Huntress

Officla Verbotene Liebe preview for the upcoming weeks:

http://youtu.be/Wjc8BMQz5Bg

http://youtu.be/FNEt68DD14Y

http://youtu.be/F90Cw4l-8NY

The only friend Kimberly had was Peter.

Melrose had little true friendships. It was basically only the original characters who were somehow friends with each other (Jane/Alison, Michael/Matt, Jake/Billy), but the later additions barely developed any friendships.

I updated the current cast overview for GZSZ, UU and AWZ on the first page of this topic

On GZSZ, we have two female newcomers: Ramona Dempsey plays Nele Lehmann, a hair stylist, and Linda Marlen Runge plays Anni Brehme, a lesbian tomboy. The latter is apparently a love interest for Pia, who's bisexual. Meanwhile, Elena Garcia Gerlach has joined the cast in the recurring role of Elena Castillo, a waitress who catches John's eye.

On UU, Benjamin Heinrich as Benno "Bambi" Hirschberger was the latest addition to the contract cast. He's a car mechanic.

Laura Maria Heid, who joined the cast as a recast Suji Wagner this past April, is reportedly out. Her last airdate is in mid-July. Also rumoured out are Bela Klentze and Maximilian Claus. On the other hand, a former male actor is supposed to return as his deceased character's twin.

On AWZ, the overview features the additions of this year's newcomers Jenny Bach, Carlo Degen, Jennifer Dessin-Brasching, Andreas Hofer, Volkan Isbert, Maria Kempken and Marc Schöttner as well as the return of Anna Katharina Fecher.

I thought season 8 was when the show began to change its tone. Seasons 5 to 7 had a very Melrose-ish feel about them, but once season 8 kicked in, outrageous storylines no longer happened, the characters were dulled down, and all of them began working in rather low-class jobs. Suddenly, it didn't feel like Beverly Hills anymore. At that point, the show could've taken place in a city in the Midwest and nobody would've even noticed.

Besides, they re-introduced those "issues of the week" storylines that dominated the high school years, though less glamorous, and most of them were boring and predictable.

I also don't know why they bothered to introduce Carly. They had already ruined a main character – Andrea – by making her a mother and had run out of ideas for her two seasons prior. Why did they feel the need to create a similar character? I always thought that Andrea and Steve had wonderful chemistry. Instead of introducing Carly, they could have brought Andrea back and pair her up with Steve.

The only good thing about season 8 was Valerie.

Donna's pill addiction was laughable. They should have known by then that Tori can't pull off drama. For strange reasons, I've always liked Donna, but she was just too stupid. Why did she always run back to David? He treated her like an ass most of the time, yet it was always her fault.

It's striking that in 90210 land, it's mostly the female characters that are portrayed as being in the wrong. For example, during the Brenda/Kelly/Dylan triangle, nobody thinks that Dylan made a mistake by flirting with Kelly. During Val's rape storyline, it's of course Val's fault that she got drugged. The fact that Noah slept with an unconcious woman is swept under the rug. Rather strange considering that the target demo for this show were women.

Have fun watching that first segment of season 7 when they learn that Matt died in a car accident. All their reactions are so nonchalant, it's hilarious!

It was the same when Brooke, Kimberly and Sydney died. In all three cases, there was only one person who truly cared (Billy, Michael and Craig, respectively).

Sydney and Peter didn't even know that Kimberly died, Amanda only dropped one line about to Kyle about it ("A good friend of mine passed away").

Instead of mourning, Samantha made Sydney's death all about herself.

Why is that man in the car with his shirt off?

Alexander and Jo are being blackmailed and they try to expose their blackmailers at a lakeside.

All those scenes with the snake (I thought it was some sort of crap on the floor at first). Is that a usual UU story?

It's not a usual story these days, but it's a nice way to bring all the residents of the apartment house together, Sonja Beckmann is a veterinarian and it's her fault that the viper escapes. In the end, the whole building has to be evacuated and the Beckmann family has to pay for the whole operation. In order to help them, the other residents organize a block party to raise money. That block party is actually filmed today and the show has invited fans to be a part of it. Among the guests is the winner of the latest season of "German Idol".

Not a lot of blonde men on German soaps.

