I live in Berlin, and as overwhelming as the city feels today, it’s crazy to think that in the 1920s more people were living here (4.5 million versus 3.5 million today). It was also a very decadent time: police were under-staffed and to curb the rise in crime, the State made institutions like brothels legal.
Today’s pick is about that era and a police unit caught in the middle of it.
Babylon Berlin
Season three has been recently added to Netflix. In German.
Babylon Berlin is the most expensive non-English show in history. Its production value is massive.
Set in 1929 in a period called The Golden Twenties, it follows a young police detective who arrives from Cologne to help solve the dark crimes of the era. There are also other main characters from the nightlife, brothels, cabarets, and organized crime.
The Nazi atrocities which followed the ‘20s, and which start in this show, overshadowed the time when Berlin was the capital of the world. If not just in aesthetics, Babylon Berlin is almost an act of historical preservation.
Alternatives you might like
The Bonfire of Destiny also on Netflix is a French production about the famous “Bazar de la Charité” fire in 1897 Paris, and how it will change the lives of three women.
Alias Grace, on Netflix as well, is a Canadian period piece in English about an Irish immigrant who gets accused of a horrible murder. Based on a Margaret Atwood book of the same name.
Talk soon,
Bilal