Close to Home: Murder in the Coalfield (2022) User Reviews

Exciting but sometimes impenetrable

[laduqesa · 6/10 · 26 September 2022]

This was a cop drama that had several strands with some of them having happened in the past and retold as flashbacks. This didn't make for a particularly cohesive story even though events in the past impinged greatly on the present-day investigation. At times it was rather hard to get the various timelines and events meshed together and melded in one's head.

There were a few loose ends too - we never got to know who the top dog was for instance. Where did the junkies go after eviction? And a couple of scenes were not credible - falling from a very tall building is fatal but not in the series - the guy was out of bed within a couple of weeks. These aren't strong enough hooks to be cliffhangers.

However the plot moved on at a fast pace involving input from family members as well as normal and methodical police work. On balance I'd say that I enjoyed the show.

Edit: There are no "spoilers" here in the sense used by this site. Please don't flag it again.

Close to Home: Murder in the Coalfield

[Tweekums · 7/10 · 9 April 2023]

This six part series is set in what was a coal mining area of East Germany; now the mining has stopped and there are plans to attract tourists by converting the huge pits into lakes. As the story opens the body of a teenage girl is found on the shore of one of these lakes. Maik Briegand, a local man who now works for the national police force leads to investigation with new partner Annalena Gottknecht. There are quite a few suspects; the homeless man who found the body, her boyfriend, a local policeman who is involved with her mother, a property developer and a group of environmental campaigners based in nearby woods.

I thought this was a solid murder mystery that is told effectively. Key characters are quickly introduced as the investigation gets underway. Good use is made of the fact that this used to be East Germany with older residents missing the certainty of a job in the mine while younger people want nothing to do with polluting coal. There are enough suspects to keep one guessing right till the final reveal. The cast does a solid job. Overall a decent murder mystery set in an interesting location, worth watching if you enjoy the genre.

These comments are based on watching the series in German with English subtitles.

More of a drama and not a true murder event.

[thedailydaisy · 5/10 · 5 May 2023]

Very hard to get into this one. As a true crime author, I usually love true crime series, especially crimes set in Europe. It was disjointed and not really focused on the murder or the investigation. There were some characters who didn't seem to fit the narrative. Some of the others had too much going on that didn't seem to make any sense with respect to the crime. I had a hard time following the plot line.

I am searching to see if there are any other documentaries about this crime to compare it to, but if not, I would not recommend this one if you are a true crime junkie. You'll know after the first episode of you should keep watching.

Good buildup, disappointing reveal

[Hughmanity · 7/10 · 3 April 2023]

Overall this was a good season 1 with interesting plot, characters and backdrop in East Germany where the history as a soviet state has had a heavy influence on some of the elders and is reaching forward to influence the current murder mystery case as well.

The show does a nice job of building up the characters and giving us some potential early suspects who of course don't pan out but they still play a role in the overall mystery so that's good writing.

The let down comes when we finally, late in episode 5 (out of 6) get the reveal of the real serial killer and....it's someone we've never met before! Or at least I don't remember meeting him prior. He has a soft link to another minor character in the show but that's it. It just seemed kind of cheap to me and not earned with prior exposure to this character.

That issue put this in the 6-7 range for me instead of an 8, so I gave it a 7 just because I did still enjoy the show and would watch a second season.

Solid performances, loose ends

[rveks-37909 · 6/10 · 27 December 2023]

This was a good watch on a rainy afternoon. Kept my attention, it was engaging, it was interesting. I felt that the first three episodes were really set up to draw the audience in. Lots of interesting (and different) ideas and characters. Lots of backstory in flashbacks on the lead man Maik, and lots of questions - even intrigue - was Maik a killer?? And great family drama with an interesting father and brother.

