ZDFneo has developed into the creative laboratory of public television. The niche broadcaster tirelessly presents new series and formats. Including the noir thriller “Dunkelstadt”, the Corona series “Love. Now!” and “Drinnen”, the educational comedy “Other Parents”, the dramedy “Deadlines” or most recently the culture clash dud “Twin House”.
Now three new comedy series are in the starting blocks, which will be broadcast over the three summer months. In other words, only two of the three productions are new. Because of “fat and fat” (from Tuesday, July 26) there was already a season in 2019. The series about the unmotivated life artist Jaksch (Jakob Schreier) gets a deserved sequel. Jaksch is now in his early 30s and has a real job for the first time in his life: He is an assistant director at the theater in Munich, and he is also writing his first stage play. Nevertheless, he continues his lifestyle – going out, partying, women – which is slowly getting over his head.
The new episodes contain everything that made the series so special three years ago: an authentic and true-to-life story from the everyday life of a thirtysomething. The dialogues are partly improvised, which gives them a high level of truthfulness. Above all, the consequences are not overloaded with story arcs. Usually nothing special happens, you just watch the protagonist and his friends live. Sounds like little, but it’s a hell of a lot – because it feels real.
In “Four Walls Plus” Caro (Birte Hanusrichterm left) and Martin (Alexander Prince Osei, right) have just moved into a house with friends when Caro tells her husband that she wants to separate. Not an easy task, especially since they have a daughter, Emma (Mary Amber Oseremen Tölle, M.).
© Frank Dicks / ZDF
That can be done by “four walls plus” (from August 16) do not claim. The staff of this series seems to have been constructed in the editorial office, and the story is anything but credible: the focus is on three couples who are friends and a single person who realize a long-cherished dream and move into a house together. They see themselves as a family: a mix of friends and family.
But there are already serious problems on the day they move in: Caro (Birte Hanusrichter) tells her husband Martin (Alexander Prince Osei) that she wants to leave him and their two children. But Martin proposes a period of two months, which she still has – and hopes to be able to change her mind. The humor is flat at times. The first episode is “So Ficken!” titled. The theme throughout is that a couple would like to conceive and engage in sexual intercourse all the time. As an additional gag, the whole thing takes place without doors, which are only delivered later. All in all, it’s all far too slapstick and predictable.
Ruby (Anna Böger) is the focus of the series of the same name and tells of the life of the single woman.
© Frank Dicks / ZDF
Starts a month later “ruby” (September 13), the German adaptation of the BBC sitcom “Miranda”. Although Giulia Becker, known from Jan Böhmermann’s shows, is a great author, the humor doesn’t quite catch fire. At first glance, the setting shows parallels with “Stromberg”. The protagonist Ruby (Anna Böger) works at a bank, where there are always problems with colleagues. At its core, however, it is about the life of the quirky single woman who is secretly in love with her old boyfriend David and is regularly embarrassed by her mother.
What at first glance could be a good starting point for a comedy doesn’t quite work out in the implementation: the dialogues seem artificial, as if learned by heart and recited. Which is because almost every scene, sometimes every sentence, is brushed down to a punch line. However, they often turn out to be non-starters. When Ruby’s mother goes to the bank and examines her colleague’s engagement ring, she jokes: “My daughter only wears onion rings on her fingers.” And to convince her daughter to support her candidacy for mayor, she says: “It’s also called election campaigns, and not election ringelpietz with hands on.” That’s not funny when it’s written and is sometimes said so conservatively, as if you were watching a tabloid comedy in the village theater. At the end of the first episode, Ruby lies on the sofa next to David and murmurs, “I just had a giant fries, fries, fries, Alexander Bommes” before falling asleep. At that point at the latest, some viewers will also ask themselves why they should stay awake.
“Fat and Fat” can be seen on three Tuesdays from July 26 at 9:45 p.m.
“Four Walls Plus” starts on August 16 and will also be broadcast on Tuesdays from 9:45 p.m.
“Ruby” will run for four Tuesdays starting September 13th. All series are shown in double episodes.