Apart from VL's Dominic Saleh-Zaki (Andi), there is no true blonde man on any soap. Some of them are dark blonde or a reddish color, but the majority is brunette or even black-haired which actually reflects the majority of German men. We don't have that many light blonde men here. Many German children are born with light blonde hair, but their hair usually darkens once they become teenagers. Happened to me as well LOL

All in all, VL has the most handsome men on its cast, followed by AWZ. On UU, I only find Ben Ruedinger (Till) and Maximilian Claus (Erik) attractive. GZSZ has never had a real stunner. The one I find most appealing is Tayfun Baydar (Tayfun), even though he's a bit short.

My current crush is VL's Daniel Sellier (Ricardo). He's not only hot, he's also a good actor.

It seems German soaps are quite good at seeing what works and what doesn't, and implementing change. Would I be right in surmising that producers aren't as attached to their characters, and value the audience opinion more?

In some cases they seem to be attached to certain characters (who have long welcomed their stay on their respective soaps), but in general, there has hardly ever been a group of three or four characters that dominated the screen for ages – unlike American soaps which tend to have large casts and still only use the same characters in frontburner stories while the other characters appear in 3 or 4 episodes a month.

German soaps always feature three storylines each episode, and all the characters get enough screentime. Even if they are not the main focus, they still appear frequently. I think on average every main character appears in 12-13 episodes a month, unless the actors are on vacation.

Preview pictures for July 2013:

Unter uns

01. Till (Ben Ruedinger) and Eva (Claudelle Deckert) 02. Irene (Petra Blossey) and Paul (Eric Langner) find a snake in the laundry room 03. Sonja (Anne Apitzsch) and the snake 04. Ringo (Timothy Boldt), Easy (Lars Steinhöfel) and the snake 05. Leonie (Sarah Stork) 06. Ringo and Suji (Laura Maria Heid) 07. Ute (Isabell Hertel) 08. The residents hold a meeting 09. Erik (Maximilian Claus) and Sina (Valea Scalabrino) 10. Leonie and Paco (Milos Vukovic)

Alles was zählt

01. Joscha (Carlo Degen) and Deniz (Igor Dolgatschew) 02. Joscha and Lukas (Marc Schöttner) 03. Marco (Salvatore Greco) and Isabelle (Ania Niedieck) 04. Deniz, Joscha and Can (Volkan Isbert) 05. Richard (Silvan-Pierre Leirich) 06. Jenny (Kaja Schmidt-Tychsen) 07. Melanie (Anna-Katharina Fecher) and Ingo (André Dietz) 08. Julia (Jenny Bach) and Bea (Caroline Frier) spy on Lukas and Letizia (Jennifer Dessin-Brasching) 09. Deniz, Joscha and Can 10. Richard, Marco, Deniz, Katja (Anna-Katharina Samsel) and Melanie

Gute Zeiten, Schlechte Zeiten

01. Emily (Anne Menden) and Tayfun (Tayfun Baydar) 02. Jasmin (Janina Uhse) and Katrin (Ulrike Frank) 03. Lilly (Iris Mareike Steen) 04. Maren (Eva Mona Rodekirchen) and Lilly 05. Ayla (Sila Sahin) and Philip (Jörn Schlönvoigt) 06. Emily, Tayfun and Mesut (Mustafa Alin) 07. Tuner (Thomas Drechsel) and Tayfun 08. John (Felix von Jascheroff) and Pia (Isabell Horn) 09. Alexander (Clemens Löhr) and Jo (Wolfgang Bahro) 10. Maren and Katrin

Thanks for your concern Fortunately, I live in the western part of Germany, not far from the border to the Netherlands and Belgium. We also have floods every now and then here, but it's never as worse as in the east and the southeast. The states of Bavaria, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Lower Saxony are affected the most.

Regarding the Prozeski era: After the first incarnations of Jan and Julia – the twins who fell in love with each other – had left VL in 1997, VL needed a new main couple. Most of the original cast was gone at that point as well, only some of the older characters (Arno Brander, Clarissa von Anstetten. Charlie Schneider, Christoph von Anstetten, Barbara von Sterneck) and teenage brat Kati Sterneck were still there.

