KaDeWe (2021)

Watchable but overlong German drama set in Berlin late 1920s at a department store - KaDeWe review by PV

This six-parter (or sex-parter...) is often good and does not shy away from sexual scenes or violence. However, the pace slows and it all drags when the lesbian romance themes are followed.

The miniseries is written by a woman (a posh name, von Heinz too, so of the same upper class as the owners of department stores) so maybe that is why. It bores me.

When the focus is the history of Germany in the 1920s it works well, esp the WWI backstory of the main character Harry. George Karg is a great character too. Those two were real people. The others are fictional, SO it is rather odd to see at the very end what happened to them after this - because only those 2 are real. The female characters never existed. of course, gay life in Berlin did (Watch Berlin Babylon to see that).

Fritzi's life of poverty and forced marriage is portrayed well as is her inadequate club-footed husband. As is the rise of the Nazis of the time.

It could probably have been 4 parts or even 3, if the wallowing in romance was cut. There is just too much of it.

There is an unlikely black character I was not sure of - I very much doubt an upper class Jewish dept store owner would sate such a person - or if any such woman is in the real-life backstory of Harry. The disabled characters are fictional but could have been real.

So good, but could have been better. 4 stars. Just, and I like the music and credit sequences.