The side story with the dead girls little brother held my interest as well. Also the ex-wife and her boyfriend storyline could have been drawn out some more, it was interesting. So for all the lead-up to what should have been a good climax, and enough drama from the past to pack a powerful ending, the last two episodes just felt a little lack-luster. And the abduction in the last few minutes seems a little thrown in. Probably a different person should have been abducted, seemed unbelievable and didn't really fit with the story line. Unnecessary. So for this reason I give it six stars. And the last thing that I thought was a little unnecessary, Was the attire of the leading lady. Um, Aren't you a police officer? Where is your uniform, lady? When everyone else is wearing jackets and long sleeves, a tank top seemed ridiculous. In... Every... Scene. Like I said, this was a rainy days binge watch for me, and I enjoyed it.

Well done

[JohnM63 · 8/10 · 26 March 2023]

An intriguing post-GDR thriller with a good, though depressing, atmosphere. After a girl is murdered the plot slowly develops towards a rather unexpected end. The former GDR political culture is nicely intertwined with the current atmosphere in the former Eastern Germany and with the former coal industry there. An intelligent crime story that at times may get you a little lost, but always timely returns on to the right track. If you're into crime mystery, intrigue within a depressing atmosphere that seems to hold no hope for anyone, then this is definitely for you. Do not expect a fast paced thriller. The story needs six episodes to unfold. Photography, dialogues, acting and scenario are decent, not special, but good enough. The only aspects that seems out of place are some of the theme songs. O right, the scenes filmed in driving cars are technically very poor. Not every series can have 10 stars.

Story not told in a sensible manner

[qui_j · 4/10 · 29 March 2023]

This series is interesting enough to watch, but unfortunately is not told in a very coherent manner. The scenes do not flow in a manner that enables viewers to understand the events. There is little context provided so the dots do not always connect up in a way to produce a smoothly flowing narrative. Some scenes just seem to be out of sequence and irrelevant to the main plot. The constant use of flashbacks at very awkward moments is distracting and confusing. The series is watchable but does tend to drag a bit. It is the lack of connectivity between the scenes that make the series incomprehensible at times!

Fresh take on old plot structures

[anthony-742 · 8/10 · 26 March 2023]

This first-rate noir production puts a fresh spin on the shopworn plot tripod involving a mysterious murder (yes, the victim is tragically young and very pretty), the detective(s) with a screwed up life, and "evil business"...oh, I forgot the corrupt cop, so that makes four legs. Yet, character development via superb writing and acting (female cop costar is a genius IMO), make it a most gripping and satisfying watch. The music is likewise as pitch perfect as the script. As an aside, one wonders for the millionth time why the writing for and acting by American child actors is so mundane/awful/unimaginative? Dustin, younger brother of the deceased, gives an amazing performance of a poignant character you won't forget.

Disappointing 6th episode

[blum-1 · 3/10 · 18 May 2023]

This series is an above-average German production. If it get's compared to upper level US- or UK-series, it loses in several aspects. But for a German series dialogues are surprisingly ok, sometimes even good. Camera and cut is much better than average German series, I only dislike the audio engineering of voices, too often it appers mumbled and undistinct. I suspect some strange compressor and deesser settings.

Background story wise a lot of post-GDR frustration and disillusion comes into play, an aspect that for non-german watchers can be hard to grasp. The coal mine setting delivers some spectacular views, but in thd long run it becomes redundant and in strange way thrown in artificially.

Story unfolding went in a slow manner but with constant tension which kept me interested throughout, until the final episode. Instantaneously the story turned into a typical seriesmurder story, introducing a new, completely awkwark character, using all stereotypes you seen 1000 times, including the unevitable attempt to kill another girl (yes, it has to be the cop's daughter!) which for sure gets rescued last minute and the muderer committing suicide. This ending was just plain awful, uninspired, clichee laden writing. I was really pissed. On top of that comes a series of "everybody gets happy again" shots which are plain dumb.

Good start, very bad ending.

A Good Deceive Story

[vrcnyny · 9/10 · 11 April 2023]

A great story BUT one has to pay attention.

I left the show in German and read the subtitles in English.

