Series Review: "Oktoberfest: Beer & Blood" ("Oktoberfest-1900") (2020).

"The story is based on true events". This is Oktoberfest: Beer & Blood (Oktoberfest-1900). This German drama mini-series created by Christian Limmer, Ronny Schalk and Alexis Wittgenstein. In 1900 Munich, ambitious brewer Curt Prank uses brutal tactics on his quest to build a beer hall that will dominate the city's lucrative Oktoberfest.

By July 2019, Misel Maticevic, Martina Gedeck, Klaus Steinbacher, Mercedes Müller, Brigitte Hobmeier, Maximilian Brückner, Markus Krojer, Martin Feifel, and Michael Kranz were cast in a German drama mini-series about Oktoberfest with Limmer, Schalk and Wittgenstein as co-creators. At the same time, principal photography commenced and wrapped in August. Filming took place in Bavaria and North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, as well as Prague, Czech Republic.

The series stars Maticevic, Gedeck, Steinbacher, Müller, Hobmeier, Brückner, Krojer, Feifel, and Kranz. The show's central characters are power-hungry, one and all, but the inexplicable way their destinies are entangled to usher a semblance of balance posits an invisible hand guiding the motions. Perhaps the most understandable and applaudable element of the show is that its characters' psyches are absolutely affected by the world unraveling around them. You'll want to put yourself in their shoes, but not really. Maticevic coasts through each scene on the show with a unique ease that few actors are capable of.

What makes the show a quality production is the models that are presented in the introduction of the series and that vary in each episode, giving us clues about what we are going to see during the next hour. With a vision of a burgeoning beer industry and complex business-driven relationships, the series is a brilliant jewel in an endless sludge of original German Netflix titles. Whilst the show does at times take the platform format for granted, it offers an intriguing narrative that expertly intertwines the lives of numerous characters. It's a fun show that almost relishes its familiarity. Like a comfy chair, you can sink into the comfort here watch a few episodes without thinking too much. This drama has an approach that sounds hackneyed, but shows the necessary quality to become one of the year's capped series. A familiar tale of a seemingly respectable business man who is not what he seems, but it is lavishly shot, well-written and has top-quality direction. The show won me over with its tension, its cast, its skill in burrowing deep into several different kinds of dysfunctional families and couples. The show is a very good show that uses the modern tools of TV making to great effect. Even if you've seen most of it before. These initial episodes, stylishly produced, tightly scripted, well acted and plenty gripping, all suggest that the complicated things get for both Prank and Hoflinger the better the show is gonna get for us. The show does not redefine the wheel when it comes to gritty prestige dramas, but it knows what it is, and it moves steadily through its first six episodes. This is a great story, brilliantly told. It's violent and quirky and darkly humorous with some great lines and intriguing characters.

Simon says Oktoberfest: Beer & Blood (Oktoberfest-1900) receives: