Hello esteemed mutual. If you are reading this, then that means my propaganda is working. But you might still have questions, so I am here to answer them.
Spatort, aka that show about the Sad Gay German Cops, aka Tatort SaarbrĂŒcken, aka 90% of my blog over the past month, is a German detective show. It's about the latest SaarbrĂŒcken team within the tv show Tatort and can be watched completely separately from the other Tatort teams. It features a team of four homocide detectives (Leo Hölzer, Adam SchĂŒrk, Esther Baumann and Pia Heinrich) who solve murders amidst all their personal drama in the city of SaarbrĂŒcken in the South-West of Germany. It's a murder of the week style show, but with personal drama of the protagonists as an overarching plot line.
Our dream team posing with a very dead girl and Rechtsmedizinerin Henny Wenzel.
Because it's gay. There are a few canonically gay side characters, but the real meat is the relationship between Leo and Adam. They are childhood best friends who went through some rough shit together and are reunited after having spent 15 years apart. They like to have sleepovers, stare deeply into each others eyes, have dramatic break-ups and tell each other how much they mean to each other in convoluted ways. They are two co-dependent wrecks and I love them with all my heart. Will they ever become canon? We don't know. The canonically bisexual Tatort Berlin protagonist Robert Karow was allowed a gay sex scene on primetime German television though, so there is hope.
Because it's gay 2: ESTHER! As soon as she gets more than two lines of exposition (Episode 3), she starts flirting with every living woman in sight. I love her.
Apart from that, it's also just a good show. Speaking as someone who isn't overly fond of detectives, I think it has a good balance between murder mystery and character drama. The actors have great chemistry and are just so much fun to watch. There has been some criticism claiming that too much time is spent on the lives of the protagonists instead of on the murder cases, but that's exactly what makes me like this series.
This series made me fall back in love with the German language again and I heard multiple people saying the same thing.
Why is it called Spatort?
Because "Die letzte Reihe von Tatort SaarbrĂŒcken" takes too long to say and there's this shovel (in German: Spaten) that plays an important role in the first episode. (And Spaten + Tatort = Spatort).
Are there any content warnings?
Murder, violence, some episodes get pretty bloody (not quite gore but @yuespropagandablog don't watch it), abusive parents, intravenous drug use (one shot in episode Der Fluch des Geldes), overdose, and of course they're all cops.
Are there German characters in this German show set in Germany?
Do they all speak German?
Yep, the show is in German but there are a few scenes where some French is spoken.
But Furious, I don't speak German. How on Earth am I supposed to watch it if I can't understand it?
THEN LEARN The lovely Tumblr user @nerd-on-duty made subtitles for the first 5 episodes. You can DM them (or @krukel or me) for a link.
If I know German well enough to watch German television with German subtitles or no subtitles at all, where can I watch it?
At the moment of writing this, the ARD Mediathek has most of the episodes with German subtitles, but these are only available for a period of time. You can pay for ARD Plus for access to all Tatort episodes ever made, or you can put on your pirate hat and scourge the internet. (All the episodes are on the Internet Archive as well.)
I'm not fully convinced yet, but I do like men's tits. Is there anything you can show me to convince me to watch it?
You're in luck! This is our protagonist Leo Hölzer:
(GIF credits to @thisfeebleheart, more in this post. Also thanks to @krukel for helping this lesbian select these tits for this propaganda post.)
I'm still not convinced by the men tits. I do like pathetic blond men being put in Situations though.
You're in luck! Meet Adam SchĂŒrk:
(GIF credits from right to left, top to bottom: @thisfeebleheart, @leoholzer, @vaschbaer, @a-way-we-go.)
Okay. I've started it. Why does this intro look like it's from the 70s?
Because it is. Tatort started airing in 1970 and they just. Never changed the intro. Don't worry though, the rest of the show does reflect the time the episodes were made in.
I watched it and I love it! I need to know what happens next! When will the next episode air?
At the moment of making this post, the next episode is set to air January 2026. The one after that in 2027. Yes, you read that right, there is one episode per year.
YES. JOIN US IN OUR SUFFERING.