Crime Stories

Two popular collections of short crime fiction from author/real-life defense attorney Ferdinand von Schirach are the source for this stylish German TV miniseries from 2013. Low-key, avuncular defense attorney Friedrich Leonhardt (Josef Bierbichler) has a credo: “A lawyer does not always want to know what really happened.” In the six episodes compiled here, Leonhardt works doggedly to defend his clients' interests, doing his job even if a whodunit remains unsolved or justice goes un-served. The cases he takes on involve a gentle doctor who saw no way out of his abusive marriage other than to dismember his loathsome wife (“Fähner”); three bumbling wannabe cat burglars who accidentally stole a priceless Japanese artifact, thereby putting their lives at risk (“Tanata's Bowl”); a numbers-obsessed youth guilty of several animal mutilations who is now a suspect in a girl's disappearance (“Green”); an untraceable, silent mystery man who killed two random attackers with disquieting ease (“Self-Defense”); a wealthy industrialist who is the primary suspect in a sex worker's death (“Summertime”); and a career criminal whose trial—related to a burglary—takes a surprising twist (“The Hedgehog”). The gore and nudity here are a bit more graphic than what is found on American network TV. And recurring imagery of apples (apples?) injects a minor note of pretension into this otherwise solid law thriller series that is neither as square and stolid as Perry Mason nor as whimsical as Rumpole of the Bailey. Recommended. (C. Cassady)