Two new families were introduced: On the one hand, there was the the Sander family with Erika and her teenage daughters Steffi and Milli. They were tied to the Brandner family because Erika was the sister of Arno's first wife Iris. Erika's and Iris's brother Tim was married to Julia. Tim was later murdered by Tanja as was his girlfriend Cleo. Erika married Arno, but she later fell in love with Nina Ryan (VL's first lesbian character).

On the other hand, there was the poor Prozeski family who turned out to be relatives of Clarissa's. Clarissa, whose real name is Klara Prozeski, was ashamed of her proletarian past and had never told anyone about her family. The Prozeskis consisted of Erna, Clarissa's mother; Walter, Clarissa's brother; and Walter's children Jessica, Nick and Ulli.

Jessica was supposed to be the "new" Julia. She was to be paired up with Prince Alexander von Deinburg-Thalbach, the new "Jan". This time, the story was reversed with a poor girl falling for an aristocratic man instead of a poor guy falling for an aristocratic woman. However, Jessica and Alexander were very unpopular with the audience so their story was resolved within less than a year. Erna and Walter, who were also unpopular, were killed off in a car crash. Only Ulli and Nick were kept since they were involved in a love quadrangle with the Sander sisters. Nick was supposed to marry Steffi, but slept with Milli, while Ulli was in love with Milli. Later, Nick and Milli received their happy ending, while Ulli became gay and Steffi left to New Zealand with Dennis, Nick's biggest rival.

After the failed Jessica/Alexander pairing, the von Anstetten family and castle Friedenau became the main focus once again. Christoph's son Henning was brought back and he fell in love with a con artist named Carolin Mohr. Later Carolin slept with Christoph and became pregnant with his child. The storyline culminated with Christoph being pushed into suicide by Clarissa in December 2000.

VL even had an opening with both Jan & Julia and Jessica & Alexander to make the transition between both couples more smoothly:
http://youtu.be/JDa3DRVH4pY

Some good vintage clips:

Clarissa vs. Tanja

http://youtu.be/wmxytnNkSFw

Clarissa vs. Barbara

http://youtu.be/M-ufWQw27js

Tanja wants to kill Clarissa, takes Lukas and Beatrice hostage and tries to kill them with carbon monoxide

http://youtu.be/bJ1-Mt75o_o

For the first time in the show's history, AWZ was pre-empted today due to coverage of the massive floods currently happening in Germany and its neighboring countries Switzerland, Austria, Czech Republic and Poland.

We all love good natural disasters on soaps once in a while, but when it's happening in real life, it's not that entertaining anymore.

Some old VL anniversary pictures:

Episode 500 (1997)

Most of the original cast had already left at that point.

Third row (left to right): Joachim Kretzer as Paul Schöner, Roland Pfaus as Tim Sander, ???, Mirco Wallraf as Ramon Santos, Andreas Brucker as Jan Brandner #1, Konrad Krauss as Arno Brandner

Second row (left to right): Meike Gottschalk as Sophie Levinsky, Dinah Alice Schillfarth as Cleo Winter, Isa Jank as Clarissa von Anstetten, Kerstin Landsmann as Kati von Sterneck #2, Claudia Scarpatetti as Susanne Brandner, Broder B. Hendrix as Gero von Sterneck, Michaela Conrad as Ela Anders, Christian Wunderlich as Frank Levinsky

Front row (left to right): Xenia Seeberg as Barbie Marx, Sascha Zaglauer as Rajan Rai

* There are several contract actors missing, for instance Jürgen Zartmann as Christoph. In turn, recurring actors Joachim Kretzer and Xenia Seeberg were pictured.

Episode 750 (1998)

The awful Prozeski era.

Back row (left to right): Daniel Wiemer as Dennis Krüger, Luca Zamperoni as Nick Prozeski, Nadine Brandt as Steffi Sander, Andreas Stenschke as Ulli Prozeski, Christian Wunderlich as Frank Levinsky, Nils Julius as Patrick Brockmann, Roland Pfaus as Tim Sander, Dinah Alice Schillfarth as Cleo Winter, Kerstin Landsmann as Kati von Sterneck #2, Aline Hochscheid as Jackie Lamers

Front row (left to right): Miriam Lahnstein as Tanja von Anstetten, Michael Meziani as Alexander von Deinburg-Thalbach, Andrea Suwa as Jessica Prozeski, Ruth Brück as Erna Prozeski, Peter Zintner as Walter Prozeski, Peter Kotthaus as Nils Petersen

* There are several contract actors missing, for instance Isa Jank as Clarissa, Manuela Alphons as Barbara, Raphaela Dell as Erika and Konrad Krauss as Arno.

