Regina auf den Stufen Online

10 episodes of 54 minutes makes 9 hours. With the 3-dvd set, you can watch it all in a row, and I did (on a bed-ridden day).

Katja Riemann sure shines (and won a price for Best New Actress) in this exuberant epic set in 1956/57 West Germany.

We get a quite complex story around Regina (fled from East Germany, to Munich). On a 1956 New Year's Day celebration, she gets involved with Martin, who was just freed from Soviet prisons. Then there's the genial (but weird) Hungarian photographer Janos.. and about a dozen other main characters, of which I liked most the old photographer Brunnhuber, and Stups, the secretary who made her own business.

The 1950s were quite nicely recreated (as far as I can tell, born 1956), mostly in period cars (let me drop some brand names: Steyr, Goliath, Lloyd, Borgward,...), and many other props. After initial doubts, the meandering story drew me in, a little bit more with each episode.

Utta Danella, after whose book this serial was made, has a reputation for popular but ultimately trivial novels for a female readership. That may well be, but even as a male I enjoyed this 9-hours show. Very much, even though I suffered through the only "action" scene where a Borgward Isabella is crashed...