[Closed] Deutschland 83 - Channel 4 9pm tonight

I borrowed an Amstrad PCW in 1988 to teach myself word-processing and it looked just like those computers!

As I posted elsewhere (oops!) I'm loving this series; great images, colour, style, music, dead-on.

My dad had one of those IBM computers - one of the first 'portables' before laptops, 20Kgs+. Keyboard folds into the case and there is a carry handle on the back. Took out one of the floppies to fit a 10Mb hard disk. I doubt encryption was much used in the 80s, data sharing wasn't really a thing back then, and you'd always have a hard copy as floppy media wasn't exactly reliable.

This is a very good programme. I also enjoyed 'The Americans' when it was on ITV4, looks like it's still going but not on UK telly 🙁 Boo.

There's some great stuff in this series, loving it.

Reminds me of Victor Suvorov's book 'The Aquarium' about his time in Soviet intelligence. A great read if you can get hold of a copy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquarium_%28Suvorov%29

Was disappointed to see that they used a facelifted Citroen BX as a background prop in this week's episode, 3 years before it's introduction.

Granted, this fact is probably not going to ruin the series for most people. 😀

(I think it's a great program)

There was a continuity error at the petrol station as well - as Stamm gets in the car, the pump is still clearly in the car, but they drive off and it's mysteriously removed itself. Bugged me for the rest of the episode!

Oh yes. I thought that was a setup for him ripping the hose off the pump, then getting questioned by the general how he managed to forget when Stamm was stood at the back of the car filling up all the time the boss was in the bog.

Then the BX thing distracted me from it.

Just watched Gale(?) in Breaking Bad singing the D. 83 theme tune.

I like it!

Great series. Can't normally be bothered with subtitles as they change the feel of a film too much but this is working. Loved the scenes with the floppy disk.

Then the BX thing distracted me from it.

Just as well you didn't notice the basic code on the computer that they'd written to display the encrypted document.

The sub plot with Mum and gf (and baby) in the East, how will that play out?

I wonder if Annett will inform on mum for the forbidden books?

I haven't seen any of this series yet.

Think I'll be checking out 4OD later.

A bit darker that one

There was a continuity error at the petrol station as well - as Stamm gets in the car, the pump is still clearly in the car, but they drive off and it's mysteriously removed itself.

The merc they used at the filling station was not the same car as the one they arrived in, in Belgium. It bugs me that I'm sad enough to know this.

yup. went dark very quickly.

I am enjoying it too but the thing that I find frustrating is the subtitles as there have been some scenes where I have had to rewind to watch the expressions etc due to the amount of dialogue, otherwise it has been quite good.

Poor Linda. 🙁
She got well and truly shafted. (Metaphorically and....

Poor Linda indeed 🙁 She was one of the more likable characters. Bit of an extreme reaction to a cat allergy.
Despite some of the plot holes I'm enjoying this. In some ways the subtitles are helping as need to concentrate rather than letting things just wash over me. (also using rewind).

The building/tunnel where he chases the bomber was the same one from Brussels when he bumped into Edel and the hooker.

Not just me then

Managed to rotate 90deg while unconscious on the railway track as well I think.
Regardless i liked the Worcestershire sauce segment and the comeback line "dont moralize with me while shagging you way through the West".
Is Bonnie Tyler on the Spotify playlist?

I noticed both those bits of in-continuity to.

The building/tunnel where he chases the bomber was the same one from Brussels when he bumped into Edel and the hooker.

You'd have thought the efficient Germans would have thought to install CCTV after the first incident.

Can someone please run me through the Carlos the Jackal bit as I was making a sandwich at that point and came back in to the see the bomb explode!

Enjoying it so far. I suspected that Alex Edel might defect. There's now potential for some interesting plots where neither Moritz/Martin and Alex know they're working for the same (east) side. Also I suspect Moritz/Martin might defect to the west!

My understanding is that Martin/Moritz was being used unwittingly by Schweppenstette? to pass detonators hidden in the decaf coffee container to the bomber. Possibly an unsanctioned operation to heighten tension between East & West.
Reading Wikipedia the attack on Maison de France did happen and Carlos the Jackel claimed responsibility. Given that Carlos still seems to be alive and in prison the person Martin/Moritz chased into the tunnel (reminded me of Homeland as well) must have been someone Carlos got to place the bomb on his behalf?

