'Vienna Blood' Returns for One More Dance in "Mephisto Waltz"
Vienna Blood is back for one more waltz! The British-Austrian production is unlike most English-language shows on PBS’s slate, thanks to its setting in mainland Europe between the Victorian and Great War periods. In some respects, it’s a classic odd couple-solves-murders show featuring an energetic, overly self-assured guy (young British neurologist Max Liebermann, Matthew Beard) and a more fatalist veteran who continues to harbor idealistic hopes of true justice being possible (Inspector Oskar Rheinhardt, Juergen Maurer). As is often the case in series like this, the second tier of characters contribute significantly to each episode’s texture and tone; here, it’s Max’s doting parents and sister who provide levity and the outsider’s reasonable perspective that solving murders all day and night is perhaps not the best career choice for maintaining one’s mental health and long-term relationships.
We open in 1909 with Max’s thoughts on gambling as an expression of guilt – on some level, the gambler knows that they will eventually lose, which will be a form of punishment for whatever wrongs the gambler has inflicted on others. Let’s file that away for a bit and pop over to the Leopoldstadt police precinct, where Police Commissioner von Bülow is enjoying a moment of peak self-importance as only an underqualified martinet can when taking all of the credit for an accomplishment that was a group effort. The “monstrous reign” of one of Vienna’s most notorious criminals, an arms dealer named Burgsteller, has ended with his capture. The once-invulnerable gun seller enters the cells as a humbled man in shackles, his grimy hair askew and suit rumpled, looking like he has a terrible sunburn despite the autumnal cloud cover.
Oskar can’t wait to testify against Burgsteller at trial, and with his conviction all but assured, the usually relatively upright inspector is gloating at the notion of so many criminals throughout the city wanting Burgsteller dead lest he turn state’s evidence against them.