Episode 1000 (1999)

The glamour returns.

Back row (left to right): Andreas Stenschke as Ulli Prozeski, Raphaela Dell as Erika Sander, Nils Julius as Patrick Brockmann, Isa Jank as Clarissa von Anstetten, Freya Trampert as Nina Ryan, Konrad Krauss as Arno Brandner, Kerstin Radt as Gabriella Santos, Stefan Wilhelmi as Tilmann Fritzsche, Hendrik Martz as Henning von Anstetten #2, Jürgen Zartmann as Christoph von Anstetten, Peter Kotthaus as Nils Petersen, Daniel Wiemer as Dennis Krüger, Andi Slawinski as Heino Toppe, Gabriele Metzger as Charlie Schneider, Aline Hochscheid as Jackie Lamers

Front row (left to right): Jutta Fastian as Carolin von Anstetten, Kerstin Landsmann as Kati von Sterneck, Nadine Brandt as Steffi Sander, Luca Zamperoni as Nick Prozeski, Marina Mehlinger as Milli Sander, Manuela Alphons as Barbara von Sterneck

Episode 1500 (2001)

The von Beyenbach era and a very large contract cast.

Back row (left to right): Patrik Fichte as Henning von Anstetten #3, Solveig Duda as Marie von Beyenbach, Tanja Wenzel as Isabell Mohr, Carsten Spengemann as Mark Roloff, Martina Servatius as Elisabeth Ryan Brandner, Kerstin Radt as Gabriella Santos, Andreas Potulski as Felix von Beyenbach #1, Karoline Schuch as Lara Cornelius, Luke J. Wilkins as Christian Toppe, Kerstin Kramer as Alexa Seifert, Gabriele Metzger as Charlie Schneider, Jeannine Burch as Beatrice von Beyenbach, Isa Jank as Clarissa von Anstetten, Günter Clemens as Martin von Beyenbach #1, Lina Tiedtke as Franziska von Beyenbach, Markus Prinz as Daniel Fritzsche #1

Front row (left to right): Christoph Dostal as Lukas Roloff, Tanja Lanäus as Jule Roth, Clemens Löhr as Simon Roloff, Freya Trampert as Nina Ryan, Kay Böger as Tom Seifert, Jo Weil as Oliver Sabel, Miriam Lahnstein as Tanja von Lahnstein, Matthias Beier as Jonas Schilling

Verbotene Liebe celebrates 18 years on the air.

New cast members and new main couple Juri Adam (Kristian Kiehling) and Martha Wolf (Julia Sontag)

The villains: Ansgar von Lahnstein (Wolfram Grandezka) and Tanja von Anstetten (Miriam Lahnstein)

Clockwise: Bella (Janina Isabell Batoly), Andi (Dominic Saleh-Zaki), Oliver (Jo Weil), Jessica (Jana Julie Kilka), Kim (Nicole Mieth) and Emilio (Florian Wünsche)

I wonder if Joscha will have a story with Deniz.

Will you miss Simone?

Joscha will apparently become best friends with Can – which is a bit strange because Can has expressed several times that he despises homosexuality. In one scene he almost threw up at the thought of two men kissing. It doesn't even make sense because he lives with his cousin Deniz who – as we all know – is bisexual.

Simone will be dearly missed. Tatjana Clasing is a wonderful, versatile actress and clearly the best among the AWZ cast. She can pull off any scene and she's great at playing a bitch. However, she has also given Simone a softer side and she's good at comedy too. I think her exit will hurt AWZ a lot because there's nobody who could fill the void she leaves behind. Especially not Jenny.

I also wonder what they'll do with both Richard and David since there are no potential love interests for them other than Simone.

What mistakes do you think GZSZ has made lately?

Too many They got rid of all original cast members between 2009 and 2010, rewrote the show's history, pushed couples that had no chemistry (Ayla/Philip, Leon/Pia, Kurt/Jasmin) while other popular couples apparently never get together (Emily/Tayfun, Lilly/Vince), boring stories were dragged out for months etc.

