Is the new German Netflix series sleeping dogs worth it?

Inferiority Complex is 6 episodes long and available on Netflix. At least that’s the case with the Sleeping Dogs series, which is available to stream from today. The crime thriller mix with Max Riemelt as a homeless ex-commissioner would like to be as iconic as Tarantino and as dirty as 4 blocks is but in the end just a crime scene with a lot of color correction.

Netflix moves Murder Series for Sleeping Dogs from Tel Aviv to Berlin

what it goes to sleepers Dogs? Mike Atlas (Riemelt) has had enough. The former Berlin chief inspector burned out completely after a shocking murder case, left his wife and child and from then on lived in a dirty caravan on the outskirts of the city. as himself the alleged murderer of his case kills in prison, he rolls up the terrible deed again. And in doing so, he comes across memories that he has long repressed.

Sleeping Dogs is the German adaptation of the 2016 Israeli series The Exchange Principle. There, Lior Ashkenazi plays a homeless coroner named Atlas, who confront brutal murders in Tel Aviv with his past. The series is a great role model, which is also noticeable in the German implementation.

Because if the Netflix series isn’t lacking for one thing, it’s ideas. Whether homeless environment, Queerness in Arab family clans, Teenage body dysphoria, police brutality, government service as a shark tank, or a cult of men: Sleeping Dogs has a lot of potential but never feels overloaded. Quantity isn’t the issue.

Sleeping Dogs looks completely unbelievable in 1000 places

The adaptation is simply loveless. Wooden dialogues make the actors look like distant caricatures, above all Melika Foroutan (Tribes of Europa) as a fascist rigorous prosecutor who says things about her colleague (Luise von Finckh) like “You lack the hard hand. Her mother was made of steel” and exhibits a full-time condescension that can only exist in scripts. The distorted result is not Foroutan’s fault, but the consequence of the producers’ confused creative vision.

Sleeping Dogs wants to be a dirty crime thriller who uses the 4 Blocks milieu to unfold a dark psychodrama in it. However, the makers of the Netflix series don’t bother to make something of their own out of the good construction of the Israeli template. Characters and plot remain artificial, unbelievable and unpolished.

Mike Atlas has been hanging around in a trailer for the past 8 months, his wife and child suffering greatly from his absence. Why don’t they try to bring him home? You know about his visits, why don’t you stop him? Why doesn’t anyone talk to him properly? Instead, family and friends have been waiting helplessly depressed for nine months for him to shuffle down the street and then say something stupid like “You really should get professional help“.

The Netflix series can’t decide between Tarantino and Tatort

The producers have no sense of how distorted the world they are building as a papier-mâché Berlin is. Everyone seems to know Mike Atlas and his problems and at the first opportunity drops phrases like “Mike Atlas, from the 49er! Didn’t he solve the Herres murder case back then?” Any exposure will babbled down to the smallest detail, one could tear one’s hair out.

Topics like the body image of Atlas’ daughter (Tara Africah Corrigan) or Homosexuality among Arab men in clan families come out of nowhere, are pricked through with a lumbering index finger for 5 minutes, and then hurled back into the sinking.

Anyone who distorts must not do things by halves. When prosecutors act like SS-Sturmfuhrer doesn’t fit in with a down-to-earth milieu analysis of the German capital. Mysterious homelessness, conspiracy theories, and amnesia are a bit much for a murder investigation that might as well be part of your average 911 episode.

Tarantino caricatures or crime scene honesty, Sleeping Dogs never decides between these poles. A true Tarantino imitation might lack Nazis or a ’60s soundtrack, but decals like the worn-out cop or the shady detective are there as well as a few clichés from film history. Shortly thereafter, awkward dialogues and plot development torpedoed any fun with it.

Unfortunately, the great moments in Sleeping Dogs are for nothing

It’s a shame because the Netflix series has some great moments. Andreas Helgi Schmid (Out of the curve) is a real discovery as a young investigator and must be seen more often in major productions in the future. Carlo Ljubek delivers the only consistently believable character in the series. Peri Baumeister (Skylines) as a desperate wife and Bernd Hölscher as a greasy snoop also have scenes that are well worth seeing.

The look of the Netflix production is not uninteresting thanks to rich colors and a varied staging. At the end of the series, however, her inferiority complex breaks the neck. The inferiority complex compared to the successful original and the US role models of the thriller genre, which she certainly can’t heal with her discouragement. This dog might have slept better.

The series check was based on the first two episodes of the series.

The 10 biggest streaming films of 2023 on Netflix, Amazon & Co.

In this installment of our Moviepilot podcast, Stream Browsing, we take a look at the big movies coming exclusively to Netflix, Amazon, Disney+ and Apple TV+ this year. The result is a list of ten special recommendations.

From the sci-fi epic to the potential Oscar nominee, everything is included. The talents gathered are particularly impressive. In 2023 we can expect new movies from Martin Scorsese, David Fincher and Zack Snyder in the streaming space, while Gal Gadot, Leonardo DiCaprio, Henry Cavill and Chris Hemsworth will be in front of the camera.

*. If you make a purchase through these links or sign up for a subscription, we will receive a commission. .