When the first episodes of the series "Jerks" were shown in Germany in January 2017, it felt like a liberation for many people: Here the German humor, which was used in formats such as the "heute-show", the "ZDF Magazin Royale" or in political cabaret as a means of political and moral education of the audience, completely unleashed from all educational guidelines.
In the fictional stories from their lives, Christian Ulmen and Fahri Yardim joyfully broke taboos and crossed previously untouched pain limits. The "Intimate" series, which is now available on the joyn streaming platform, goes one step further in exploiting embarrassing life situations.
The focus is on five young people from Hamburg, all in their early 20s: Bruno Alexander, Emil and Oskar Belton, Max Mattis and Leo Fuchs, who - very much like Ulmen and Yardim - tell of their fictional lives in improvised episodes.
There is no overarching story arc here, only a breathtaking pace: it is the human tragedy that is retold here over and over again in hilariously funny miniatures. With their constant striving to want more than they deserve, to appear more than they are, the five crash landing again and again. Constantly fueled by a youthful, impetuous drive. That can only go haywire.
The five are also friends in real life. The Beltons, Mattis and Alexander together founded the production company Little Brothers. Together with Leo Fuchs, they wrote the screenplays, are directing themselves and are responsible for the editing.
Quite a lot of responsibility for young people in their early 20s. Who, despite their young age, can also show a remarkable work : The Belton twins and Bruno Alexander have already presented two seasons of their mockumentary series "Die Discounter", which is running very successfully on Amazon Prime Video, and the third season is supposed to be shown in autumn become.
"Discounter" was - and here we come full circle - co-produced by Christian Ulmen, who was also involved as a producer on "Intimate" - and who now has a 33 percent stake in Kleine Brüder with his own company Pajama Pictures.
Ulmen also has a small role in "Intimate". He's not the only celebrity guest star. Numerous other celebrities made themselves available and showed their worst side. Above all, Heike Makatsch as an unfaithful wife who wants to seduce Bruno Alexander in the presence of her child. Jonas Nay plays an actor who only thinks about drugs and sex. Marc Hosemann is a blackmailing landlord, Martin Brambach is a penetrating peeper in the sauna.
In everything, the series heeds a principle from which the Mario Barths of this world can learn a lesson: They themselves are the first to be dragged through the cocoa. And not others.
That's what makes "Intimate" so recommendable, despite everything pubescent. Apart from that: what speaks against a good dose of adolescent humor?
"Intimate" will be available on joyn from March 24th. ProSieben will show the eight parts of the comedy series from April 4, 11:45 p.m. on Tuesdays in double episodes.
