Our take
Babylon Berlin is mostly an intriguing spy thriller with both the sleekness and the style of the Golden Twenties, but what makes it stand out is the way it depicts the inevitability of the country’s upcoming struggles, as well as the hope it held in itself to reach a brighter future, with the new millennium. It’s a pretty brilliant concept. Through the eyes of its alternate protagonists, the show depicts Berlin polarized by two ideologies, and it keeps this context to drive Inspector Gereon Rath’s investigation, with the help of police clerk and flapper in the underground Charlotte Ritter. While the later seasons lost a bit of its edge, Babylon Berlin nevertheless paints a new perspective of the capital that once was at the forefront of art and science.
Synopsis
Beneath the decadence of 1929 Berlin, lies an underworld city of sin. Police investigator Gereon Rath has been transferred from Cologne to the epicenter of political and social changes in the Golden Twenties.
Storyline
Weimar Republic, 1929. Shellshocked from his service during World War I, Colognian Inspector Gereon Rath investigates an international conspiracy, leading him to Berlin, the epicenter of political and social changes in the Golden Twenties.
TLDR
Honestly, the Art Deco title card itself was so good that I just had to continue watching.
What stands out
The performances.