I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER: It's Thursday

Season 1, Episode 1
Date of release: October 15, 2021 (Amazon Prime)

Story by: Shay Hatten, Sara Goodman
Teleplay by: Sara Goodman, Shay Hatten
Directed by: Craig William Macneill

 

”They're just rats.”

“That is a shocking response coming from you.”

“I'm a complicated person.”

The biggest question that popped into my head when starting this show: is it going to follow the slasher “And Then There Were None” formula that was also in the film series, or is it going to follow the novel more and be a drama instead of a bloody revenge thriller in which people's heads get cut off, and torsos get halved in size one by one? The novel's author, Lois Duncan, was never particularly happy with the format of the film adaptations, so maybe the television adaptation was more inclined to try its best to adapt the story? Then again, maybe this show just decided to throw it all into the wind and do something entirely different with the premise. Someone still got accidentally manslaughtered last summer, and now the only people who were supposed to know about it learn what it's like to fear the unknown. But other than that, is it going to be truly a slasher in the vein of the films, with the Fisherman wearing a hook and slicing people?

The first episode of the show couldn't hold back from delivering one big twist already, with the victim not being the person you thought it would be for half of the hour. It takes the potential slasher premise and adds a mistaken identity premise to it, with Allison deciding to full-on live as Lennon, and not telling anyone – for some reason (does the goat killer know?). Lennon's friends are also expectedly annoying – so much so that I would love it if they would run into a killer's hook immediately, as Allison's story turned out to be more intriguing after this episode, thanks to the twist ending.

Wasting almost the entire episode on what happened last summer felt like a waste, however. Sure, the writers took this opportunity to introduce the characters and establish the relationship between the twins, but since they are all late teenagers and annoying as heck, this episode was essentially grating on my nerves for 40 minutes, and slightly awakened my interest for the other ten. That usually doesn't bode well for the rest of the show, which makes me wonder if viewers of the show said the same, leading to the cancellation after the first season.

 

The message has been received.

 

KRANK BERLIN: Selbstmedikation

Season 1, Episode 6
Date of release: March 26, 2025 (Apple TV+)

Written by: Lisa van Brakel, Paulina Lorenz
Directed by: Alex Schaad

 

”I can't believe how quiet it is.”

“No! Not that word!”

KRANK BERLIN does not suffer from the curse that, when you, as a healthcare professional, say that it's too quiet, you will suddenly be bombarded with the most patients ever. The ER stayed pretty quiet for the entire episode, with only a couple of cases sprinkling in here and there. But the cases that did come in were major enough, with Dom's future father-in-law's infarct proving once more that Dom either does not know at all what he is doing this entire time, or he is simply a fraudster; and the racist gang member showing how much patience the nurses and doctors have. Although the racism of that guy was maybe a little too thick and obvious at times. Bleeding out on a gurney is definitely the best time for the guy to bitch about the skin color of his doctor...

I'm still interested in Ben's story. He woke up ready and happy for the work day, but it seemed obvious that his good morning was fleeting, and that withdrawal would kick in. The story of a drug-addicted doctor may be filled with storyfied tropes, but just like Chloe Lewis during the first two seasons of the 1990s medical drama ER, I feel like the story is more heartbreaking and serious (and as close to realistic as possible) because of the actor's performance. Slavko Popadic never made me believe that he was just an actor playing an addict suffering from withdrawals. Together with the make-up and his dirty stubble, it felt like he knew how to perform the role. And I was quite happy that he completely crashed at the end, breaking the drug locker and shooting up at the hospital, for everyone to see and find his unconscious, high-riding body. The next episode could go in different directions: Either everyone is angry that they were fooled by him, and this was his last day working as a doctor, or they will help him get clean, and this is his last day as a doctor on a temporary basis. I heard there is a facility in Atlanta that specializes in doctors having addiction issues...

I don't believe for a second though that the emergency department was this quiet the entire day. This is Neukölln we're speaking about, the hub of Immigration Station in Berlin. There could not have been a day in which almost everyone decided to leave their knives and guns in the drawers – which is probably something the writers thought as well, hence the storyline of Olaf and Olivia coming across the gang activity out on the streets, and having to wait for the police to arrive before they could go out there and help the wounded man. Back in the 90s drama ER, the paramedics just threw on bulletproof vests before helping a gang member with their gunshot wounds while being surrounded by dozens of people, some of them possibly carrying... 

