Is blood thicker than water?

Julia Grosz (Franziska Weisz) is promoted to Chief Commissioner of the Federal Police and is promptly given her first command line – and of all people she gets out of hand. The federal police in Hamburg want to get to the Russian businessman and arms dealer Victor Timofejew (Vladimir Tarasjanz) through the undercover agent Tarik Hamadi (Ercan Karacayli). He is supposed to do a business to give the police access.

But Timofejew sends his nephew Nicolai (Jakub Gierszal), who is supposed to take Hamadi to Cyprus in a private jet. Since that was not part of the plan, Grosz has to decide: cancel or not? She lets the operation continue. With fatal consequences: the private plane explodes and crashes with her colleague and Timofeev’s nephew on board.

Grosz and her colleague Thorsten Falke (Wotan Wilke Möhring) contact Timofeev’s niece Marija (Tatiana Nekrasov), who wants nothing to do with the criminal machinations of her family and is known as an undercover investigator at the LKA for her unconventional solo efforts. She is ready to find her brother’s killer – but according to her own rules.

Is blood thicker than water? The new “Tatort” from northern Germany revolves around this question. Would the inscrutable Marija, who was trained by Falke, really be ready to betray her own family? And how far would she go to find her brother’s murderer? Is her own life in danger? Especially when it comes to the subject of bias, it seems a bit constructed that she is the one that Grosz and Falke bring in.

The locations are remarkable – such as the pompous Timofeev’s estate and Nicolai’s apartment. Russian culture is given a high priority, but sometimes it also seems a little too fake. For example when Tolstoy is quoted again.

However, that does not change the fact that “power of the family” is well-made and exciting television entertainment – made more difficult to implement by the pandemic. Director Niki Stein says that she had to change the script several times, change the showdown and largely forego extras. But she has made a virtue out of this need. Because the intermittent chamber play looks good on this “crime scene”.

The first shows the “crime scene: power of the family” on Sunday, April 18, at 8:15 pm.