User Reviews

"Die Affäre Semmeling" or "Die Semmelings" is a German 6-part mini-series from 2002, so this one had its 15th anniversary last year. Each episode runs for 90 minutes, slightly over in fact, so if you have the patience, then you can watch the entire thing in under 10 hours. Or maybe in two sittings of under 5 hours. The one who made this is Dieter Wedel, the king of German mini-series, in one of the later efforts of his career. He also has a brief cameo in the final episode and other cameos include successful German showmasters Johannes B. Kerner (not a fan at all) and Harald Schmidt (huge fan here). Wedel had some verbal dirt thrown at him in the recent sexism/discrimination against women debate that was not just omnipresent in America, but also here in Germany, but this should not be the subject today during this review, even if there is definitely a great deal of irony to it if we are looking at the events of the final episode. One big boo from me to Verhoeven and that's all I want to say. White knights are the very last thing this difficult situation needs and he really should see that he improves his filmmaking, so we don't have to sit through more horrible Hartmanns films. Anyway, when Wedel calls, the big names come as in here you will find Atzorn, Lauterbach, Adorf, Hoenig, Kurt, Makatsch and others appearing in here, all names that German film fans will immediately recognize. This is typical Wedel stuff here, entirely fictitious as usual, and I don't want to say that if you have seen one of his mini-series, then you have seen them all, but the subjects of greed, political (loss of) power, cheating (in every sense imaginable), scandals, money, sleaze etc. are as recurring as it gets for his projects and all this you will find in here. One of my biggest problems with Wedel is that even for such a long runtime, there is simply too much happening in here, too many escalations and spectacular plot twists and the character development frequently gets neglected over that. I mean you will definitely be entertained watching this oner, but realism and authenticity feel quickly left behind. This is a bit of a pity as at times Wedel is successfully delivering on subtlety too before he sacrifices it all for the (far too quickly happening) moment of escalation if you want to call it like that. Walking the fine line between too much and just the right amount is probably not his greatest strength. Surprisingly enough from the cast Heinz Hoenig was the most memorable player and I am not always a fan of his, but this character really fit his approach and physicality too 100%. Good job there. Ador of course was also as good as always and he is as convincing as always, even if he did not have the material to shine here in terms of both quality and quantity. Still he has these little moments that he makes appear big and these two are the ones I want to mention in particular this time. Not gonna go into detail about specific plot developments or situations as honestly as relevant as they may be for a few minutes, they disappear as quickly as they appeared again in the light of the next spectacle. I rated all episodes here 4 out of 10 and this is also the rating I give this film overall as a consequence obviously. Or I should say mini-series. It's not a failure I think and there are some okay moments, but all in all, the potential really hasn't been fulfilled and it is too frequently off the mark. Watch something else instead or use your experiences with other Wedel stuff in deciding if you wanna give this one a go. If you consider the watch, then chances are high that this is not the first project you have come across and seen by him, so decide for yourself what to do. Good luck!