It was it bit of isolated random, (or at least didn't develop last night)

The decaf-coffee canister contained a detonator that the East Germans wanted to deliver to Carlos. Sound's like they had confiscated some from him while he was in the east, but were quite happy to see them used in West Berlin.

When Stamm arrived in West Berlin on the train he met Carlos, handed over the 'coffee' and almost immediately some kind of French cultural building blew up. Stamm saw Carlos running away and gave chase down onto the train tracks where there was that big scrap, culminating in Stamm leaving Carlos's body on the line. Then he crossed to the East to donate his kidney to his mum.

I think that's the gist of it anyhow.

edit - WAAAY too slow. And OwenH's suggestion of patsy sound good to me.

Reading Wikipedia the attack on Maison de France did happen and Carlos the Jackel claimed responsibility.

And it's proven that the Stasi were involved:

http://www.nytimes.com/1994/04/12/world/ex-east-german-agent-guilty-in-terror-bombing.html

It's an interesting thing they have done with the story, essentially painting the DDR authorities in a positive, if slightly bumbling and paranoid, light, pulling strings behind protests etc. In the west - until you are suddenly confronted with acts of real brutality carried out by them

Managed to rotate 90deg while unconscious on the railway track as well I think.

Having watched that bit a few times I think that his head is on a thick railway sleeper, not the railway track as it might first appear. Therefore his body does not rotate.

Then he crossed to the East to donate his kidney to his mum.

I read that as "to detonate his kidney for his mum."

That would have been a waste of a good organ.

Feature length finale next week! Dan dan daaaaaaaah!

Feature length finale next week! Dan dan daaaaaaaah!

Two more episodes but they will be run back to back next week. Doesn't appear to be any evidence of a season 2 🙁
Interesting episode last night, Alex really hadn't thought through the kidnap plot very well. Some good one liners around as well.
Not sure why Kramer would have answered the phone in the brothel though?

Training no radio no mobile his handlers know where he is so it could be for him , ringing phone will draw someone to it who may discover him and the others so answer it silently friend ids self or if hostile just cut the call and leave off the hook.

I have no idea if this is accurate but that's what i made up when i thought why would he answer that .

not sure why Kramer would have answered the phone in the brothel though?

cos it was 1983. Answering the phone was still a novelty cos you didn't get many calls/any cold callers

Training no radio no mobile his handlers know where he is so it could be for him , ringing phone will draw someone to it who may discover him and the others so answer it silently friend ids self or if hostile just cut the call and leave off the hook.

This was my thinking too...

I maybe missed it somewhere but what's up with his East German GF being involved in trying to get him to co-operate?

I maybe missed it somewhere but what's up with his East German GF being involved in trying to get him to co-operate?

I think the Lada thing was about the Russian guy who took over the office being driven around in a battered Lada. I think they wanted to show that they look after their Russian cousins. Probably just a side thing to make us remember that East Germany was a fairly backward place to be.

Massive continuity error this week, (I've just watched it on catch up) was General Edel's gardener with a mower which had both an electric cable and 2 stroke soundtrack.

Still feeling bad for Linda.

well spotted, I missed that one.

Anyone else pick up on a suggestion that Schweppensette could be Martin/Moritz missing father?

Anyone else pick up on a suggestion that Schweppensette could be Martin/Moritz missing father?

Könntest du etwas mehr dazu sagen?

@alpin the [url= http://http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2016/feb/07/deutschland-83-recap-episode-six-brandy-station ]guardian review[/url] has the detail:

Schweppenstette also found time to ensure that Annett was committed to the socialist cause and give Martin a quick talking to. That conversation – “You don’t understand me” “You don’t understand me either” – was one of the best things about the episode; a tense five minutes in which Martin admitted to his father issues while Schweppenstette calmly remarked: “My children didn’t see much of me but they didn’t miss me either.” It also raised the possibility that Walter is Martin’s absent father, a possibility only strengthened by the scene of him watching Ingrid in hospital. I’m not sure how I’d feel about that as a plot development: on the one hand, it’s a little too convenient but on the other there’s something delicious about the idea of the fanatical Schweppenstette as Martin’s father