The perpetrator's name is Appold and he's a convicted sex offender, one of three suspects.
Lena Odenthal can only convict him when she cracks his girlfriend, who gave him a false alibi.
The investigation was tough, and only moderately exciting for the viewers.
And it was a while ago, because when Ulrike Folkerts, alias Lena Odenthal, had her first assignment, the Berlin Wall was still standing.
Since then, the inspector has ensured law and order in Ludwigshafen seventy-five times, with Johanna Stern (Lisa Bitter) assisting her for eight years.
The most innovative "crime scene" episodes are not.
In the south-west, people appreciate proper police work, thinking aloud about possible crimes and looking into the middle of nowhere.
It shouldn't come as a surprise that 33 years of backbreaking work have left their mark.
The fact that in the latest case Odenthal's "ugly, wrinkled face" is mentioned seems a bit unfair.
Of course, it is an angry child who speaks like this, the cunning elementary school student Madita (Hanna Lazarakopoulos): type of gang leader and not the only one with potential for aggression.
There's Pit (Finn Lehmann), who suddenly starts yelling, and of course Marlon (Lucas Herzog), a system cracker who didn't just seem to have Madita on his back.
But the eight-year-old is above all a victim here, in the worst possible way: he lies, fallen to his death, at the foot of the elementary school stairs, although he was actually banned from entering the building.
It is not a problem school, but an exemplary facility.
“act in affect, I would say”
The episode "Marlon", directed by Isabel Braak (screenplay: Karlotta Ehrenberg), brings together everything that speaks for and against the "crime scene": a socially relevant topic - aggressive children who not only overwhelm their parents who feel guilty - , psychological resilience, believable empathy, an unbelievable twist, shameless boldness (a teacher trembles at little Marlon's freaks out; right after the fatal fall we hear a childish rhyme: "Traffic light red. Mickey Mouse dead") as well as dialogues that don't even precede seemed fresh after the fall of the Berlin Wall: "'Someone has closed their eyes' – 'which indicates an emotional connection.'" "'Act in anger, I would say' – 'well, the perpetrator could also have been disturbed.'"
Well, otherwise it could have been one way or another until the search for the nudge is resolved in the usual manner, although it doesn't really matter.
Whether the blame lies with one of the children, with Madita's seemingly pitiless father (Urs Jucker), the bullied caretaker (Georg Blumreiter), Marlon's own parents (Julischka Eichel, Markus Lerch) or a completely different person, it is more important to the film to point out the "vicious circle" of aggression and rejection.
The school social worker Anton Leu (Ludwig Trepte), an important helper for the inspectors because he is the only one who has access to the students, puts it in a nutshell: “Children are not the problem.
You have one.”
The depiction of helplessness in the face of children's outbursts of anger is not as convincing as in "System Crasher" (2019), but it is clearly visible how overwhelmed parents and teachers withdraw to themselves instead of seeking help.
So "Marlon" could have been a realistic drama, moderately exciting, but carried by a noticeable and musically well supported inner tension.
Unfortunately, the creators didn't rely on this dimension, but added elements that weaken the result.
On the one hand, the investigators have to artificially recreate the course of events.
On the other hand, the book attributes mirror image aggression to both protagonists: Stern has to deal with her anger as a single mother.
She yells into plastic bags and confesses to her colleague: "Such a loss of control,
that's really terrible.
You make such bad mistakes.” Odenthal, on the other hand, doesn't have any children, “but I used to be one and I remember well how crappy it felt when you wanted to get rid of me”.
That should probably explain why she now touches some suspects extremely hard.
Then you stare musingly into nowhere while the case solves itself almost by itself thanks to classic police methods.
In Ludwigshafen, the “crime scene” might even get by without commissioners.
while the case solves itself thanks to classic police methods.
In Ludwigshafen, the “crime scene” might even get by without commissioners.
while the case solves itself thanks to classic police methods.
In Ludwigshafen, the “crime scene” might even get by without commissioners.
The scene of the crime: Marlon
is on Sunday at 8:15 p.m. on the first.