WIf you expect tranquility from country doctor programs, you shouldn’t be able to do anything with the Black Forest series “Höllgrund”. Everyone else can expect a wild genre ride with an entertaining plunge into the abyss of amorality. This mixture of homeland horror and Gottfried Keller story with characters as hard as petrified wood, conceived by Marc O. Seng with Maike Rasch for the ARD media library and also broadcast in the third program of SWR, is a bitterly angry look at the provinces, a veritable revenge Western and a study of dishonor among notables.
We have never seen a TV doctor as unappetizing as leaden, intelligent as cynical, macabre as mercilessly funny. Elsewhere, of course, not all country doctor series are harmless, there things also work in funny ways, for example in Great Britain, where “Doc Martin” is one of the most enduring hits with the public. Significantly, the German adaptation, in which Axel Milberg played the grumpy “Doctor Martin” who can’t see blood, flopped mercilessly. Viewer interest in the humorous stinky boot in a doctor’s coat was dwindling. After two seasons they gave up.
Basically, the deconstruction of the “good village doctor” in series format is overdue. Bitter local thrillers are popular, especially at ORF. In the popular “True Crime” formats, the negligence that apparently prevails in the post-mortem examination in Germany repeatedly plays the part of the excitement. Anecdotal evidence reports GPs certifying “natural causes” on numerous death certificates, even when the deceased has stab wounds or other massive injuries. In a European comparison, few autopsies are ordered in Germany. Experts speak of thousands of unknown homicides every year that could be discovered through more professional post-mortem examinations. A template for grotesques.
That would please the Coen brothers
The new pretty country doctor of the “Höllgrund” Black Forest village, Fabian (August Wittgenstein), gets to do mortuary examinations for half a dozen cheaper. The old country doctor Hajo Armbruster (Heiner Lauterbach) hangs himself immediately after taking over the practice, the old Irmi Freischütz (Michaela Caspar) finds himself peacefully asleep on the viewing bench in front of the doctor’s courtyard, the demented and booze-throated pastor (Heiner Hardt) falls from the gallery in the church , and inn owner Siggi (Guido Renner) shoots himself drunk. A lot of material for death certificates, a lot of educational work for the brave young police officer Tanja Hartholz (Lou Strenger), whose department head Werner Freischütz (Andreas Anke) continues to munch on the sight of apparently dead people who have had an accident.
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“Hellground”
Image: SWR/Studio Central/Maria Wiesler
As round-bellied Werner is as fitness-obsessed is his wife Moni (creepy: Ulrike C. Tscharre), who walks around half the time in a nineties aerobic outfit and spends the rest of the day in a smart dirndl showing off her charms. Ghosts soon appear and want to interfere, a grave is desecrated, chilling secrets are revealed, and an old guilt surges to light that illuminates the beautiful landscape. One by one, the members of the church choir, who smugly present themselves to the camera eye in an old photo, bless their time.
“Höllgrund” condenses its thriller dramaturgy into a rollercoaster ride of guilt and atonement. Because all events and actions have a connection to the accidental death of the beautiful Theresa (Alissa Atanassova) two decades ago, who came to the village as a single mother as a refugee from the war in the Balkans, was looking for work and peace and not only Tanja’s father Josef (Nicki von Tempelhoff) involuntarily turned his head. How the yellowed buried looks when it comes to the surface and what becomes of it is shown in two different formats by Carol Burandt von Kameke and Karl Kürten – in image size 4:3 for the review (episode six is one long flashback ), in 16:9 in the course of the present time. The series, which should also please the Coen brothers, is accompanied by an impressive playlist that ranges from bluegrass to Dean Martin, from Hank Williams to Janis Joplin. Mostly heartbreaking songs. The series is as appropriate for Reformation Day as it is for Halloween. Bigoted righteousness is perfidiously attacked here, and the horror of the living makes you shudder more than that of ghosts.
hellground broadcasts the SWR in the third program on 31.10. and on 11.1. from 8.15 p.m. All eight episodes are in the ARD media library.
