"Lenßen & Partner" is a German scripted reality tv show about a lawyer and his private detectives who work on lower class cases. It is notorious for its low budget and production values, and a lot of it is clichee and stereotypes, but yet it is a hilarious show everyone seems to know.
The show's protagonist is Ingo Lenßen, a lawyer with a special 18th century french fencer's beard and dapper suits. His team consists of two detective couples, one the bullying Christian Storm and Sandra Nitka, the other of the always annoyed and bored Basti Thiele and Katja Hansen. The show is famous for its narrator pointing out the obvious and its titles, such as "The sex-greedy boss".
It is still running weekly after "Columbo" in German TV, so everyone who is out for a good laugh can give it a shot. Special guest is always the early 2000's hightech gadgets they use.
2 Reviews
Fancy Ingo rules!!!
Derhabgierigesamariter10 August 2022
While other German early evening crime series are simply boring, the symbiosis of a lower-than-low production budget, only 22 minutes of airtime and amateur actors in Lenßen & Partner leads to an ingenious kind of investigator satire. This is the reason why Sat.1 Gold still broadcasts Lenßen & Partner reruns directly after those of Columbo.
A special feature of the series are recurring motifs: For example, almost every case in the series leads into the Munich red-light scene for a short or long time, although it is never mentioned throughout the series that it is actually set in Munich. Another recurring plotline that the viewer can get a kick out of is the detectives being beaten up by bouncers or pimps, the detectives committing serious crimes like burglaries, the tragic failure of any kind of love affair of one of the protagonists because the potential partner turns out to be a criminal or is simply murdered, the bad mood of detective Sebastian Thiele or even the appearance of doppelgangers: Doppelgängers play an important role in the series, as it is possible to cast two roles with one actor and save further production costs (cf. 6x26 "Ingo Lenßen on the run", 7x69 "Deceived by a double"). Legendary is also the equipment of the detectives, which includes bugged salt shakers or eyeglass cameras, Ingo Lenßen's fancy suits as well as the comments of the narrator, who repeats completely obvious facts that the viewers have just observed ("Katja Hansen has to watch defenselessly as Sebastian Thiele is beaten up by a second grader").
A special feature of the series are recurring motifs: For example, almost every case in the series leads into the Munich red-light scene for a short or long time, although it is never mentioned throughout the series that it is actually set in Munich. Another recurring plotline that the viewer can get a kick out of is the detectives being beaten up by bouncers or pimps, the detectives committing serious crimes like burglaries, the tragic failure of any kind of love affair of one of the protagonists because the potential partner turns out to be a criminal or is simply murdered, the bad mood of detective Sebastian Thiele or even the appearance of doppelgangers: Doppelgängers play an important role in the series, as it is possible to cast two roles with one actor and save further production costs (cf. 6x26 "Ingo Lenßen on the run", 7x69 "Deceived by a double"). Legendary is also the equipment of the detectives, which includes bugged salt shakers or eyeglass cameras, Ingo Lenßen's fancy suits as well as the comments of the narrator, who repeats completely obvious facts that the viewers have just observed ("Katja Hansen has to watch defenselessly as Sebastian Thiele is beaten up by a second grader").
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