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Vienna Blood
Jan. 17th, 2026 08:20 pmI mentioned that I am way behind on reviewing things.
The first season of Vienna Blood was interesting. Now, did I watch it just to see Vienna on my TV screen? Of course :)
And that part of it was fun, the glorious mixture of "ah, I see that the Vienna tourism board have been at you" and "that road doesn't lead to that building" and realising why they're having to use that road to pretend to be that other road. They're also very good at showcasing the bits of Vienna that do tend to be missed off the first page of "things you have to see".
Bits of it didn't work. Like really didn't work (sexposition, full frontal nudity but only by female characters, the usual), but by the end of the first episode, when you're yelling "Lieberman, you're a twerp", it's said with love.
They do an interesting thing where the English-speaking actors play Lieberman and his family (and his love interests) and the rest of the Viennese characters are played by German-speaking actors who are mostly dubbed (except Inspector Rheinhardt). The dubbing does not work. I know it's the only way sensibly to do it but it does take away from the actors' performances.
von Bülow, of the dubbed characters, is the one least affected, and a lot of that is the actor who gives it some excellent spidery poisonously ambitious, while having these moments of almost turning into a decent human being (and each time he chooses instead the path of vile ambition, you're crushed for him or who he could potentially become).
I know all the promo stuff is about Lieberman, and he is definitely the main character, but Oskar Rheinhardt is my favourite. Partly, he's not dubbed which makes it easier for emotion to come across and partly because Rheinhardt is love.
( Giant spoilers for season 1 follow (mentions of child death) )
Neither of our lead characters are in the best scene.
( Spoilers for the first episode and mentions of historical anti-semitism )
Sadly I couldn't see the second series because I was enjoying doing RL fun things, and while I have started the first book in the series, I got struck with painful homesickness and have since managed to mislay the book.
I will find it and read the rest.
The first season of Vienna Blood was interesting. Now, did I watch it just to see Vienna on my TV screen? Of course :)
And that part of it was fun, the glorious mixture of "ah, I see that the Vienna tourism board have been at you" and "that road doesn't lead to that building" and realising why they're having to use that road to pretend to be that other road. They're also very good at showcasing the bits of Vienna that do tend to be missed off the first page of "things you have to see".
Bits of it didn't work. Like really didn't work (sexposition, full frontal nudity but only by female characters, the usual), but by the end of the first episode, when you're yelling "Lieberman, you're a twerp", it's said with love.
They do an interesting thing where the English-speaking actors play Lieberman and his family (and his love interests) and the rest of the Viennese characters are played by German-speaking actors who are mostly dubbed (except Inspector Rheinhardt). The dubbing does not work. I know it's the only way sensibly to do it but it does take away from the actors' performances.
von Bülow, of the dubbed characters, is the one least affected, and a lot of that is the actor who gives it some excellent spidery poisonously ambitious, while having these moments of almost turning into a decent human being (and each time he chooses instead the path of vile ambition, you're crushed for him or who he could potentially become).
I know all the promo stuff is about Lieberman, and he is definitely the main character, but Oskar Rheinhardt is my favourite. Partly, he's not dubbed which makes it easier for emotion to come across and partly because Rheinhardt is love.
( Giant spoilers for season 1 follow (mentions of child death) )
Neither of our lead characters are in the best scene.
( Spoilers for the first episode and mentions of historical anti-semitism )
Sadly I couldn't see the second series because I was enjoying doing RL fun things, and while I have started the first book in the series, I got struck with painful homesickness and have since managed to mislay the book.
I will find it and read the rest.
