When men want to know everything better: “Tatort: ​​The Cold House”

Updated on 06/05/2022 at 11:00 am

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A psychologist has disappeared and her husband has blood on his hands. But the chief of police doesn’t care about the female intuition of his commissioner. The Dresden “crime scene: the cold house” wants to tell about a toxic marriage, but is only convincing in one respect.

What kind of people are they who hang up self-portraits in their apartments? No wedding photos or snapshots from vacation, but huge, staged pictures. As if, like in the past, portraits of nobles should be invited to be admired. Such pictures hang in the Fischers’ cold house, which gives the new “crime scene” from Dresden (Monday, June 6, 8:15 p.m., Das Erste) its name. Clearly an odd couple.

The villa may be a stuffy house, but it’s actually not a cold house at all. Despite “smart” amenities like voice-controlled music, there’s a lot of wood, half-timbering, and parquet flooring to be seen. But then these pictures stare at you, especially of Kathrin Fischer (Amelie Kiefer) and also of her husband Simon (Christian Bayer). They’re cold. And then in this dark night there is a marriage bed covered in blood.

“Tatort: ​​The Cold House” deals with violence in marriage

At the latest at this sight, the two inspectors Karin Gorniak (Karin Hanczewski) and Leonie Winkler (Cornelia Gröschel) get scary. Simon Fischer misses his wife, and because he is a terribly important businessman, a great friend of the public prosecutor and the mayor and probably also the last descendant of the Saxon royal family, half of the Dresden police soon arrive. While Simon Fischer himself runs through the streets covered in blood looking for his Kathrin.

It’s never just Kathrin. Always “my Kathrin”. The thing is this: Simon Fischer already misses his wife when she just goes to the shed where the psychologist records her successful YouTube advice videos: “Steps to Happiness”. And if his Kathrin doesn’t want to lead a happy marriage as desperately as he does, then the choleric man’s hand slips from sheer exuberant love.

At least that’s what Karin Gorniak suspects, because, as we will learn in “The Cold House”, she has very personal experiences with violence in marriage. But Simon Fischer is far too well connected to be treated as the main suspect so quickly. Everyone is afraid of him – his wife possibly of his violence, everyone else of his money and influence. Which is why police chief Peter Michael Schnabel (Martin Brambach) angrily snaps at Karin Gorniak: “It’s not about her feelings!”

Domestic violence or friendships: what is the “crime scene” really about?

But that’s what it’s all about. About female intuition, women’s friendship, solidarity. Domestic violence, complicated love relationships with broken dependencies, on the other hand, are only mentioned marginally, even if the story by Christoph Busche and co-author Anne Zohra Berrached wants us to believe that. We simply learn too little about the Fischers as a couple.

Most of the time we see an agitated Simon running through the plot, who declares his love for his Kathrin by means of inner monologues. Which seems more mannered than threatening. It is also constantly claimed that he is a tough, power-conscious businessman, but never shown. The humor in “The Cold House” is also disconcerting, apparently intended to loosen up the serious issue of toxic relationships.

However, when the serious topic is only told about a worried and offended detective and a rather ridiculous-looking husband, it doesn’t seem all that serious and the humorous interludes only make the story even more unbelievable. “I have a feeling that something is wrong,” says Leonie Winkler at some point – and you can only agree with her.

Strong women in “crime scene: the cold house”

Anne Zohra Berrached also wrote the crazy Bremen “Tatort: ​​Liebeswut” from last weekend, about which the director says she wanted to tell the story “directly, immediately and loudly” and that she didn’t care about the claim to reality. “The cold house” seems as if she had already felt like doing it here, but didn’t really dare. There are many meaningful images and busy edits, but at the same time little happens and doesn’t quite fit together.

More information about the “crime scene” can be found here

Anne Zohra Berrached’s staging is always strongest when she concentrates on the women who turn a cold house into a warm one: there is the forensics team, which consists only of women, as Leonie Winkler comments in astonishment, and they themselves as a soundtrack to Bruce Springsteen’s work. There is the easy-going policewoman Eva (Nadja Stübiger), who brings along important information, drinks and a birthday cake.

Colleagues Gorniak and Winkler also come a step closer in view of the male ignorance of intuition. A strangely pale role, however, is that of Beate Lindweg (Katharina Behrens): She was the best friend of the missing Kathrin Fischer, as claimed, but is shown unconvincingly.

In the end, one can be happy about the friendly women’s bonds that were made or strengthened here. But the rest leaves you pretty cold.