve already ironed out completely different things”. What a caliber of woman! Almost too good to be true on public television.
The model is American, as the title shows: Legal Affairs – instead of good German “legal matters”. US lawyers series like Suits, The Good Wife, Boston Legal or Scandal provide the structure and the look, Berlin shows its most sparkling metropolitan face, and acts as godfather and spiritus rector of det Janzem Christian Schertz, one of the most famous media lawyers in Germany. He represented Jan Böhmermann against Erdoğan, Claudia Roth against the AfD and recently also one of the women affected in the compliance proceedings against the killed image-Chef Julian Reichelt.
“Legal Affairs” separates pitfalls and abysses from the cozyness of German lawyers’ series
Schertz, who makes a small appearance in episode four (“Fuck the money!”), Provides the input for the individual cases. Fake news, deep fakes, hatred and agitation on the internet, libelous sensational journalism, violation of personal rights, source protection, racism, right-wing radicalism – these are all topics that the team of authors around Lena Kammermeier and Felice Götze packs into concise stories that look as if they were freshly fished from the internet . It is just a bit annoying that every case is closed in every episode and can be filed.
For example, it is about a professional footballer whose health data is accessed via the evaluation of his smartwatch. A huge thing in the press. (Episode two). Or a satirical collective called “Institut für rosige Zeiten” (easy to be confused with the “Center for Political Beauty”), which is shooting a satirical cannibal video with the resident of a refugee shelter. Which is then unfortunately taken seriously by a Nazi mob (episode three). Or a mega-shit storm that an inexperienced Lisa from Brandenburg triggers with a photo that shows her happily posing with two local boys on Zanzibar. She posts it with the words: “Great vacation. Nice people. Hopefully I won’t get AIDS now. Smiley.” Then she gets on the plane. When she lands in Berlin, her life is ruined for the first time (episode six).
Deal? Sometimes Leo Roth (Lavinia Wilson) makes deals with the windy tabloid journalist Götz Althaus (Stefan Kurt) or threatens him with exorbitant claims for damages.
(Photo: ARD Degeto / RBB / Kerstin Jacobsen)
From the cuddle of popular German law series like The Savior or The office with their guarantee of wellbeing Legal Affairs legal heights and human abysses. In Roth’s office, the tone is harsh and the competition is fierce. The meetings are like editorial conferences. The closer team includes the pregnant top lawyer Elena Caspari (Maryam Zaree) and Cecil Graf von Carlsburg (Niels Bormann), already impressed by his name, as well as the shy newcomer Adrian (Aaron Altaras), who “doesn’t want to screw it up” Detective Mimi (Michaela Caspar) who investigates for the law firm. As a rival lawyer, Sophie Rois brings knatterkomik into play.
On the side of the press, Götz Althaus represents from the tabloid The day the type of unscrupulous smear journalist (Stefan Kurt clearly enjoys the role) and the young Jonas Lindberg (Jacob Matschenz) his counterpart: the incorruptible investigative reporter – both stereotypes. On the other hand, it cannot be denied that both models are also available in real versions. In episode five, Jenny Schily plays an award-winning war reporter who, despite the terror warning, does not reveal her source. It’s one of the best and saddest episodes.
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Not all episodes are equally good, the series needs a bit of a run-up to get out of the panting sprint into a narrative flow and also the private Leo Roth with her childhood trauma, her MS-sick sister (Annika Kuhl) and her bullet in the head better to take the look. She often has strange waking dream flashes. The alleged suicide of a young woman runs through the miniseries as a common thread. The fact that she was the lover of Leo’s brother-in-law, Interior Senator Kai Fontaine (Rainer Sellien), leads to a swamp of politics, murder and corruption. In the end, things will get tight legally for Leo Roth himself. The cliffhanger for the next season is guaranteed.
Legal Affairs, ARD, Sunday, 9.45pm, episodes 1 and 2. Further double episodes on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. All episodes since Friday in the media library.