Hooray! Deutschland 89 on its way!

[Deathraystare]

Cannot wait until Friday 9pm Channel Four!

This is not a plot spoiler but there's a funny bit in, I think, ep 3. The East Germans are trying to sell computers with cameras to the West Germans who are horrified at the thought of computers spying on them. 30 years later we all have them.

@CaptainMyCaptain that bit made me chuckle

@CaptainMyCaptain

This is not a plot spoiler but there's a funny bit in, I think, ep 3. The East Germans are trying to sell computers with cameras to the West Germans who are horrified at the thought of computers spying on them. 30 years later we all have them.

I’ve already watched the series and am intending to rewatch now it’s on normally.

The computer company storyline is entertaining when comparing the East/West points of view and with hindsight of the 21st century.

I wasn’t sure it the timelines worked going through the pregnancy in the computer storyline in parallel with Martin’s primary storyline which would (presumably) be quicker

Good point about the time line. Martin's story is progressing quickly but the pregnant woman seems quite large. I think I'm on ep 5 now.

We finished this last night ( via all4) and I was very disappointed. S1 and 2 were excellent and this seemed just absurd. Sad

@CaptainMyCaptain

Good point about the time line. Martin's story is progressing quickly but the pregnant woman seems quite large. I think I'm on ep 5 now.

I’ve rewatched up to episode 4 last night - and I was re-working out timelines while doing so!!!

The real life events from the wall to the big thing in episode 4 is 3 weeks, and in Martin’s each day flows so looks like it’s 3 days

But it’s a drama, not a historic documentary
The drama version compressed into 3 days makes it a reasonable story to follow, and if it wasn’t for the family life part of Martin’s storyline then we wouldn’t notice whether there is a gap in time between scenes (mostly in TV and film we don’t know how long has passed between scenes)

The compressed timeline fits one of his motivations (probably main motivation - he wants his family life and isn’t seeking secret agent life, but he’s missed the excitement and is torn between everybody trying to have a piece of him)

If there was more time in between as with real life then Martin / family could more easily sort out the family side / Russian drama instead of having to juggle everything at speed

——-

With the computer company couple, they contrast with Martin’s gran*

Old generation German who has lived through all the regimes
Young East German couple who have lived behind the wall, putting together a new home to bring up a family
New baby emerge into a post wall world
(And slipped in their new company head as a post wall ‘entrepreneur’)

• I was thinking along the line of hard line politics when there was the hint of Martin not visiting for some time, but then there’s also potentially just her being strict gran/great - gran. She turns out to be a pragmatic, in a similar way to the old Italian in Catch 22

Goodbye Lenin is a wonderful film set at the same time. One of my favourite films.

@CaptainMyCaptain

Goodbye Lenin is a wonderful film set at the same time. One of my favourite films.

Thanks, when the gran scene came up I was trying to think of the name of ‘Goodbye Lenin’ It’s going back on my list of things to rewatch

I haven't watched it yet (can't wait!), but it's still the case that there are very different attitudes to video surveillance in Germany than here. Street CCTV for example is much less common and politically unpopular, for obvious reasons!

but it's still the case that there are very different attitudes to video surveillance in Germany than here

Indeed so, just look at a google map and click on the little man for the street view and see how Germany stands out. This is even compared to most of the ex-communist states.

Just finished watching it all, and I enjoyed it, although I found it hard to follow at times.

Part way through. These series have been wonderful

Can anyone enlighten me on something? I thought that in the first series Martin had his fingers broken because he couldn't play piano and Moritz, the West German they killed and he replaced, could.

But in this series he can play the piano. I am .

@CaptainMyCaptain

Goodbye Lenin is a wonderful film set at the same time. One of my favourite films.

Yes it's very good. It is also well worth watching Weissensee, but unfortunately only one series of the DVDs have English subtitles.

I liked Babylon Berlin too, though obviously another era entirely!

I thought at one point in D86 or D89, his mother or someone commented that he'd spent the 3 years in the Angolan school just practising piano.

@EBearhug

I thought at one point in D86 or D89, his mother or someone commented that he'd spent the 3 years in the Angolan school just practising piano.

Martin mentions it when he is high on mushrooms and telling Nicole the story of his life.

Yes the fingers/piano confused me too until it was explained later.

Series 2 opened with him playing the piano in Angola in episode 1

Yes that was 3 years after season 1. He’d been there 3 years and learned how to play.

I've just finished. I thought the end was quite good although I'm not sure whether we knew everything about Nicole's involvement. Even the 'good' people like Tobias had a murky past and Walter hinted at a future career for Max. The only entirely blameless people in the whole thing seemed to be Ingrid and Tina. At least Trump's plans came to nothing.

Ah I had forgotten that in D86. I was very .