“Homicide Hills” Season 3 – TV series review

The German TV crime-solving comedy series “Homicide Hills” debuts its third season on streaming service MHzChoice on June 27. Previously, I’ve reviewed the first two seasons of this German crime comedy series on this site, and in the previous seasons, Sophie Haas (Caroline Peters), a tough, brash cop from Cologne, was shipped off to become the police chief of a sleepy German village named Hengasch. Season 3 opens with Sophie’s wedding to Hengasch’s local vet. True to form, things go wildly awry, resulting in “marriage interruptus,” then morphing into another crime to solve in the series’ light-hearted fashion. Her charming father (Hans Peter Hallwachs) moves with his “nurse” to Poland, removing one of the reliable cast members from the equation. That’s a loss.

Sophie continues leading her three-member force in solving 14 episodes worth of crimes. Actually, the streaming release is 13 hour-long episodes from 2014, plus a longer movie that aired the following year to provide closure for story arcs of these now-familiar – and mostly likable – characters. There is a fourth season but it came out in 2022, with an almost totally different cast, so this batch is the swan song for our protagonist police pals.

As before, Sophie’s weekly sleuthing challenges are mixed with romantic developments and her ongoing efforts to get reassigned to the major leagues – the Cologne force from whence she came. Hengasch has too many lulls between crimes of import, so she almost jumps for joy whenever a new murder relieves the tedium. Barbel is coping with pregnancy and other personal distractions. Dietmar’s life is truly cursed when his demanding mom has to move in with him and his wife – the similarly-annoying Helga. The overkill of demands from the elder explains why he married shrewish Helga. It supports the axiom about men tending to marry women like their mothers. They’re two of a kind, and constantly compete stridently for his allegiance over the other in squabbles large and small.

The crimes and the levity surrounding them are comparable to the first two seasons, except for a bit more of the running-time focused on their personal lives. And it seems as if they stressed the comedic side more than before, including moments of madcap. But each outing continues to be cleverly written, mixing the mystery with the merriment.

A village historical event that’s re-enacted every 5 years goes awry when the pretend killing within it turns real. A safe-cracker escapes from prison, resulting in a very unusual sort of crime wave. Another involves a man killed during a parade, when it’s not clear who the bullet was meant for. The movie-length finale is a murder in a nearby village for which Sophie finds herself the main suspect. It’s presented in a RASHOMON style, alternating among the different perspectives of our principals under interrogation by another tough cop (Nina Proll), who is basically a humorless version of Sophie.

“Homicide Hills” Season 3, mostly in German with English subtitles, begins streaming on MHzChoice on Tuesday, June 27.

RATING: 2.5 out of 4 stars