With "Der Überfall", translating to "The Robbery" in English, "Braunschlag" reaches its halfway point and gives another example of writer/director David Schalko's singular way of staging things.
First of all, the eponymous robbery that turned out to be a complete farce. The scene was extraordinarily funny and profited from Branko Samarovski's acting talent. However, it wasn't only that, but rather the general mise-en-scène as Schalko cross-cutted that with the deeds of the series' other characters and therefore reached a humorous pinnacle as the two desk sergeants passing their time with board games simply assumed that someone must have bumped the button at the police department. I loved that scene, yet "Der Überfall" wasn't perpetually as well-made as on this occasion, especially the Banyardi-Silke story arc drifted to much too ridiculous soil this time around. And while not having the silliness of those scenes, seeing Herta meet her extra-marital lover and later comtemplating whether to accompany him to some beautiful island didn't appeal to me in any way.
The other love affairs (and there are loads of them) went astray as well, which led to a rather inventive sequence of characters phoning each other. Schalko used immense facial close-ups and cutting from character to character very quickly more than usual in "Der Überfall" and while this may be a bit distracting here and there, I generally liked his intention. That makes for another fine episode of the series, but due to some overly silly moments, also one of the weaker ones of the first half.
First of all, the eponymous robbery that turned out to be a complete farce. The scene was extraordinarily funny and profited from Branko Samarovski's acting talent. However, it wasn't only that, but rather the general mise-en-scène as Schalko cross-cutted that with the deeds of the series' other characters and therefore reached a humorous pinnacle as the two desk sergeants passing their time with board games simply assumed that someone must have bumped the button at the police department. I loved that scene, yet "Der Überfall" wasn't perpetually as well-made as on this occasion, especially the Banyardi-Silke story arc drifted to much too ridiculous soil this time around. And while not having the silliness of those scenes, seeing Herta meet her extra-marital lover and later comtemplating whether to accompany him to some beautiful island didn't appeal to me in any way.
The other love affairs (and there are loads of them) went astray as well, which led to a rather inventive sequence of characters phoning each other. Schalko used immense facial close-ups and cutting from character to character very quickly more than usual in "Der Überfall" and while this may be a bit distracting here and there, I generally liked his intention. That makes for another fine episode of the series, but due to some overly silly moments, also one of the weaker ones of the first half.
