Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cast: Matthew Beard, Jurgen Maurer, Amelia Bullmore, Conleth Hill, Charlene McKenna, Luise von Finckh, Raphael von Bargan, Szonja Oroszlán, Lara Mandoki, Lisa Marie Pothoff, Nils Arzimann, Lujza Hajdú, Sara Schmitt, Jurgen Maurer, Josef Ellers, Robert Reinagl, Anna Kulbatzki, Victoria Nikolaaevskaj, Ákos Inotay, Markus Freistätter, Luise von Finckh, Xaver Hutter, David Rott, Dániel Kozma, Miriam Hie, Rainer Egger, Péter Végh, Raphael von Bergen, Zsófia Bach, Attila Arpa, Ilvie Moritz, Maria Köstlinger, Laura Podlovica, Lilla Czvikker, Mara Romel, Stefen Puntigam, Levente Törköly.
The fashion industry is murder.
It is a simple statement, and one that openly congratulates itself in ways that almost no other business would dare, for it is a cut throat profession, enemies are made in the flick of a stitch, the sense of false humility is overpowering, and the way that credit is dictated to flow upwards, it is no wonder that the effort of the back room is overshadowed by the face of the brand, and how resentments can become overwhelming, so much so that as with fashion, copy cats in murder are not created out of love, but out of ambition.
Vienna Blood is highly regarded, a series that gives insight into the early days of psychology and the workings of the human mind in criminal investigations, and in the first episode of its third series, the professional life of Max Liebermann is now at a place where his success has caused even his father to applaud his work, where he can now afford to be taken seriously, that the police now regard him as one of intellect rather than fascination and derision.
In Deadly Communion, the death of a seamstress is but the start of what could be seen as an epidemic of murder, the beginning of a serial killer dressed in the clothes of respectability, for as the episode is at pains to do justice to, is that these particular murderers are not always in the realm of the poor, the unfortunate or the depraved, they are committed by people with time, with the ability to blend in the crowd and be invisible until the appropriate moment in which snuffing out a life becomes one of individual ease.
Vienna Blood’s success is not only to be found in its period setting, the beauty of the Austrian city before the ruins of war visited its people just a few short years later, nor in its almost perfectly cast ensemble, but in its drive to showcase psychology in its infant form as a force for good, how the measure of investigation is aided by having insights into the human condition, and it is such exploration that the realisation that brings the case to its chilling conclusion.
Much must be said of Matthew Beard’s portrayal of the Austrian psychologist and student of Sigmund Freud, calm, collected, slightly eccentric himself but to one whose imbalance is caused by act of love and not through malicious intent, and that of Detective Oskar Rheinhardt and the contribution by the superb Jurgen Maurer in the role; for in this yin and yang approach to justice and criminal understanding, the murderers of Vienna are given their dressing down and patterns of behaviour are spotted that would otherwise be missed.
A dramatic start to a third series of Vienna Blood, a truly impressive episode takes the premise deeper into providing education and learning of one of the great sciences.
Ian D Hall