Television: Death of a Survivor: New Season “Beyond the Spree”

In the new season of the ZDF crime series “Beyond the Spree,” Mavi Neumann (Aybi Era) has a sad start to her birthday. The investigator from Berlin-Köpenick has to investigate the fatal fall of a cyclist from a bridge onto the hard river bank. Was she pushed? This is indicated by visible signs of battle on the chest.

The crime in the episode “Last Rescue” (November 15, 8:15 p.m.) has an additional tragic background: victim Romy Bauer (Martina Schöne-Radunski) was obviously a cancer patient who had just recovered. The investigations are becoming increasingly complex. Romy Bauer had recently left her partner and their little son for a few days; she had only just returned. In the exciting Friday crime story, the investigators also learn that the woman who was killed recently had an argument with a customer of her company. And what role does the victim’s brother play, who fears for his sick child?

“You get a second chance at life and then something like that,” Mavi sighs. Her colleague Robert Heffler (Jürgen Vogel) counters dryly: “Fate can be an asshole.” At least he can at least cheer Mavi up a little with a mini birthday cake.

Even behind the scenes, Jürgen Vogel is obviously concerned about Aybi Era’s well-being, as the actress told the WDR talk show “Kölner Treff” at the end of October. Vogel likes to give her financial tips “so that she can be prepared for anything.” He knows from his own many years of experience how volatile the acting industry can be.

For Era, mindfulness is a big topic. Her private life and work in front of the camera are very closely intertwined: “Everything that I experience as Aybi is always an opportunity for my interpretation of the game in the end, whether they are positive or challenging experiences, it doesn’t matter. I somehow relate to everything at stake.”

Meanwhile, Vogel sees the touching fates told in the series as part of the recipe for success, as he revealed in a PR interview. “We have already told tragic stories in the other seasons and we deliberately want it to be emotional. Fate touches people. Crime has a lot to do with misfortune, mistakes and strokes of fate. Everything that people do.” A clear picture of what is good and evil is old-fashioned, boring and not the truth.

“The reality is much more complicated,” says Vogel. “From the first day of your life, you make mistakes and no one knows how things will go right. If you’re lucky, you’ll get through well, but in principle people are capable of anything. Your actions always have to do with the environment in which you move and in which you grew up? Are you perhaps traumatized?

Psychology plays a very big role in the “Beyond the Spree” cases: “What kind of profile do you draw of the perpetrator. Can you understand him? Can you get in? Or do you say: “That’s just a psychopath”. Like that used to be shown a lot in horror films or thrillers.” What is interesting to him are cases in which one can trace exactly what actually led to what.