Just in case, Fitz

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Television series
German title Just in case, Fitz
Original title cracker
Country of production Great Britain
original language English
Year (s) 1993-1995, 1996, 2006
Production
company		 Granada Television
length 50-110 minutes
Episodes 25 in 5 seasons
genre Crime , drama
idea Jimmy McGovern
production Sally Head, Gub Neal, Paul Abbott , Hilary Bevan Jones, John Chapman
First broadcast September 27, 1993 on ITV
German-language
first broadcast		 August 11, 1996 on ZDF
occupation

Just in case Fitz (original title: Cracker ) is a British crime series by Jimmy McGovern, which was produced from 1993 to 1995 by Granada Television for the station ITV . In 1995/96 the dubbed version was broadcast by ZDF , with the first broadcast partly in shortened versions.

The Manchester-based series is about the criminal psychologist Dr. Eddie "Fitz" Fitzgerald, who as a so-called profiler helps the homicide squad to solve complicated cases. In the English police jargon, a criminal psychologist is called "cracker" (from to crack - to break open, to crack), hence the original title "cracker". The obese , depressive, drinking and gambling addicted chain smoker Fitz, who delves into the abysses of the psyche of murderers and offends his superiors with his unconventional methods, became a prime role for Robbie Coltrane . He has received three British Academy Television Awards for his acting performance .

Numerous British actors, including Robert Carlyle , Geraldine Somerville , Kieran O'Brien , Liam Cunningham , Samantha Morton , John Simm and Christopher Eccleston , made their breakthrough with this series.

The American remake (1997-1998) with Robert Pastorelli , which was broadcast in Germany under the name Immer wieder Fitz , could not assert itself with the audience and was not a commercial success. In 1996 and 2006 two more episodes of the series were shot on behalf of ITV. They were less successful in Britain than the original British episodes. On German television, the US version broadcast by Sat.1 was canceled prematurely after a few episodes due to poor audience ratings.

Overview

First appearance by Fitz

Fitz is an antihero. He cheats on his wife, is an alcoholic, chain smoker, addicted to gambling, overweight, cynical and sarcastic, sometimes even misanthropic . Even with his very first appearance in the first episode " The Mad Woman in the Attic ", the television viewers get an idea of ​​the contradicting inner workings of the psychologist. He loses all his money when betting, gets drunk and in this state is supposed to give a lecture as part of a visiting professorship at the university. During the "lecture" he does not give lectures, but throws the works of Descartes , Sigmund Freud and Carl Gustav Jung at the psychology students and insults them for no apparent reason before leaving the lecture hall with the words "end of lecture". However, he immediately returns to the lectern, is now transformed and finally lectures - completely sober - on morals and ethics.

On the other hand, Fitz is smart, compassionate, empathetic, sensitive, and funny. In order to “think into” the minds of criminals, he always leaves his own vices aside and manages to completely ignore his own problems. His patients, who visit him in his practice, bore him. He is only really “tied up” by the cases that he finally works on for the homicide squad.

The storyline of the series and narrative suspense

In the first nine double episodes, “types” with completely different personalities are portrayed, whose crime or motive why they kill is a mirror of their complex, disturbed psyche. Sexual obsessions, religious fanaticism, repressed homosexuality, hatred of women or racism are some of the perpetrators' motives. But not only the mental life of the murderers is told in the series, also the developments of the police officers, who are psychologically broken in their profession (who are also analyzed by Fitz) and the development of Fitz's wife Judith and his son Mark, take a large and important space in the Course of action a. There are practically three storylines in the series: the current case, the relationship between the police officers and their jobs, and the development of the Fitzgerald family. In the later episodes the police officers themselves become perpetrators and victims; Judith and Mark are threatened several times by Fitz's "cases"; he himself falls more and more under the spell of his work as a “profiler”, from which only the near death of his son Mark can save him. Since the series was supposed to be discontinued after the end of the ninth episode of True Romance 1995, the last scene of True Romance shows an "open ending" that leaves a lot of room for speculation. Fitz and Judith are separate and yet inextricably linked. Mark does not know what his own future and the future of the family will be. Jane Penhaligon has to decide whether she should give up her job or whether she - after all the pain that was inflicted on her - can continue to work as a policewoman, which, however, would mean her psychological downfall soon. And DCI Wise is also faced with the decision to either build up a new staff at the expense of his peace of mind or to leave the homicide department in order to arrest petty criminals again in Liverpool.

Explicit cinematic representation of the crimes

Although the series very achieved good ratings, about literary quality screenplays possessed and acting performances of the highest artistic perfection ( "strongest artistic perfection" ) had (even the smallest supporting roles were filled with excellent actors), the ITV yet learned after the broadcast of each episode one “Mass” of indignant and horrified reactions from many viewers. Ultra-realistic depictions of violence and murder, which have never been shown so explicitly, down to the smallest detail, so disturbed part of the audience that after broadcasting the fifth episode The Big Crunch - after broadcasting the fifth episode, The Big Crunch - the ITV was shown in the torture scene lasting several minutes - almost had to stop the series. But it didn't come to that. The rest of the series could also be shown - and uncensored - but ITV had to commit to postponing the broadcast date to after 11 p.m.

The journalist Tim Schleider writes in his review of the fourth episode: “ Although it is a murder scene that can't really be surpassed in terms of horror, you still sit spellbound in front of the television. Robert Carlyle and Christopher Eccleston take the art of acting to extremes to such an extent that one could watch the scene over and over again - like a painting on the wall. "

Episodes

→ see episode list

main actor

DVD publications

  • Just in case Fitz: First Season , Episodes 1–7 (1993), Koch Media, FSK: from 16 years
  • Just in case Fitz: Second Season , Episodes 8–16 (1994), Koch Media, FSK: from 16 years
  • Just in case Fitz: Third Season , Episodes 17–23 (1995), Koch Media, FSK: from 16 years
  • Just in case Fitz: fourth season , episodes 24–25 (1996/2006), Koch Media, FSK: from 16 years

Books on the series

Soundtrack

  • Just in case Fitz  : original TV soundtrack. Colosseum records, Nuremberg 1998

supporting documents

  1. ↑ http://treffpunkt-kritik.de/pages/specials/special-cracker--fuer-alle-faelle-fitz.php
  2. ^ TV Times , December 2, 1994
  3. ^ TV Times , December 2, 1994
  4. ↑ a b The Guardian , March 14, 1995
  5. ↑ Stuttgarter Zeitung , February 5, 1996.

Web links