"Destroyed Hope" (TV)

For a number of years....East Germany (DDR) operated a TV network, and delivered entertainment to the masses of East Germany.  Rarely do any of these old shows make it on today's state-run networks.  I should say rare, but it's noticed when they are run.

Last night, HR ran "Destroyed Hope" from the old Police 110 series of DDR. The story?

Well....unlike the regular West German police series which typically involve a murder....this is a bit different.

It's the epic story of a couple of high school punks (Alexander, Buckle, Sioux, Sabine and Silvio)....who mostly go around and destroy public and private property in the local neighborhood.

I kept waiting for more thrilling stuff, but that really was the emphasis.

They drink, curse, provoke peers and locals, breaking phone boxes, steal cheap car radios and destroy the kid's playground. Pretty serious stuff.  They didn't do drugs....mostly because DDR was pure in those days, and never had a drug problem. Well, that's what they say anyway.

The school?  It's emphasized that it's mostly a failure.  The parents?  Losers.  The neighborhood?  Well, their only alternate means of fixing this is to call the cops.

The two cops who appear....spend a fair amount of time in investigative analysis.  Their report, if they ever got around to writing it....would have been sixty pages in length.

This gang bent on destruction.....ends up meeting up with some new kid who is a up and coming piano player....the classic opera kind.

The story kinda goes downhill from that point on.....drinking, booze, and classic teenage love gained and lost.  Some accident occurs then a kid screws around with a another's moped.  An accident occurs....the cops finally bring the gang leader into the station.

You end with an old-fashioned cop interrogation, and Alex admits everything.  If only he had done the right thing and followed the good behavior of his peers and neighbors.....all would be good, but now....the piano kid can never play again.

I always point out the lousy scripts of Dragnet, Emergency, Baywatch, and Mr Ed.  American TV has this four-star and one-star situation.  Either some great shows with great scripts....or some really big losers.  German TV....particularly from the DDR era....is about the same deal.  The sad thing is that this took around eighty minutes (without commercial interruption) to tell this lousy one-star story.

So if you ever are sitting up late at night and on some German network.....and this 110 episode comes up....."Destroyed Hope".....you'd best pull out a bottle of strong spirits, and pour a double or triple, and hope that sleep comes quickly.