The only character that I had a problem with was Annalena the cop who in charge of the murder investigation. When will script writers learn how to write for a successful, accomplished women without her coming across as less than/a bit@#. The detective is well versed in policy and procedures BUT does not get along with others. She is not a team player. At times she comes across as a bully and can come across as bias in her thought process. Towards the end of the 6th episode this was addressed. All in all she has little compassion and is all about results. And what's with asking point blank a subordinate for sex and stating that no feelings will be involved.

The other lead detective Maik is going back to his home town to conduct the murder investigation and with it comes all his baggage that he has put behind him.

I loved the filming of the series. The music. The flashbacks.

If you love a good mystery, want something non formulaic, this a good choice.

An absolute travesty, and sadly, not even the funny kind.

[terriblelie-93836 · 2/10 · 30 August 2023]

I had zero expectations from this show, as I just wanted to pick up some average-looking German show to hone my German skills. 6 episodes, some kind of crime-mistery; why not? I lgenerally like those.

Oh boy, was I in for a great surprise! The whole show is basically a lecture about environment protection. Yes, you guessed it: a teenage girl completely stomps her parents and grandparents, because she's vegan and she hates coal, and she is the future and she's cool, unlike her lame and stupid parents and grandparents. Very cool. I just had one question: what does it have to do with the murder? Let me help you out in advance: nothing. This is pretty much a 6 episode long "coal is bad, meat is bad, save the planet" message, which needed something else going on to stretch the screentime, so throw in a murder, why not! Extremely dumb, extremely condescending. Don't worry, the final reveal about the murder is even worse! I had to pause the show because I had so much second-hand embarassment.

And I'm not even for coal or anything. I support a healthy environment, but either make a series about that, or a murder-mistery. These amateurs fused these in the worst possible way imaginable, which backfired horribly. I don't think I have ever had this much sympathy to evil coal-moguls than after watching this preachy show.

The skeleton of the whole series is bang average as well. Someone died ---> who done it? ---> the plot thickens ---> finale. It's extremely boring and holds no surprises. In fact, we are constantly being introduced to new characters, which absolutely destroys the fun of a show like this: the whole point would be to meet the cast early, and try to figure out who could've been the murderer and why.

The writing is atrocious. There are several sub-plots which go nowhere, gets unresolved, or has a random, unsatisfying endings.

The characters are boring, wooden, and other than the little boy, it's hard to care about them. The only character which was decently written was André. The male protagonist is as interesting as watching a paint try, though he has screen presence, I give him that.

The female lead was pretty much a cheap copy of the lead from The Bridge. She's on the spectrum, has bad social skills, but a great cop. Sadly, this cop is nothing special in her field, and her bad social skils are just awkward without any payoff. I was willing to bet my left leg after the first episode, that these terrible writers will copy the scene from The Bridge, where the detective woman whom they copied here, casually walks into a bar and asks a stranger if he wants to have sex with her. That was really funny in The Bridge. Don't worry, these writers totally butchered it here.

Honestly, I can't give a single reason why anyone should watch this. It does a terrible job at making you care about the environment, in fact, it makes you want to strangle that smug, condescending teenage girl, but it is also an extremely boring and slow murder-mistery with no surprises whatsoever.

Borefest

[geewhiz46 · 2/10 · 25 March 2023]

If you like female led plodding police procedurals with a "message" then I guess you will enjoy this series.

It concerns a policeman - Maik - and a new officer - Anna - who is - of course his superior with a smart alec know it all attitude which includes the confidence to approach another male officer with an offer for sex.

The plot? A serial killer is on the loose - and a girl- Ramona is found drowned which sparks an investigation that soon connects her death to other female deaths in the past.

There are sub-plots which have a connection to the current murder - a junkie female - the mother of the dead girl who is in a drug fuelled haze all of the time - she doesn't seem to remember that she has a son whom Ramona looked after. The boy is severely neglected. Maik is separated from his wife - she has a lover - Florian - who used Ramona for drug purchases.

Maik also has a brother who used to be a policeman but who has gone over to the dark side.

