Dengler

This series recently popped up on PRIME, and, like all Amazon subscribers, we are always in tge hunt for a compelling crime and detection series, esp. Of the Euro flavour. And so we stumble on DENGLER (or PRIVATE DETECTIVE DENGLER), a series about a tall, handsome cop who quits the force to work privately. He is aided by a sidekick that he picks up almost accidentally, Olga, a hacker of renown, who has a warrant on her head for breaking into the wrong cyber files.

Olga (Birgit Minichmayr) has unusual features: pouty lips mixed with an otherwise tough but androgynous appearance. In any other Euro series, Olga & Dengler would be lovers by episode 2, but her steely glare and chain-smoking persona deter that step. I just finished episode 3 and the pair operate like an effective but bickering team.

These somber episodes (we watched no. 3 today) are lengthy and unfold slowly, almost procedurally. Contrast this approach with the Brit series INSPECTOR FROST, in which we see the players, the challenge and FROST's wit all in the first 10 minutes. Ep. 3 DIE SCHÜTZENDE HAND, in which our pair of sleuths are hired by an anonymous client to investigate the outcome of a robbery, takes a long time to get there, but we were locked in anyway. There's quite a twist at the 60-min mark and another just before the credits roll. Be prepared!