Christoph Darnstädt

In rural Westphalia, Franz Berger struggles to keep his inn open. On this day, a bluff, overbearing bully, Hermann Walzer, has booked the dining room for a wedding banquet for his son Mark. There's bad blood between Berger and Walzer, so when the first course, shrimp cocktail, is off, Hermann storms out with the wedding party vowing not to pay. Franz locks the loo door, taking prisoners of the bride and Hermann's wife while he also locks the estate's outer gates, leaving Hermann and the rest outside. Walzer, a pheasant hunter, lays siege; shotguns, rifles, grenades, a shovel, and other weapons leave no one safe. Will it take death to bring these men to their senses?

Catastrophic power outage in Berlin. Poorly maintained grids, greedy power companies and corrupt politicians are to blame. The result is riots and looting. Can senior engineer Anja Radke save the day? But then she comes under suspicion of being involved in the incidents.

The Wagners' marriage is as good as over. But just as the couple are on vacation in Tenerife, a boat carrying black African refugees lands. Eleven-year-old Jamaal is hiding in the couple's vacation bungalow. Jamaal's father supposedly lives in Germany. Should the Wagners help him escape to Germany? And will Jamaal perhaps save the Wagners' marriage? Then: Thank you, colored refugee child!

Having just arrived in Vienna, eight-year-old Tao is forced to watch as two men murder his relatives in their Chinese restaurant. The killers catch him too, but the boy manages to escape. When Ester, who has recently gone blind, crosses his path, he follows her into her apartment. Unfortunately, the strange woman doesn't understand his excitement. Meanwhile, LKA officers Decker and Kriesch take over the murder case. Not at all reassuring for the witness, because the two killers and the two officers are one and the same person...

In his own Hotel Ritz, Sophie mistakes Johannes for the expected temporary waiter and is quickly trained in the supposed task. Johannes gets involved and gets to know the hotel business and the employees from a new perspective.

Day in, day out, Niklas ‘Nick’ Tschiller and his partner Yalcin Gümer investigate crimes that are happening in Hamburg. But at some point even the policeman needs a break to spend time with his daughter Lenny. Then it says: Tschiller a.D. - out of service - goodbye to Hamburg. However, simply relaxing is easier said than done, because crime never sleeps and a new, very personal case throws a spanner in the works for Nick's plans for a well-deserved break. Even on vacation, the criminal investigator is not sure about his job and so a wild journey soon takes him across Europe, including to Istanbul and Moscow.

Two-year-old Paulina is suddenly no longer in her crib, and everything points to an abduction. But the hijacker does not answer.

A kidnapping case starts a dangerous game of cat and mouse for Berlin detective Martin Brühl in the world of illegal car racing. 19-year-old Tim Jatzkowski doesn't come home. At first this is nothing to worry about. But then his father, luxury car dealer Heiner Jatzkowski, receives a ransom demand. Martin Brühl and his team encounter a shocked mother and a rather shirt-sleeved father who thinks the police should do their job and find Tim. The detective tries to convince Jatzkowski to pay the ransom. Among Jatzkowski's regular customers, whom he supplies with tuned luxury sports cars, there are plenty with contacts to the Berlin clans. He decides against paying the ransom.

Empathy is a two-edged sword, especially for Martin. Tormented by the past, haunted by the present, the chief inspector is a brilliant investigator and, together with his team, solves the most convoluted cases. From kidnapping to hostage situations, to murder. Unable to eat or sleep until a case is solved, they all take their toll.

The Munich LKA officer Sandra Rutkowski received an anonymous call in which a star tenor from the Munich State Opera was accused of molesting children. A boy brought to him is said to be locked in the cloakroom of the singer, who is still being celebrated on the stage. When Sandra and the Munich inspector Lukas Laim break down the door to the cloakroom, they find an intimidated, apathetic boy in the closet.

20 volunteers agree to take part in a seemingly well-paid experiment advertised by the university. It is supposed to be about aggressive behavior in an artificial prison situation. A journalist senses a story behind the ad and smuggles himself in among the test subjects. They are randomly divided into prisoners and guards. What seems like a game at the beginning soon turns into bloody seriousness.

Commissioner Branka Marić is summoned to the idyllic yet secretive island of Brač, where two women are brutally murdered in quick succession, forcing her and partner Emil Perica to unravel a web of long-buried feuds, jealousy, and vengeance among tight-lipped locals.

The body of a Munich publisher is found in the gondola of a Ferris wheel, wearing a suit at the top and nothing at the bottom. A tie is tied around his neck, he has suffocated.