He also has a daughter Jackie - who is a climate activist.

All this is revealed in a torturously slow manner for the first five episodes.

The ending is sanctimonious and stupid at the same time - everybody gets to live a better life - nobody is left out - drug addicts recover - families reconnect - I expected a rousing chorus of "We shall overcome" as the credits rolled.

Awful.

Martin who?

[rosieslot-88087 · 4/10 · 1 January 2024]

Everyone who knows anything about this genre of movie knows..you can't just throw the murderer in the last minute.

There should at least be some mention of even his name somewhere, anywhere before you suddenly throw him in as the sterilised psychopath rapist.

Come on guys..at least read up on storylines before producing this drivel. It had potential until it didn't.

There were plenty of possible suspects, fingers pointing subtley to a few ne'er do wells. Drug angle, jealousy, accident but to just have 1 lone maniac that no-one has heard of, who spent.most of his life in asylums with no access to rejection by women, suddenly be the invisible computer genius lunatic...please.

Average at best. Voice actors are the worst

[dgross116 · 2/10 · 1 April 2023]

I love cop shows, and was hoping for something along the lines of Broadchurch. I don't love watching movies in dubbed English, but I had other things to accomplish while watching.

The show itself is fine. Too many flashbacks, etc., but overall - it was passable.

HOWEVER - my negative opinion is almost assuredly affected by the god-bloody-awful English speaking actors who did the voice-over work here. Add a few percentage points to your budget and get some actors, because hiring your Uncle Jimmy to do this was horrifying. For example -- some dude tried to sound gruff when voicing the old guy who discovers the dead body, but just sounded like a guy struggling to lower his voice for 1/2 a scene.

Overall, they were flat, uninterested, over-pronounced, and just plain cartoonish. No... most cartoons do far, far better.

Pass on this.

Maybe It Works In German(y)

[johnseegers · 4/10 · 8 April 2023]

I suspect that if you live in Germany, speak German and know (east) German history this might work much better. Sadly it is currently running on Netflix with English dubbing and subtitles. We watched the entire season but somehow it just doesn't quite work. It seems to have taken on too many causes to address and ended up not giving enough time to any of them to make it engaging or getting me to care about any of the characters. If you have nothing else to watch eh you could do worse. If you have something better to watch do that instead. IMDB words to make up their stupid 600 count here blah, blah.

Review Written after Episode 1

[hilaryjrp · 5/10 · 25 March 2023]

As a fan of what, now, I suppose must be old-school Belgian noir, I rejoined Netflix. That streaming channel's violence quotient renders almost everything--sometimes including documentaries--unwatchable for me. But since I love me some Belgian noir, I rejoined.

This is going to be a long review. Please skip if you're not into long reviews.

The gold-standard for Belgian Noir is 2017's "The Break" or (en francais) "Le Treve." It is so good, I have sometimes rejoined Netflix specifically to rewatch only it. I watch it in the original French. But I sometimes will listen to an English-audio version, as I did here with Lauchhammer. I wonder if I'm the only one in Netflix-land to wonder if the same male English dubber is used in absolutely every French/German production? I'm not whistling Dixie, and so, if you watch this in English, take my word that the material is much less theatrical and high-strung in the original.

I keep saying, "French." I assume this production was made in the Wallonia region. When I hit "Play," the language went directly to French with English subtitles, not German.

The noir genre requires--*requires*--esthetically appealing atmosphere. "The Break" had enough atmosphere for fifteen seasons. Not "Lauchhammer." Swamps and moors (moors? In Wallonie?) don't cut it. The noir genre also requires pacing that introduces additional suspects at a slow pace. Holy crow! We're introduced to everyone and his or her mother-in-law as a potential killer here.

"The Break's" use of homeless squatters with dreadlocks was kept to a minimum in both that series' seasons. Homeless squatters are like mustard--perhaps tasty if used sparingly, depressing as all hell when made the focus, or seeming focus, of the plot.

