An Old Tatort

They were showing an old Tatort (German police drama TV format that has been around since 1970) on TV Saturday night called Amoklauf. It was a Manfred Krug one, he's a very refreshingly blunt character who was born in the West but moved to the East as a teenager, only to return to West Berlin at 40 - and they were glad to be rid of such an outspoken person.

Anyway, it takes about 30 seconds to realize that this is a re-run, and it's not just because Krug is suddenly much younger that he was on TV a few weeks ago. But I had some difficulty defining exactly why this was so, but I came up with quite a list:

• There are no active women on the show, except for wives/girlfriends.
  
• Manfred Krug is allowed to smoke on camera.
• There are only a very few, really old computers to be seen.
• No one has a mobile phone - and that makes the suspense scenes rather silly. They are in a hotel room, no lights, telephone cut off - and you want to scream, "What, are your batteries dead??? Call the cops!"
• The hair and the sideburns
• The ransom money is in DM
• The furniture in the hotel
  

Still current are

• The desks to be found in the police station
• The paint on the walls
• The type of car they drive
• The bad weather in Hamburg