Dr. Kohn is all in on breaking the rules and making himself a criminal.

KNIGHT RIDER: No Big Thing

Season 1, Episode 7
Date of airing: November 12, 1982 (NBC)
Nielsen ratings information: 12.83 million Households, 15.4 rating/25 share in Households

Written by: Judy Burns
Directed by: Bernard L. Kowalski

 

”If you'll allow me to continue, I will attempt to describe most of the qualities and capabilities of this truly unique vehicle.”

“You only got 40 minutes.”

“I'll try to squeeze it all in.”

Not that Michael or K.I.T.T. were very secretive about their work and mission before, but I find it just a little bit questionable that a stranger, a civilian, would get to learn absolutely everything about the experimental car and what makes it tick. As if intellectual property weren't a thing the characters in this show needed to worry about. If I were K.I.T.T.'s pilot, I would go into the missions with some secrecy about who I work for and what I work with. But not Michael, he and K.I.T.T. are just boasting about who they are and what they do.

Edward Mulhare was essentially the lead actor of this episode, showcasing that even KNIGHT RIDER, a show that always has a little too much of David Hasselhoff and the Trans-Am, can spare some of that screentime and give it to one of the other characters who have only been supporting players. I loved that Devon was the main character here, that he was in peril, that his life was essentially in danger, and I loved that he had some ingenuity himself to get himself out of a pickle. Yes, he may have been saved by Michael in the end, but I was sure that Devon would have made it on his own eventually. The farm he was hiding at was too big for one or two police vehicles to properly search for him, so Devon had ample chances to sneak out of there unseen.

Not to mention that the entire plot was about corrupt judges, sheriffs, and cops. It's always great to see the hero characters smash those types of villains into pieces, because we all love corrupt cops getting read their rights before being thrown into prison. Although I was a bit disappointed that the death of the investigative journalist was such a minor plot point. No one seemed to care that a journalist was murdered by the police force. Sounds very American... 

Devon does not like the taste of corrupted justice in his mouth.

KRANK BERLIN: Nebenwirkungen

Season 1, Episode 5
Date of release: March 19, 2025 (Apple TV+)

Written by: Lisa van Brakel, Anika Soisson, Raquel Dukpa
Directed by: Alex Schaad

 

“Ever since Cure Pulse took over this place over six months ago, we lost four of our caregivers, and our budget was reduced by a third. So while they stick touch screens at our front reception and their logos on the wall... I tried a hundred times to inform our manager about this dire situation, and every time, all I hear is, 'We're looking into it.' But they don't do anything. And I have considered quitting many times. But what then? Then... nobody who cares about these elderly people will be working there anymore.”

KRANK BERLIN had to take on the premise of nursing staff shortages in Germany, even if it's with a story that could not have been smaller and more insignificant in the greater picture. The story of a dozen elderly people not being properly cared for at a home could have been the A plot, it could have given more attention to the issue at hand, it could have forced the viewer to look at the problem that plagues the German healthcare system, but it turned out to just be five minutes of screentime. Because the writers cared about the character arcs a little more than portraying the broken healthcare system.

This medical drama is slowly becoming an actor's drama. I figured that after the first episode, but after recent plot developments, it's safe to say that KRANK BERLIN uses its medical genre to deliver mentally screwed characters whose worlds are imploding. Ben's drug addiction makes for a great performance by Slavko Popadic who seems to have it under control how a person suffering from addiction behaves during a high; Afrim getting banged up by a bunch of cops (definitely not because of his brown skin color, for sure...) leads to a panic attack for Dr. Emina Ertan, giving Şafak Şengül a moment to shine on screen; and even Haley Louise Jones can do more than just play the stoic, calm, and serious boss, as her character Dr. Zanna Parker also has to deal with the consequences of making mistakes. As I said before, this hospital is filled with doctors who don't seem to be able to do their jobs one way or the other, and now patients are dying.