Lastly, "The Break" *entertained.* That's a horrible word to use about the murders of two extremely endearing main characters (Seasons 1 and 2). However, the victim here seems merely a sullen Millennial. Anyone who recalls the heartbreaking Driss Assani, the African immigrant from Season 1, will recall that Driss was anything but a sullen Millennial.

The pile-on of characters, potential motives, possible baddies in just one episode proved too much for me. I intended to follow the series, because Juri was clearly the "Kevin" ("The Break") character here. The thing is that every blessed character in "The Break" was fascinating in his or her mixture of good and evil.

If the writers/producers of Lauchhammer were thinking to appeal to die-hard fans of "La Treve," oh, dear, as of Episode 1, you have gotten so many things wrong--including the politically correct, sparring female-male detective team. Annalena is SO not the beloved "Marjo" ("The Break").

Maybe I'll continue with it, maybe I won't. I do not need Sullen Millennial Cinema. Maybe that's what Netflix should rename itself: Sullen Millennial Cinema... in the Multiverse!

Technically very nicely realized thriller, with too much "social - environmental" finger pointing

[Streaming-Kati · 5/10 · 24 February 2024]

Each episode begins with a melancholy, deep voice, accompanied by images captured in warm yellow tones, ranging from wildly romantic to excerpts of a mysterious murder. The action takes place against the backdrop of a disused coal mine in Lusatia, which symbolizes environmental pollution and the downfall, the past of the GDR. Quote from Lauchhammer: "one of the most expensive disposable items of reunification".

As German productions like to attach great importance to conveying a message, classic old and current clichés are used here once again to raise a warning finger. So you can already guess that we have to deal with East German frustration and the climate stickers, whether we like it or not. Unfortunately, the moral ambitions are usually so high that it sometimes seems overloaded.

Unfortunately, German productions lack the courage to go their own way, so they follow in the footsteps of tried and tested colleagues from abroad. As a result, the two main investigators are made up of a quiet, emphatic man and a mostly newly assigned socially incompetent female colleague, as is currently very popular. He has his roots where the murder took place and has to come to terms with his past. As a result, the story is spread across different timelines and an earlier murder and several social stories are told in parallel. On the one hand, this makes for a multi-layered story, but it also distracts more and more from the actual murder case, which fades into the background.

The story unfolds slowly but builds up the suspense constantly, despite a few "social" gap fillers, some of which drag on a little. There are always enough suspects to keep you guessing until the case is finally solved.

The entire cast does a solid job. Little Dustin, who took my heart by storm, is particularly endearing. Lucas Gregorowic, who I really like, was absolutely convincing in his role. The dialog also stands out positively overall. The technical realization is excellent, capturing a great melancholic mood with a beautiful image and color design. The camera, lighting and editing deserve praise here, they are much better than the average German series.

Unfortunately, the characterization is too negative, clichéd and flat for me. The old East Germans who weep for their GDR, the drug-addicted mother in cheap "Berlin-Marzahn" clothes with a child without a father. And of course the Fridays for Future group of the vegan granddaughter with protests and "forest occupation". This gives the whole series the feel of an environmental protection lecture with a 4.1/2 hour message: "Coal is bad, meat is bad, save the planet". Which is basically not a bad thing if you don't just keep asking yourself the question, "Who else was the murder victim?"

------------- Conclusion:

So-so - For fans of German crime thrillers, this is a high-quality production worth seeing that stands out from the classic Tatort, is multi-layered and wonderfully shot.

Terrible in a long way

[cepheus-2 · 2/10 · 24 January 2024]

So many things went wrong with this "series". The acting is flat, the lead actress was the wrong pick completely. She tries to give some kind of performance but isn't up to the task. It's start and stop with her all through the 6 episodes.

Story wise , this isn't the way to tell a story. All of this could have been wrapped up if they focused on the actually story they were trying to tell instead of the multiple sub stories and vapid useless add on characters. No one important gets any character development and the lead actress who gets too much screen time, still feels one dimensional and forced.

There are far better murder mysteries on Netflix.