While Senta-Sofia Delliponti (Tanja Seefeld) is leaving the show in June after being on contract for almost 3 years, it has been announced that four new female characters will be joining GZSZ later this year. At the moment, I can't imagine how the show will make use of so many new characters. Maybe they'll bring back at least one former regular, but as this is GZSZ, I doubt it.

---

Meanwhile, the shake-up at AWZ continues: Original cast member Tatjana Clasing (Simone Steinkamp) has reportedly left the show for personal reasons. Her final episode is set to air on June 13th, 2013. During a vacation at the North Sea with her boyfriend David (Andreas Hofer), Simone will take a walk in the tidal flats. When the tide suddenly sets in, Simone is pulled into the ocean and disappears. It's unclear if Clasing will reprise her role at a later point. A recast seems out of the question considering that Simone – together with her on-and-off husband Richard (Silvan-Pierre Leirich) – has always been the pillar of the series.

David and Simone

Due to Simone's exit, her youngest on-screen daughter Vanessa (Julia Augustin) is supposed to make a guest appearance. Vanessa will probably stick around for two months. Augustin previously played the part on contract from September 2006 to April 2009 and from August 2010 to February 2012.

At the same time, another former main character is also returning: Anna-Katharina Fecher is back as Melanie Wendt and she is once again on contract. Fecher had previously played the part from August 2011 to July 2012. Melanie is Sarah's younger sister (Sarah departed the show this past February) and Ingo and Annette's adoptive daughter.

Anna-Katharina Fecher as Melanie

There's also a new man arriving: Carlo Degen will play Joscha Degen, David's second son and Lukas's brother. Joscha is a professional soccer player, but he also has a secret: According to the latest spoilers, he had a relationship with another player. When this other player came out of the closet, he was bullied and committed suicide. Joscha is haunted by the memories of his ex-boyfriend.

Carlo Degen as Joscha

 

 

<iframe frameborder="0" width="480" height="270" src="http://www.dailymotion.com/embed/video/xx1100"></iframe>

It's weird how some shows, such as Melrose, made things cheaper and more simple as years progressed [...]

That's a general problem long-running shows face. I also noticed this pattern on Beverly Hills 90210, 7th Heaven, Desperate Housewives, Charmed etc. Outdoor scenes became too expensive, so the later seasons mostly took place in-doors and therefore the shows felt slightly claustrophobic and restricted. Furthermore, the number of guest stars per episode decreased. In return, the main stars earned more and more each season so the budget was tight.

In fact, Melrose was cancelled after season 7 because the show became too expensive to produce. Especially Heather Locklear's salary per episode was incredibly high. I guess Jack Wagner, Thomas Calabro, Jamie Luner and Rob Estes weren't cheap either. It's not a coincidence that the cast was downsized for season 7.

The show still had solid ratings in its last year on the air. It brought about the same numbers as BH 90210 did during its 9th season – both shows had between 7 and 8 million viewers each week –, but BH 90210 was given another season while Melrose bit the dust.

IMO, seasons 3 to 6 were the best.

Seasons 2, 7, 8 and 10 had their good moments, too.

Season 9 was the worst. The only good thing about it was the beginning of Janet/Steve. I loathed the Kelly/Dylan/Matt/Gina quadrangle. Even though I liked Matt and Gina as characters, their storylines dragged them down constantly so that Kelly and Dylan could emerge as the "good guys".

It was a bad idea to replace Val with Gina because compared to Val, Gina was too bland. She lacked a vulnerable side and didn't have the charisma to make a good villain.

To me, Val was the best character in 90210 history.

I liked Carol Potter as Cindy, I wish they had done a bit more with that character in the later seasons instead of just putting her in the worst mom jeans and giving her a hairstyle that aged her like 15 years.

On Sunset Beach she basically played the same character, she just had a more whiny on-screen daughter.

ETA: Looking at those preview photos, I notice the soaps are very young; they don't appear to have a cross-generational appeal, as there doesn't seem to be many older characters. If there are, they aren't appearing in the previews, which leads me to suspect they aren't involved in a storylines. FYI: By older, I mean 50s, 60s, 70s... Are they family based? Like, Neighbours has only just gone back to families, and Hollyoaks is trying to do the same, and that brings a totally different tone to the shows, a more relateable feel.

