TV tip: Human abysses - Nora Weiss determined

In a villa in Lübeck, an elderly man sits comfortably in front of his laptop with a drink.

TV tip: Human abysses - Nora Weiss determined

In a villa in Lübeck, an elderly man sits comfortably in front of his laptop with a drink. On screen: a gallery of very young and scantily clad girls.

Before he can choose his favorite of the day, a taser immobilizes the psychology professor. An intruder ties his hands and feet, drags him to the bathroom, and drowns him. The seventh episode of the ZDF crime series "Solo für Weiss - Totenengel", which will be broadcast next Monday (8:15 p.m.), allows Commissioner Nora Weiss (Anna Maria Mühe) to look into completely different human abysses.

At the scene of the crime, the investigator from the Kiel State Criminal Police Office first introduces the young, bold colleague from the Lübeck Criminal Police Office, Ben Salawi (Camill Jammal). "It was a targeted act," she says, "precise and degrading." The bathtub drain is blocked with a game chip. Everything looks like ritual murder to Weiss - until she finds evidence on the murdered man's computer of minors posting revealing pictures and videos on a website. With "Princess J." chatted and received threatening emails about a "Jessica".

When the head of a day care center is killed in the same way - tied up and drowned in the shower tray in the washroom, Weiss has the father of 16-year-old Jessica arrested. He admits that he knew what his daughter was doing. "But I didn't murder anyone." Weiss and Salawi agree: murder does not suit the widowed taxi driver (Tobias Oertel). The hooded perpetrator has already escaped them twice - at the scene of the crime and at Weiss's house.

LKA boss Jan Geissler (Peter Jordan), who is unhappily in love with Weiss and jealous of Salawi, orders her back to the LKA. "You have the culprit," she is no longer needed in Lübeck. Weiss brushes him off and just carries on with Salawi, who stumbles upon a connection between the men and a gruesome secret: they were employed at a home for troubled youngsters that had made headlines for mistreatment of the inmates. A 16-year-old died trying to escape. "Somebody wants to avenge her death," says Weiss.

Years later, the now vacant domicile still has an oppressive effect and triggers a panic attack in Salawi, while Weiss, who is always under control, calms him down. Trouble plays the pastor's daughter distant, harsh and cool. She even accepts the caretaker's descriptions of that time, and switches on as if on autopilot, while the truth is revealed bit by bit.

The film by scriptwriter Mathias Klaschka and director Gunnar Fuss keeps the suspense up to the end. Landscape shots of the Bay of Lübeck, of the city, of nature and the investigators' dialogues loosen up the melancholy mood. A good thriller takes the viewer "on the investigators' journey and tries to give us a better picture of the psychology of the perpetrators," said Trouble in the ZDF interview. "Sometimes so close that you get into a conflict because it might be understandable."

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