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Max and Freddy are back, in all their rumpled glory! Tatort: Cologne Season 3 delivers the usual hard-hitting criminal investigations, but the series also focuses on the cops themselves and their relationship. Max Ballauf (Klaus J. Behrendt) and Freddy Schenk (Dietmar Bär) have worked together so long they’re like brothers, with all the accompanying baggage. They’re the Tatort franchise’s Odd Couple – chiseled Max is single, jogs, lives in a hotel, can’t commit to a relationship and goes by the rules on the job. The less polished, big-hearted Freddy tends to be more impulsive, never saw food he didn’t go for, is married with children, and is so large he lumbers like a bear when chasing down the perps. They alternate playing good cop/bad cop.

If you’re new to the series or if you’re a fan, here’s a tasting menu to introduce/remind you why Tatort: Cologne deserves to be your next guilty pleasure.

1. Max and Freddy are totally in each other’s business

Boundaries, anyone? Here’s a scene from Ghost Town (Season 3, Episode 4) where they’re taking a drive – but it’s never just a drive with Max and Freddy.

2. Quirky cameos

Unusual characters come out of nowhere, like in “Betrayed and Sold” (Season 3, Episode 3). A philosopher/men’s room attendant, who won’t talk unless he’s tipped…

3. The cross-pollination between Tatort: Cologne and that ‘other’ German series

Charly Hübner in season 3 of Tatort: Cologne

If this face looks familiar (above), it is – it’s Charly Hübner from Tatort’s East German counterpart, Polizeiruf 110 – from which MHz Choice presents the Bukow and König series. Only in Blood Diamonds (Season 3, episode 7), he’s not playing Bukow, but an activist professor.

Anneke Kim Sarnau in season 3 of Tatort: Cologne

And speaking of Bukow and König, Anneke Kim Sarnau (above), who plays Katrin König, also finds her way into this season, in a major supporting role as an overworked nursing home RN in A Dog’s Life (Season 3, Episode 1).

4. Different directors

The Tatort series has multiple directors, and one of our favorites, Niki Stein, directed “Ghost Town” (Season 3, Episode 4). Everything Stein directs reflects his unusual touch – check out “Manila”, “Iconoclasm” and “Martinsfire” from Season 1.

5. That wonderful wurst stand

Lots of episodes feature a scene in which Freddy and Max scarf down their favorite fast food – fries, wurst and Kölsch – at a little stand called Wurstbraterei. Cops have to decompress somehow, don’t they? Watching them, you can just taste the beer and the wurst. The Wurstbraterei is a real stand, with a website – check it out next time you’re in Cologne!

The Wurstbraterei website

As many of our viewers know, the Tatort franchise is a German institution with more than 1,000 episodes to date. The good news is… there’s more Tatort for our subscribers on the way. And later this year, MHz Choice will premiere the special 1000th episode starring Axel Milberg as Klaus Borowski. Stay tuned!

WATCH TATORT: COLOGNE