To some extent, German soaps are family based – but very different from those in the US where almost every main character has family ties to someone on the canvas.

GZSZ has always revolved around young people – as did the Australian original "The Restless Years" –, so even today the teenagers and twens are the main focus. There have always been older characters, for example Elisabeth Meinhart, a teacher, who was a motherly figure for most of the younger characters. Parents hardly ever played a main part on the show, though. They usually only appeared for a guest stint. Of course there were exceptions. Currently, the only cast members over 40 are Wolfgang Bahro (Jo Gerner), Ulrike Frank (Katrin Flemming-Gerner) and Clemens Löhr (Alexander Cöster). Tim Williams (Kurt LeRoy) is also heavily recurring. Eva Mona Rodekirchen (Maren Seefeld) is on maternity leave but expected to return in the summer.

The younger characters often form "families" of their own as they share appartments etc. Some of the characters are related to each other as well.

AWZ has always revolved around the wealthy Steinkamp family. Its active members are SImone, Richard, Ben, Maximilian, Jenny, Letizia and Marco. Several family members have come and gone. Active ex-spouses include Isabelle and Lena. Then there's the Öztürk family with Marian, Deniz, Can, Lena and little Alexander. Like on GZSZ and UU, the younger characters share apartments and thus form some sort of family of their own.

On UU, the Weigel family is the main focus point. Other families have moved in and out of the building.

VL has always had one aristocratic family and one or two middle-class families as their counterparts.

I tried to illustrate the relationships between the current main cast members on AWZ, UU and GZSZ. Orange means family ties, pink means current romantic relationship, and blue past romantic relationship.

It's important to note that even though it seems that some characters don't have many ties to the canvas, friendships are not depicted. Furthermore, most characters have family members and past love interests that are no longer on the show.

GZSZ

Important notes: Jo Gerner has three other children; Leon has a brother and an adoptive sister (Jo Gerner's oldest daughter Vanessa); Leon was married to Pia's sister Verena (deceased); John, Emily and Philip are the last remaining members of the Bachmann-Lemke-Höfer family clan (former characters Hannes, Senta, Patrizia, Ben, Lena, Sandra).

UU

Important notes: Irene's oldest son Chris hasn't been since 1997; other members of the extended Weigel clan are either dead or have moved away; Rufus is the last remaining member of the Sturm-Mattern family clan (Ariane, René, Romy, Rebecca, Lili); Malte had a brother (Björn, deceased); Bela has a brother (Nils); Eva has a sister (Meike)

AWZ

Well, compared to the US and the UK, daily soaps in Germany don't have a long tradition since the oldest one – GZSZ – celebrates its 21st birthday this May.

Back in the 90s, when the genre was still new, soaps were very popular and GZSZ attracted up to 7 million viewers every day. Those days are long gone, and today the show has 3.5 million viewers on average.

For many years, soaps didn't have much competition from other genres in their timeslots, but then German telenovelas boomed. The soaps tried to keep up with them and introduced telenovela elements like frontburner couples and voice-overs from certain characters. Furthermore, OTT storylines which were big in the 90s where phased out. More realistic sets were built, better actors were hired – instead of talentless models – and the dialogue became sharper and more colloquial.

The heyday of the telenovelas was over in 2008/2009 – only two shows (Sturm der Liebe and Rote Rosen) have survived and are still solid ratings-wise –, but the soaps – with the exception of "Marienhof" – survived.

The current competition are reality soaps, for example "Berlin - Tag & Nacht" which airs opposite GZSZ and AWZ and has hurt both shows in the ratings department because all three have the same target demo. Since BTN became so popular, the soap producers reacted by making the soaps racier and "dumber". This concept works for AWZ because it has always been fast-paced and , but GZSZ has become unrecognizable.

Of the three RTL soaps, I'd say UU is the most stable one. They do a lot of character-driven and good umbrella stories. For example, Rolf murdered Rebecca last September and the aftermath of that event is still being played out with half of the cast involved in the trial. Rolf and Britta are in prison; there's the Britta-Malte love story; Sina is torn between believing Rolf and the rest of the Weigel family which takes its toll on her relationship with Erik; Eva is Britta's lawyer; Rufus, Rebecca's husband, still wants justice etc.

