Psychotherapy is a fulfilling subject area for series television. Think of Tony Soprano’s not always easy analysis sessions, Charlie Harper’s lessons from the sharp-tongued Dr. Linda Freeman and the globally adapted Talking Cure series “In Therapy” from Israel.
The director Caroline Link (Oscar for “Nowhere in Africa, most recently “When Hitler stole the pink rabbit”) has now devoted herself to the subject of child and youth therapy with sensitivity and some finesse and processed it in a mini-series that is quite unique in the local series landscape seeks.
What’s the matter? The therapists Katinka (Judith Bohle) and Tom (Carlo Ljubek) run a practice for child and adolescent psychotherapy in Berlin and are confronted with the fates of four young people, all of whom in their own way do not want to conform to what is commonly considered “normal”. ” designated. And not normal here means that they also defy the norms with violent destructive energy.
Six-year-old Ronja (Lotte Shirin Keiling) bites other children in kindergarten and seeks close, quite ambivalent closeness to her father. 15-year-old Nellie (Carla Hüttermann) suffers from panic attacks. Sam (Valentin Oppermann) changes his foster parents several times due to adjustment difficulties and after youth imprisonment. And Jonas is already fighting depression at the age of eight because death plays a role far too early in his life.
The concern of “Safe” is obvious – as it is far too often in German television productions anyway. It is about carefully illuminating child suffering, the societal consequences of mental illness and a lack of attention to those who need help. However, the mini-series does not leave it at this politically tinged view of the reality of life in Germany, where many children and young people have to wait far too long for therapy places despite considerable suffering, but carefully describes the field of events in which healing and understanding takes place.
Everyone needs their own form of help
“Safe” also means that therapy is a safe space, a place where souls can open up and understanding is possible. Transporting this feeling and letting the audience participate seems more important than luridly illuminating the well-conceived backgrounds of the characters. “Safe” is interested in observing, showing and listening – not in hands-on stories and fixed solutions.
The series advertises the complexity behind the life situation of its protagonists, which has been branded as difficult, and also includes the saving angels – as has become normal for years in times of quality television that is not lacking in ambivalent characters. Katinka and Tom are clearly not free from their own difficulties. The therapist has an affair that has become sore with a married doctor and a domineering father who also knows everything about her profession better. Her colleague is clearly overwhelmed by his daughter’s demands.
Link wrote the screenplays for the series together with the child therapists Sabine Weinberger and Curd Michael Hockel, which also explains why therapeutic standards are exhibited here with a little more concentration on details and are sometimes verbally negotiated soberly. At the same time, she maintains a clever distance to the action with the awareness of breaking up the arc of tension in favor of a subtle interlude, with very discreet camera work and a minimalist scenario that is appropriate to the topic.
The characters grow on you in no time. You root for them as they recognize themselves or – and that is the real benefit of therapy in this context – allow themselves to be helped. Because the credo of “Safe” is not “You’re not normal (and maybe that’s a good thing)” but “You’re not alone”.
“Safe” has 8 episodes. You are already in the ZDF Mediathek to see. The first two episodes can be seen on Tuesday (November 8th) at 8:15 p.m. on ZDF Neo. More episodes every Tuesday and Wednesday.