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