The constant revamps are basically necessary to keep people interested and to get the attention of the media. I think it also shows that the producers nowadays notice when storylines don't work or when actors/characters are unpopular with the audience.

Yeah, poor Ingo and Bea. Rüdiger's taking them, Isabelle and Marco hostage at the Steinkamp center. In the turn of events, Rüdiger finds out that Marco is not his, but his brother Richard's son. Rüdiger shoots Isabelle and Marco saves her life, which of course leads to them becoming attracted to one another. Bea and Ingo also grow closer. Rüdiger gets arrested by the police, but he can escape and swears revenge at Richard. He takes Richard hostage and wants to flee the country by assuming Richard's identity. While being locked up, Richard has a heart attack. Of course in the end the "bad" brother is put in jail for good – which is a pity because Rüdiger was a good foe for the Steinkamp family. He hasn't even lasted a full year on the show.

Looks like Katharina Woschek (Zoé) is also on her way out, so Zoé and Can will be history soon.

On "Unter uns", there is another recast as Laura Maria Heid will step into the contract role of Suji on April 25th, 2013. The distant Korean cousin of Eva (Claudelle Deckert) has been a resident of the apartment house since April 2012. Mine Voss, the first and current actress, has decided to leave the soap in order to focus on her studies.

Laura Maria Heid and Mine Voss

Preview pictures: April 2013

Unter uns

1. Till (Ben Ruedinger) and Anna (Marylu Saskia Poolman) 2. Sina (Valea Scalabrino) visits Rolf (Stefan Franz) in jail 3. Britta (Tabea Heynig) and Malte (Stefan Bockelmann) get married in prison 4. Kira (Barbara Prakopenka) and Ringo (Timothy Boldt) 5. Ute (Isabell Hertel) and Henning (Benjamin Kiss) 6. Britta and Rolf 7. Rolf in court 8. Erik (Maximilian Claus) and Irene (Petra Blossey) 9. Eva (Claudelle Deckert), Till and their newborn child 10. Suji (Laura Maria Heid) and Easy (Lars Steinhöfel)

Alles was zählt

1. Letizia (Jennifer Dessin-Brasching) 2. Julia (Jenny Bach) and Can (Volkan Isbert) 3. David (Andreas Hofer) and Simone (Tatjana Clasing) 4. Rüdiger (Ulrich Drewes) and Isabelle (Ania Niedieck) 5. Isabelle, Bea (Caroline Frier) and Ingo (André Dietz) 6. Ingo, Bea and Rüdiger 7. Julia and Can 8. Deniz (Igor Dolgatschew) and Katja (Anna Katharina Samsel) 9. Letizia, Julia and Lukas (Marc Schöttner) 10. Can

Gute Zeiten, Schlechte Zeiten

1. John (Felix von Jascheroff) and Tayfun (Tayfun Baydar) 2. Emily (Anne Menden) and Ayla (Sila Sahin) 3. Zac (Jascha Rust) and Jo Gerner (Wolfgang Bahro) 4. Katrin (Ulrike Frank) and Alexander (Clemens Löhr) 5. Tayfun, Pia (Isabell Horn) and John 6. Kurt (Tim Williams) and Jasmin (Janina Uhse) 7. Mesut (Mustafa Alin) and Pia 8. Emily, Pia and Jasmin 9. Katrin and Alexander 10. John, Philip (Jörn Schlönvoigt), Emily and Pia

According to the latest spoilers, Deniz and Katja will have a fling even though Katja is hopelessly in love with Ingo.

They obviously don't have any ideas left for Deniz and Katja so they decided to pair them up. They have like zero chemistry.

Is Deniz in any story?

No, and I don't know what they're going to do with him since there's no viable love interest for him on the canvas.

Right now there are the following love stories:

Jenny/David/Simone

Isabelle/Marco

Ben/Bea/Ingo/Katja

Marian/Lena

Can/Zoé

Julia/Lukas/Letizia

Richard, Rüdiger, Maximilian and Deniz are currently single. Since Richard, Rüdiger and Maximilian are older and straight, Deniz will most likely have to wait until a new character is introduced. I just hope they don't do a Marian/Lena/Deniz triangle.