Episode #4.12

I've been a fan of Babylon Berlin since Season 1 and every season seems better than the previous one. A gritty detective series set in 1920s/30s Germany with all manner of upheavals taking place.

Over time the political element has become a bigger and bigger factor. In particular, the rise of the National Socialists is a spectre looming over the main characters and the plot of the show.

It is thus no surprise that we have a season where the main plot involves Rath and the SA, the paramilitary arm of the National Socialist Party. There are other plots (to my relief as I dislike politics and in this case history tells us what the rise of the national Socialists means for Germany and the world) though varying interest and engagement levels.

There's the first problem with this season: so many sub-plots, many of them unconnected with each other. This leads to a loss of focus and of engagement, as some of the sub-plots are not overly interesting. This multi-strand approach also leads to a myriad of new characters, making it confusing as many of them are quite indistinct yet suddenly have a large bearing on the plot.

The plots themselves aren't entirely watertight, unlike in previous seasons where everything fitted together perfectly. This leads to a rather haphazard, contrived feel to the story at times.

This all said, this season is interesting enough, just not as good as previous seasons. Hopefully Season 5 will lift the quality back to where it was.