Streaming tip: Engelke and Pastewka play (thwarted) lovers

Anke Engelke and Bastian Pastewka have been friends for decades and have often worked together: in the legendary “Wochenshow” sketches, as the quirky folk music duo Wolfgang and Anneliese or in the format “LOL: Last One Laughing”. But they have never done a series together – until now.

This Thursday (August 15th) “Perfectly Missed” starts on the streaming provider Prime. In it, good friends Engelke and Pastewka play a couple in love – or rather a couple who are not.

Her characters Maria, a bookseller, and Ralf, the owner of a sports shop, live in the same small town (in Marburg, which has not been particularly well-developed in filmmaking) and even have mutual acquaintances, but they simply don’t meet. And yet – as is clear in every scene – they would fit together perfectly.

It is also about illegal parking and cat pavements

The eight-part comedy series is about “destinations and coincidences, revenge and forgiveness, friendships and tantrums, illegal parking and cat pavement, and the eternal longing for a happy ending,” the production company btf (bildundtonfabrik) announced. In addition to Engelke and Pastewka, Fritzi Haberlandt, Edin Hasanovic, Peter Jordan, Michael Wittenborn, Serkan Kaya, Caro Scrimali and Melodie Simina will also be seen.

“My internal working title was, and this sounds terrible, comedy of errors. But ultimately it’s true: It’s about missed moments, about the fact that Maria and Ralf don’t know each other but have mutual friends, relatives and acquaintances,” said Pastewka in an interview with the German Press at the Munich Film Festival, where he presented the series together with Engelke and the team. “It was always important to me that the two worlds are separate, but that there are always connections.”

Entertaining and in parts touching

The idea came about during the Corona period during the first lockdown, said Engelke after the premiere. “We sat down together during this stupid time” and thought about joint plans. It could have been another project, she said; a book, for example. But it became a series – and one that is very entertaining and in parts also touching.

It is a little reminiscent of the hit series “Pastewka” – especially in the way the main character, the recently divorced Ralf, is portrayed. And the whole thing is then perfectly complemented by Engelke’s Maria, who is somewhat desperate about love and is stuck in an affair with her ex – the man who left her for her former best friend and now wants to marry her.

A series about growing older – or simply a good story

“It served the comedy to tell that Maria and Ralf are people who have already been through a lot. Ralf has a family, Maria has been a bookseller for a long time. Ralf is getting divorced, Maria’s arch enemy Johanna has stolen her book idea. Both characters are suddenly caught between a rock and a hard place and have to reinvent themselves,” says Pastewka.

“And it’s funny because they’re that age and are obviously drawing on experiences that they may have had for the first time 30 years ago. And now they think they can copy what happened back then,” the actor continued. “But of course things turn out differently.”

But age itself was not the main topic, Engelke emphasised: “We were just interested in the story. Maybe ten years ago, 20 years ago we could have thought of something like that. We think missing out is great,” she explains. “We think the philosophical basis is great, saying: Who talks about missed opportunities? When is an opportunity missed? Are there coincidences? Is there fate? Is there predestination? We found that much more exciting.”