Last crime scene with Kasumba and Furtwängler from Göttingen

PArty atmosphere at the Göttingen police headquarters. Department head Gerd Liebig (Luc Feit) celebrates his 60th birthday, his thank you speech is warmly awkward. For Commissioner Charlotte Lindholm (Maria Furtwängler) this is a reason to jump into the fray. She can't help but make smug comments to the likeable stranger, who turns out to be Liebig's wife Tereza (Bibiana Beglau). The potential for upset is smiled away.

It's different with forensic pathologist Nick Schmitz (Daniel Donskoy): He insults the parcel delivery man who delivers celebration items ordered at short notice. Only Lindholm, who was just interpersonally obtuse, is now completely empathetic and is the only one who sees the plight of the tired, stressed delivery person. Who immediately drives his vehicle into a group of people without braking. A woman dies, there are seriously injured people, including the Romanian courier driver Ilie Balan (Adrian Djokic) himself.

Was it a shooting spree, a terrorist attack – or the result of inhumane working conditions in the parcel delivery industry? Tereza Liebig is a doctor who immediately helps with the initial care of the victims. Why did Liebig keep the acquaintance of his great wife from his colleagues so far? Lindholm is wondering that more and more.

The claim to point out grievances is too intentional

On the one hand, this final “crime scene” from Göttingen revolves around working conditions in the parcel delivery industry. On the other hand, the longer the investigation lasts and after the structures of sub-sub-corporate relationships have been discursively processed, a second level comes to the foreground. It's about suspected domestic violence and the ability of those affected to get help before it's too late. The script by Christine Hartmann (also director) based on a template by Stefan Dähnert needs all sorts of construction crutches to link the two fields with each other. As a viewer, you have to be exceptionally well-intentioned to accept the improbabilities and coincidences of the personal connection between central characters. Unfortunately, even if you have a great understanding of the legitimate concerns of this crime thriller, you don't really warm to “Ghost Ride”. The claim to point out grievances is too intentional. The desire to flesh out the latent relationship triangle between Inspector Anais Schmitz (Florence Kasumba), her husband Nick (Donskoy) and the temporarily no longer lonely wolf Lindholm (Furtwängler), to tell everything to the end and to leave nothing open, is all too visible.

The investigative duo, who are once again following separate research paths, would have hoped that their always virulent team problem would have come to a professional head. Why the rivalry between two “alpha women” (as it was always called by the NDR editorial team) now ends in private life, namely in their affection for Nick Schmitz, remains the secret of the Göttingen “crime scene”. Florence Kasumba's role, especially in “Ghost Ride,” is less interesting than Furtwängler's.

In 2019, when Commissioner Lindholm, who had been transferred from Hanover to Göttingen, investigated for the first time together with Commissioner Schmitz, or rather alongside her, one could hope for crime themes that were up to date. Everyday racism, diversity, teamwork, women-doing-their-thing escalation, that was on the agenda here and could have developed. Lindholm's role, however, pushed itself into pole position with its problems, perspectives and socially incompatible pose. That's a shame and a wasted opportunity.

This time Lindholm discusses employer responsibility with a manager of the fictional parcel service DDP, discusses with a therapist the difficulties of (outwardly) successful women in disclosing themselves in cases of domestic violence, stands up to the police chief (Wiebke Puls), and confronts the subcontractor Mischa Reichelt (Christoph Letkowski), whose wife Jutta (Lea Willkowsky) is, of all people, the nurse caring for the driver in the accident and an employee of the ward doctor Tereza Liebig. Schmitz remains the part of professional, almost stoic composure.

“Ghost Trip” is a weak farewell to Göttingen, inconspicuously designed by Peter Nix's camera, despite Bibiana Beglau and Luc Feit, who play their parts impressively. The Cologne “Tatort: ​​Des Anderen Last” recently presented the structural and human problems of the parcel delivery industry in more detail; Bjarne Mädel as the parcel deliverer Volker in “Delivered” is also well remembered. The Göttingen chapter for the “crime scene” is closed. Lindholm's penance is over. For the Schmitz couple, the script offers career consolation prizes for a low-tension ending.

The Crime scene: ghost ride runs on Sunday at 8:15 p.m. on Erste.