In her third case, “Tatort: The Heart of the Snake” (January 23, 8:15 p.m., the first), the cohesion of the Saarbrücken investigative team around commissioners Adam Schürk (Daniel Sträßer, born 1987) and Leo Holz (Vladimir Burlakov, 34) as well as Pia Heinrich (Ines Marie Westernströer, 35) and Esther Baumann (Brigitte Urhausen, 41) were put to the test.
That’s what “Tatort: The Heart of the Snake” is about
The investigative team is sitting in a good mood in a Saarbrücken restaurant. Leo Bäume, Adam Schürk, Esther Baumann and Pia Heinrich have just finished eating when Adam receives a text message from his father asking him to come home urgently as his mother is feeling very bad. Adam reluctantly sets off, but only meets his father at home, who pretends to have an important conversation with him.
Meanwhile, a mission message reaches the rest of the team. Leo and Pia make their way to the scene of the crime: they find the body of Cora Reuters (Joy Maria Bai) in a villa in the best part of Saarbrücken. In addition, a blood-smeared baseball bat, an empty can of pepper spray, an open safe with wads of cash in it – and a suspected perpetrator who is seriously injured on the ground and is therefore taken to the hospital. When he dies there a short time later in an unnatural way, the team around Chief Inspector Woods quickly realizes that there is more to it than an unsuccessful burglary. Initial investigations show that Cora Reuters was broken into a few months ago and a surveillance camera was secretly installed.
Adam is missing from the briefing the next morning…
Is it worth turning on?
Definitely. The still relatively new team of investigators has only delivered gripping films so far and this one can also be included from Sunday. At the center of this very exciting case is the poisoned father-son story, which also played a role in the first two Saarland thrillers.
“The new ‘Tatort’ in Saarbrücken isn’t a classic detective story, it’s more of a thriller. Instead of chasing after the clarification of a single case, we dive deep into the life and history of the two inspectors,” explains director Luzie Loose (b. 1989), who celebrates her successful “Tatort” debut with “The Heart of the Snake”. “My goal for the film was not to serve a specific genre, but to tell these characters in a dense and comprehensible manner while at the same time keeping enough secrets for subsequent films,” Loose continues.
And indeed, this Sunday thriller is teeming with psychologically exciting and complex characters. A small but should be noted: Only the job and life frustration that the investigators in the new crime show now and then seems a bit fake considering the rather young team.
Incidentally, there is hardly any respite in this dark, serious, complex and very interesting case, so viewers should enjoy the opening dinner sequence.