Blows at first sight
Leather-jacketed Falke and Grosz, traumatized by Afghanistan, were a pair of investigators full of opposites in the federal police "Tatort". After 13 episodes together, it's all over now. But is everything really over?
There was really no love at first sight when Thorsten Falke (Wotan Wilke Möhring) and Julia Grosz (Franziska Weisz) met at Hanover airport. Instead, it was a big punch in Falke's gut that started the collaboration between the two fundamentally different investigators: "The withdrawn Grosz with her Afghanistan trauma is the perfect antithesis to Falke and his laid-back Hamburger Schnack," we wrote somewhat enthusiastically in our review of the opening episode "Zorn Gottes" in March 2016.
Almost eight years later, the professional partnership between the two detectives ends in almost kitschy closeness: "Where is my mind?" Grosz pines for her colleague, whom she serenades with a whole series of indie songs in a neighborhood pub to mark their 25th anniversary. In the intervening 13 episodes, the two detectives have gradually become so close that one might well suspect that there are more motives behind them than mere friendship. At least the story of Falke and Grosz in their last episode together, "Was bleibt", is far from over.
Bloodletting among "Tatort" actors
And yet this was precisely the reason given by NDR fiction boss Christian Granderath in September when he surprisingly announced Grosz's departure from "Tatort": "Franziska Weisz gave her character and thus the NDR 'Tatort' episodes of the Federal Police a very unique, unmistakable character," said Granderath. The role has undergone an exciting development and has now been told. In an interview with "web.de", Weisz revealed that she doesn't necessarily share this opinion: "If you don't give a character's multifaceted nature the space it deserves, then it's quickly told."
While it is unclear what was going on behind the scenes at NDR in this particular case, Weisz's departure comes at a turbulent time in terms of personnel: "Tatort" has been experiencing a bloodletting among its investigators for some time now. Actors who have already left or announced their departure include Heike Makatsch as chief detective Ellen Berlinger in the southwest, Dagmar Manzel as detective Petra Ringelhahn in the Franconian "Tatort" and Axel Milberg, who will be hanging up the nail on the role of his cult investigator Klaus Borowski in Kiel 2025.
NDR will not announce who Thorsten Falke will have at his side as his fourth partner (after Petra Schmidt-Schaller, Sebastian Schipper and Franziska Weisz) in upcoming "Tatort" editions until a later date. In the next two cases, which will be filmed soon, Falke will not be part of a permanent team, but will investigate alone, it was only said at first. Until then, director Max Zähle wants to give the departing investigator a worthy farewell: "With Julia Grosz, Franziska Weisz has created a wonderfully approachable and likeable film character that many viewers could connect with. Together with Wotan Wilke Möhring, she formed an incredibly authentic detective duo that was unique in this form on German TV." Unfortunately, Grosz's departure itself is anything but special: Do "Tatort" investigators actually have to die at the end of their careers?
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In light of the changes in "Tatort", some viewers might be looking forward to a new television series starring Thorsten Falke, perhaps a crime thriller airing on TV or even ARD. However, the crime scene investigations and complex partnership dynamics between Falke and his former partner, now missing from the series, will undeniably be missed.
Source: www.ntv.de