At some point, it has to come to a big blow. Pretty much every character in this show has deep-rooted issues, and if the teacher's death on May 1st (a story I fear won't get picked up again) is not going to serve as the match that lights the fuse, maybe this episode's events will – and it wasn't just one event. The gallstone patient from the previous episode who is now losing his leg; the ghost of Viktoria who haunts Ben before he falls unconscious on the toilet after taking too much fentanyl; Emina's fear of losing her brother to police violence and her parents to her inability to care for Afrim; Dom fearing that he will be uncovered and revealed as a fraud after Olivia noticed the discrepancies in the patient's chart... Yeah, I would say that the fuse has been lit. It gives me hope that the next three episodes will be as dramatic as (and hopefully better than) this one. 

Subtle flirting with a cigarette lighter and a cup of coffee as props.

KNIGHT RIDER: Not a Drop to Drink

Season 1, Episode 6
Date of airing: November 5, 1982 (NBC)
Nielsen ratings information: 12.58 million Households, 15.1 rating/25 share in Households

Written by: Hannah L. Shearer
Directed by: Virgil W. Vogel

 

”I want you to pretend you're a UFO with a very unpleasant disposition.”

“That may require considerable acting ability on my part.”

Forget K.I.T.T.'s acting abilities, or the fact that he got a grappling hook installed at the beginning of this episode. Apparently, the car also has some rockets with which it can blow up mountains and terraform land. Here is a whole new piece of lore for the show: The Trans-Am has a bunch of rockets stored inside (it looked like they came out of the exhaust pipe) – what else does the car have to offer that the show hasn't bothered to show yet? With the rocket boost (generally used to let K.I.T.T. jump over obstacles) and ski mode (driving on two wheels), it also has rocket fire (as used in the finale) and now a grappling hook button. I was planning on keeping track of the women Michael was kissing while helping them, but I guess I also have to watch the buttons from now on. Especially since there seem to be only eight.

Since I mentioned women, Fran is the third woman guest character of the week who is a single mother, with her wannabe clever and courageous kid Kevin turning into a plot device for a scene when he followed his mother and witnessed her kidnapping. Michael had no luck scoring with Fran though, as the only thing he got from her was a hug. 

K.I.T.T. has found his toughest opponent yet.

KRANK BERLIN: Behandlung

Season 1, Episode 4
Date of release: March 12, 2025 (Apple TV+)

Written by: Julia Drache, Lisa van Brakel, Korbiniah Hamberger
Directed by: Fabian Möhrke

 

”Viktoria's smoking in the toilet again.”

“As long as she doesn't set the smoke alarm off, it's fine.”

No one gives a damn in this hospital. Patients are waiting in the hallways overnight, and staff are too busy to check in on them because the hospital administration figured they don't have to hire new doctors and nurses (hey, it's the age-old problem in German healthcare). Homeless people and drug addicts park themselves behind the building or in the toilets to do their business, and as long as nothing goes up in flames or starts beeping, it's fine (security probably doesn't earn enough to care about that anyway). And when I look at Dominik Kohn, the hospital also doesn't seem to check if their doctors are who they say they are, and are proficient in the field that they say they are an expert in.

Because after this episode, I doubt that Dom is actually a doctor. He has certain clinical skills, but those feel like they are from when he was a medical student, and he stopped learning ever since then. The KRANK is developing into the worst hospital in the country, thanks to the understaffing, the fact that there's no money to hire people or update the ER, because of some drug-addicted doctors, and now the fact that some doctors don't know what they are doing. Parker believes that Dom is one of the better ones – her heart and soul are going to break into pieces when she finds out that Dom has been cosplaying as a doctor this entire time. And then she is really going to flip out when she discovers Ben's addiction.

By the way, all of that begs the question of who is to blame for the teacher's death on May 1st: Ben because he was high during treatment and made mistakes, or Dom because he didn't figure out what the teacher's problem was and gave her the wrong meds?

What I like about the show (and, to an extent, Ben) at the moment is the focus on the people living under the radar: the homeless, the drug addicts, the immigrants who don't have any papers. Ben tries to be empathic, helping them in his own little office, but even he gets to realize quickly that it's growing out of control (especially now that Emina knows about his “office hours”). It's one of the parts of medical dramas that don't get the deserved attention from the writers, and while KRANK BERLIN is using the premise to lead Ben into the abyss, it's at least a good attempt at showcasing how much of an issue that part of life is – not just in Berlin, but in any metropolitan city.

