Babylon Berlin season 3

The German noir series set in Berlin during the 1920s started strong in season one and is one of Germany's most expensive TV shows with its lavish attention to detail as the city's bygone architecture is vividly brought back to life. The story followed Inspector Gereon Rath and his investigation into a collection of film negatives which quickly spiralled into something far greater as we see the country gradually shift away from the Weimar Republic that would last from 1918 to 1933. 

Season three takes place in 1929 and sees Rath and Charlotte Ritter tasked with investigating a supposed accidental death on a film set, which is connected with Armenian crime boss, Edgar Kasabian. Greta Overbeck is also facing a death sentence following the murder of Benda while Gottfried Wendt continues his ruthless plans to reshape Germany with the help of his associates. 

The third season of Babylon Berlin is not short on story but is unfortunately far from being all that engaging. Not only is the show now missing a key piece with Rath's interactions with Bruno (who goes by unmentioned this season), following season two's rather overly dramatic conclusion, but it also fails to find central narrative to pull the many threads of this season together in a way that felt satisfying. It seems this should have been the film set murder but these scenes lack the urgency and excitement for a main storyline when compared to the sub-plotlines with Greta and Wendt where the director's focus should be aiming. 

The cast and visuals are still all terrific but the series has hit a point where it is no longer an easy one to recommend to newcomers unless the time period and history is of interest to you. For every great moment where the show finds momentum, we have the dull subplots with Helga Rath, Charlotte's sister, a wholly unnecessary segment with Charlotte performing for money and a bizarre cult scene with Rath's brother that made little sense, and detracts from my overall feelings on this season. 

Babylon Berlin expands its narrative this season to a myriad of storylines, which yield mixed results, when it should be focusing on the foreboding troubles Germany has yet to come. The heart of the story should be with Greta and the season does find its footing towards the very end in a dramatic final episode but it's an ending that made me ask "Did we need all that stuff with the film set death and the masked murderer?". I think the answer is no and it seems that many other fans found this season to be subpar compared to how it began so strongly. Hopefully the time between this season's release in 2020 and the fourth will be enough to bring the show back on course as it has so much potential.