A dark thriller series starts in the ARD media library in two days, which is actually something completely different

“The ground in the Oderbruch is soaked with blood.” This is not just a scary statement in the first episode of the new German thriller series Oderbruch. It is also a promise that the historically significant and uninviting setting hides some dark secrets that need to be explored. A mountain of dozens Corpses are just the beginning.

There is much more to the new ARD series, which you can stream in the media library from January 19th, than a typical German thriller series. Especially fans of Netflix’s dark time loop tragedy Dark should give the new genre highlight a chance. But don’t worry, it’s not about time travel again.

Mystery highlight on ARD: That’s what Oderbruch is all about

In the mystery thriller series Oderbruch, the rural region of the same name in Brandenburg, right on the Polish border, becomes the scene of a grisly discovery. Near the village of Krewlow rises a huge, grotesque mountain of human and animal corpses. The victims all come from different decades. The police suspect that a serial killer must have been going around here undetected for many years.

The local inspector Roland Voit (Felix Kramer from Dark) and the Polish police colleague Stanislaw Zajak (Lucas Gregorowicz) want to solve the mysterious case. At the same time, Roland’s childhood sweetheart and ex-colleague Maggie Kring (Karoline Schuch) returns to Krewlow after a 25-year absence.

During the historic Oder flood in 1997 Her brother Kai died here under mysterious circumstances, and two other people disappeared without a trace. What really happened back then and how does that relate to the bloodless corpse? The three investigators try to get to the bottom of the secret and soon discover truths that go beyond the limits of their imagination.

That there is much more to the mysteries of Oderbruch, than it initially appears, a look at those involved behind the camera reveals it. The series was conceived by Christian Alvart, Arend Remmers and Adolfo Kolmerer, who previously worked together on the end-of-pandemic series Sløborn for ZDF.

Oderbruch is not only worthwhile for dark fans

A village community, many dark family secrets and a supernatural twist. In some respects the structure of the new mystery series is reminiscent of Dark. Here too we will with foggy sadness and slow narration sucked into a seemingly normal dark crime story, which, however, turns out to be something completely different.

While in Dark at the beginning it was the search for missing children in the Winden forests, here it is the search for a serial killer that lets us meet similarly aggressively silent village figures: Here everyone behaves somehow strangely and seems to know something about the events . But no one is willing to give us or the main characters answers.

If the murder investigation is supplemented by numerous flashbacks back to the youth of the main characters, the suspicion seems to be confirmed that we are dealing with a typical thriller series, like the one that can be seen every week on Netflix. But at the latest After 3 episodes, Oderbruch pulls the rug out from under our feet.

The tempo suddenly increases enormously, there is a hail of answers and suddenly we are no longer in the same genre as we were a few minutes before. For spoiler reasons, I will not provide any further explanation or mention of a very clearly recognizable Swedish film model at this point.

But this much can be said: After only four episodes, the most important puzzles from the beginning no longer seem important. Because now it’s about gripping and blood-soaked genre fare with interesting mythology, which is rarely seen on German TV. And that alone is a reason to put Oderbruch on your watchlist – and to ignore the one or two flat dialogues.

For further reading:

All eight episodes of Oderbruch will be available in the ARD media library from January 19, 2024. The basis for this series check is the entire first season.

With Oderbruch and more: The best series starts in January on Netflix and Co.

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