The lawyers
| Television series | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The lawyers |
 | |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| year | 2006 |
| length | 45 minutes |
| Episodes | 8 in 1 season |
| genre | Dramedy |
| idea | Marc Terjung |
| production | Titus Kreyenberg |
| music | Dirk Leupolz |
| First broadcast | January 17, 2008 on RTL |
| occupation | |
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Main actor:
Supporting cast:
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The Lawyers is a German television series about a law firm in Hamburg . It was first broadcast by RTL and canceled after one episode. ARD later bought the series and broadcast all eight episodes on the first .
action
In the style of American lawyers like Ally McBeal or Boston Legal , several cases are told in each episode that are processed in parallel in a law firm: in this case in the Hamburg law firm "Blum-Franzen-Britten".
The lawyers Marita Blum, Lothar Franzen, Sebastian Britten, Dilek Genc and Thomas Welka have to deal with large criminal cases as well as bizarre civil law cases. For example, you have to defend a suspected murderer, help a master carpenter in a dispute with the tax office or help an old lady to be buried with her beloved dog in the event of her death.
Three of these cases are told in each episode. In addition, the private life of the lawyers and their relationships with each other also play a role again and again. Thomas Welka ( Johann von Bülow ), who joins the firm in the first episode, is only accepted hesitantly. Marita Blum ( Julia Bremermann ) struggles with the loss of her daughter, who drowned in an accident, and gets involved in an affair with Sebastian Britten ( Kai Wiesinger ) when her husband has to go to Munich for a long time .
background
Produced The lawyers of Studio Hamburg on behalf of the private broadcaster RTL and should be aired there January 2008. But audience interest fell far short of expectations: 2.58 million (10.8 percent of 14 to 49 year olds) wanted to see Kai Wiesinger and his colleagues. RTL stopped broadcasting immediately after the opening sequence. Kai Wiesinger criticized the quick end in an interview with the news magazine Der Spiegel : “RTL gave us no chance at all. The series was neither advertised in the way it should be at the start of a large evening series, nor was the program location chosen favorably. "
A few months later, the ARD subsidiary Degeto bought the lawyers for a rumored four million euros. For the first time, a public broadcaster acquired episodes of a production by a commercial competitor before it was broadcast. "If the opportunity arises to purchase an excellently made German series like Die Anwälte , then you should take advantage of it," said the then ARD program director Günter Struve , explaining the unusual purchase. And RTL fiction boss Barbara Thielen said: "Even if the series was not accepted by RTL viewers, it more than deserves to be broadcast anyway."
But the broadcast in the first (from October 20, 2008, Mondays at 8:15 p.m.) was unanimously rated as a failure in the press. When it started on October 20, 2008, 2.93 million viewers tuned in; since then it has been going downhill. A DVD box with the eight episodes of the series was released by Studio Hamburg Enterprises on November 8, 2008.
criticism
“[...] the series about the cases of a Hamburg law firm is well worth seeing, but only from episode two. Once the characters are introduced, the episodes written by Marc Terjung ( Edel & Starck ) work much better. The male actors in particular benefit from this; the women are initially reduced to feeling (Julia Bremermann) or war of the sexes (Carolina Vera). No wonder the men have the best scenes! […] But the best are the cases. Even if the ABC pattern (adventure, relationship, comedy) perfected in the soap operas is somewhat transparent - almost every time Terjung and his co-authors manage to incorporate a 'twist', as it is called in the scribes' language, i.e. a phrase that directs the event in a completely unexpected direction. "
“While the pilot film seemed to be staged quite quickly, even though the imitation of American successes such as 'Ally MCBeal' and 'Boston Legal' was obvious, the further consequences reveal a harrowing comfort. Our [...] assumption that author Marc Terjung was obviously urged to create more 'depth', which was at the expense of humor, is confirmed in the worst possible way. In the second episode, for example, they find it funny when the senior boss of the law firm (Alexander Held) is called by his mom every Wednesday. "
"'The lawyers' do not fail because of the fabulous quality, they are half good, half bad, they are in between, in the bland middle."
Web links
- The lawyers in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The lawyers at fernsehserien.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ ARD buys flop lawyers from RTL In: Der Spiegel , September 4, 2008
- ↑ Der Tagesspiegel , November 12, 2008
- ^ Associated Press , September 4, 2008
- ↑ Der Tagesspiegel, November 12, 2008
- ↑ ratings for "The lawyers" on Quotenmeter.de , of 18 November 2008 (accessed on 28 December 2013)
- ^ The lawyers ARD Video
