TV tip
Turbulent comedy about mom and her little house on ZDF
Gerda (Gerburg Jahnke) won’t put up with anything and targets Simon with her harpoon. photo
© Susanne Bernhard/ZDF/dpa
Mom should be sent to a nursing home – that’s what the daughter would like. Why this doesn’t happen so easily can now be seen in a ZDF comedy.
Mom fell and is in a Munich hospital. Meanwhile, her daughter is trying to sell her mother’s little house – but she doesn’t know anything about it. And escapes from the clinic. This is the starting point for them Comedy “You don’t shoot with harpoons” (Thursday, September 21st, 8:15 p.m., ZDF).
Gerda (Gerburg Jahnke) shoots sharply: the elderly woman aims a harpoon at a supposed burglar. The taxi driver Simon (Eugene Boateng) just wanted to “borrow” her house for a weekend, as he found the house key in the taxi where Gerda’s daughter Linda (Isabell Polack) had lost it shortly before. From him, Gerda learns that Linda is planning to sell the house and quickly comes up with a plan: Simon moves in with her as her supposed new carer. A little later, Linda comes along too, as her own apartment looks like a permanent construction site.
Director Peter Gersina (61, “Zwei Mitte im Leben”, “Milk & Honey”) tells of an estranged relationship between mother and daughter. The script by Stefan Kuhlmann was based on an idea by Anna Tebbe. Little by little it turns out that Simon has a daughter – with Linda’s ex-partner of all people – who comes across as a bit precocious and of course moves in.
All sorts of misunderstandings
But that’s not all: unresolved grief, threatened deportation, unsuccessful marriage proposals and all sorts of misunderstandings are also packed into the already somewhat confusing plot.
Gerburg Jahnke (68, “Butter at the Fishes”) is better known as a cabaret artist (“Ladies Night”) and here she plays a quick-witted mother who doesn’t want to be pushed to the sidelines. Eugene Boateng (38, “The Recorder”, “Workshop Heroes with a Heart”) is at her side as a very cheerful, reluctant helper who, of course, quickly repairs the stove and is also very good at cooking and cleaning up.
The dialogues in this somewhat overloaded comedy are sometimes hair-raising – but the message hits the mark: just think outside the box, don’t just think about yourself and be there for other people. Why it has to be a harpoon of all things remains incomprehensible, but at least it is no longer used. And in the end there is a completely new, slightly different family. And it won’t just be temporary.