And finally, how long will it take for Emina and Olivia to start dating? They are clearly into each other, but there isn't much time left this season to get something properly started between the two. 

Everybody's just playing along to not disappoint the boss.

KNIGHT RIDER: Just My Bill

Season 1, Episode 5
Date of airing: October 29, 1982 (NBC)
Nielsen ratings information: 9.41 million Households, 11.3 rating/19 share in Households

Story by: Catherine Bacos
Teleplay by: Deborah Davis, David Braff
Directed by: Sidney Hayers

 

”According to my information, you went to Stanford University.”

“That's right.”

“Part of my circuitry was developed there. Excellent school.”

Politics in the 1980s must have been boring if TV writers could only come up with a story like this – a random politician on a state level going up against a bill that is sponsored by people who wouldn't stop at murder to get it passed... Sounds like a proper crime conspiracy thriller you would find in shows like these, but if it were real, it would cause a huge stir and scandal in public and the press. After all, a politician ordered a hit on another politician. If that ever happens during the second Trump administration, then crap has truly hit the fan, and he will still not lose any votes over all of this.

The episode could have done better explaining what the energy bill was about, because I have no idea why only one state senator was opposed to it, instead of a couple more, if it was such a controversial bill that would have ruined the state for generations to come. Not to mention that a point of order during a session in Congress doesn't stop the bill – a vote does. In addition, everyone knew about Maggie Flynn's opposition to the bill (she was doing the public press tour after all). Why some of the undecided state senators couldn't be bothered choosing which way to vote until right before the vote is beyond me, but then again, this is American politics we're talking about, and that stuff is always frustratingly messy.

 

K.I.T.T. intercepts the suspect in the form of an arcade game.

 

KRANK BERLIN: Diagnose

Season 1, Episode 3
Date of release: March 5, 2025 (Apple TV+)

Written by: Lisa van Brakel, Korbiniah Hamberger, Samuel Jefferson
Directed by: Fabian Möhrke

 

”How many people have you seen die? Oh my god, sorry. It's a weird thing to ask.”

“I stopped counting. But I also stopped counting the number of people I've saved.”

I expected that this show wouldn't focus heavily on the medical aspect of the characters' lives; it's all just one big and gloomy character drama, in which everyone suffers from some type of problem, whether it's PTSD, anxiety, drugs, or lying. It's a different kind of realism, as this medical drama portrays what it's like to be a broken person in the field of healthcare. American medical dramas have heroic doctors who wouldn't mind spending all the time they have saving a patient. KRANK BERLIN has characters who don't mind skipping out of work for the sake of making themselves feel better.

The doctors on this show aren't interested in being the “heroes in white.” They are all their own kinds of messes, and they would probably be healthier in their minds and souls if they would just stop working here and do something more calm with their lives. Ben wants to be high all the time; Dr. Kohn wants to lie to his boss, so that he doesn't have to explain why he failed during a trauma case; Dr. Ertan just wants to get the hell out of there (she is the most understandable character at this moment); and Dr. Parker only wants this emergency room to function and not fall apart as the pressure cooker slowly but surely comes up with a dangerous mixture that could blow them all up.

The latter especially had me wondering about how long this ER had been working with lax rules and no regulations. The drugs were not locked up, patients weren't being tracked via charts, the admin desk didn't know which rooms were occupied or available, and apparently, when patients who are coding come in via the elevator (presumably because they were choppered in?), they are treated in the elevator, instead of being rolled into a proper room. I can understand that someone like Parker would be disgusted by the look of this ER, wanting to get it more organized and legit. The fact alone that doctors could just take drugs out of the lock-up without signing them off seems like one surefire way to get this hospital closed immediately. Who knows how many drug addicts are working there, and how angry they are going to be, now that they have found out their access to drugs has just dried up.

