Am I really going to start another series and post sporadically about it? You bet I am.
Jokes aside, this series will focus on shows, movies, or anything that I “binged” over the weekend.
Spoilers ahead.
On Friday, I started a German mystery and thriller short series called Perfume. The series follows detectives Nadja Simon and Matthias Köhler and prosecutor Grünberg as they attempt to solve the gruesome murder of Katharina (“K”) Läufer. Their investigation leads to an encounter with five of her former classmates, where they had experimented with human scents in their younger years.
I didn’t really know what I was getting into when I started this. But since I can’t put my overall thoughts into words, let me show you how I felt about this series.
Perfume is based on a book with the same name. But because I never read it, I can’t comment on how well they adapted the plot to film. However, the film plot had decent pacing. Though a lot happened in one episode, it was an exciting ride that made me want to pull my hair out at times.
I don’t think I came across a show where every character was messed up somehow. But behold, I think I found the show where every character has suffered a traumatic experience or has a horrible personality.
The men in the show are infuriating, especially Roman. He’s extremely abusive and feels no shame. But what also made me want to pull my hair out were the women.
While I initially enjoyed watching Nadja Simon on screen, her clingy moments with the prosecutor with whom she was having an affair were cringe to watch. It’s not exactly a great experience watching a capable woman pining for a man who’s married.
In the past, Elena, Roman’s wife, was raped by Thomas Butsche, her classmate and Roman’s friend. She got pregnant from this traumatizing experience and tried to abort the baby on her own because Roman refused to help her. Elena ends up marrying Roman and endures his constant abuse.
It was so painful to watch.
In the end, when she was fighting for custody of her daughter, she still backed down by saying how Roman was a good father to her.
I did not like that. At all.
The character development in the show was nonexistent. But I guess it’s justifiable. I believe the show’s main point was to portray the different types of love and how destructive it is. But they really need to talk more about self-love, or maybe I just missed that entirely because of all the outrageous things happening.
The only decent character was Toothless, who went to prison because he and Elena killed a student for his scent so Elena could escape from her negligent family. Toothless also kept looking out for Elena, but nothing romantic ever happened between them. I liked their dynamic.
At the end of the day, Perfume was a rollercoaster of emotions. But this was the first time I’ve seen such ridiculous characters that work where at the end you’re just like…
evening tea musings 