Meanwhile, Olivia shows herself as a young paramedic, unsure of what to do with herself on the job, while her partner Olaf seems like a person who has seen it all and has had enough of it, just waiting for the moment to end it for himself. Parker and Ben, on the other hand, might not be so different after all, with her ending up in a club, drowning in the trance of the music and alcohol, just like how his journey began during the first minutes of the show. Who knows, maybe the two will become best friends after all, now that he has stapled her scalp laceration – for once, they weren't headbutting over the job they were doing. 

No more free drugs for this addict.

KNIGHT RIDER: Slammin' Sammy's Stunt Show Spectacular

Season 1, Episode 4
Date of airing: October 22, 1982 (NBC)
Nielsen ratings information: 11.41 million Households, 13.7 rating/23 share in Households

Written by: E. Paul Edwards, John Alan Schwartz
Directed by: Bruce Bilson

 

”We gotta prove we can perform stunts.”

“You must be joking. I can easily outperform those primitive stock machines they refer to as stunt cars.”

KNIGHT RIDER is all about stunt driving, so creating an episode that is all about stunt drivers could be considered a love letter to some of the stunt people working for the show, and the profession in general. Chances are that quite a few of K.I.T.T.'s stunt drivers who had to put on a wig to look like David Hasselhoff from a distance were featured in this episode, showcasing their talents, possibly to advocate for themselves and for bigger opportunities, in case the show wasn't working out. Unfortunately, this being an early-1980s television show, the car and driving stunts themselves were a little boring, and all they did was make me wonder how long it would take for any of the cars to fall apart after jumping one too many times.

Congratulations to Michael for kissing yet another woman guest star of the week. First, he received one on the cheek (a “business kiss”), before he found himself with a tongue in his mouth right after (a “social one”), making Lisa the second woman in the show Michael kissed, after she turned out to be the fourth woman guest star of the week. Michael must be a womanizer if he manages to lock lips with 50 percent of the women guest stars. And yet he still crashes out when it comes to Bonnie...

 

The drivers are going to break their necks skiing on dry roads.

 

KRANK BERLIN: Ermittlungen

Season 1, Episode 2
Date of release: February 26, 2025 (Apple TV+)

Written by: Lisa van Brakel, Paulina Loreny, Samuel Jefferson
Directed by: Fabian Möhrke

 

”I screw you, but seriously, I'm not your therapist.”

Well, it only took this show two episodes for some form of non-working relationship between two characters to be established. Just like in GREY'S ANATOMY, doctors still take every chance they get for a little sexy fling in some dark storage room, where it's quiet and isolated enough to spend time in and not be found by other people who are looking for you. And because the writers didn't just want to create a full-blown medical drama, they created a mystery storyline, in which the death of a teacher during a shift on May 1st (International Worker's Day/Labor Day, a federal holiday in Germany, used for demonstrations that mostly ended up in chaos and violence, with police involvement, especially in Berlin, between the late 1980s and late 2000s) is being investigated by Dr. Parker because the hospital administration would like to see someone hang for the teacher's death. This medical drama didn't just want to be a medical drama, there also needed to be a medical-themed conspiracy to be investigated.

This episode forced me to care about Dr. Parker's investigation, because it was used as a plot device to get deeper into what makes Ben tick, and what his issues are – and he certainly has a bunch of them, considering he likes to take stimulants to keep himself awake, and generally looks like he just woke up from a days-long bender. The writers want us to believe that Ben had something to do with the teacher's death, but because the story was handled like a murder mystery at times, it felt like it was supposed to be an ongoing mystery, with the culprit soon to be found, and with Ben just being the first suspect. And if it were up to me, this entire story would have been cut from this episode, as it does nothing for me.

What was doing things to me were the medical storylines – the story of the little girl faking an illness and then swallowing a button battery, the birth of the twins, and even the junkie who felt like he was about to go up in flames. Three stories that are just like this in any other medical drama that wants to be considered one of the best of its genre, and the first two stories were dramatic enough to showcase KRANK BERLIN being a show that wants to take itself seriously. Although when I think of the girl and the button battery, I think back to the 1996 ER episode “A Shift in the Night,” where a kid did the same, and all the doctors were doing there was to check with a portable metal detector where the battery was in the kid (below the diaphragm), followed by telling the concerned parent to just wait and check the kid's stool. 

The first step towards proper mental health care: Extinguishing the crazy out of them!