German soaps: GZSZ, UU & AWZ

[Huntress]

Apart from those on GZSZ, no. The teens on GZSZ are currently the only thing worth watching, especially Lilly's bulemia storyline. The worst storyline at the moment is that awful Pia/Leon/John threesome storyline.

AWZ has become a problem for RTL during the past few weeks. The soap lost a huge part of its market share thanks to "Berlin – Tag und Nacht" ("Berlin – Night & Day), a scripted reality show, which runs opposite AWZ on RTL2. "Berlin – Tag & Nacht" is so successful that two similar shows set in Cologne and Hamburg will be produced in the near future. I personally don't understand why people like to watch amateur actors doing stupid stuff and screaming at each other instead of a high quality production with real actors.

Anyway, AWZ needs to up their game in order to stay on the air.

[DRW50]

Reality shows seem to knock out a lot of soaps. It's too bad. It sounds like AWZ has been drifting for a while, perhaps viewers were looking for a reason to go.

Is Deniz leaving?

What is the threesome story?

[Huntress]

No, Deniz is still on the canvas. Apparently he will turn out to be the father of Jessica's son. The baby is currently being taken care of by Marian and Lena since Marian thinks that he is the father. I think Lena will be the one to find out the truth.

The threesome story... oh well... it all sort of began in 2009 when John had an affair with Caroline, the ex-girlfriend of his best friend Tim. Caroline became pregnant with John's child, but decided to leave town with Tim since she still loved him. So in September 2009, Tim and Caroline left Berlin. John hooked up with Pia and they had a casual sex affair which evolved into a serious relationship as time went by. Pia even convinced John to meet his new-born son.

In 2010, Pia's half-sister Verena married Leon, an old buddy of John's. Verena and Leon have a son, Oskar. In July 2011, Verena was run over by a car and died. Leon was of course devastated. Pia tried to support him and took care of Oskar. Pia and Leon grew closer and eventually had sex. Now Pia is torn between John and Leon because she wants to be with both of them, She even proposed a threesome which I think John turned down. Currently they have some sort of "shared" relationship where Pia spends time with Leon on certain days and with John on other days. Pia now wants them all to move in together. It's all very weird and the whole storyline is very unpopular with the audience.

There was a similar storyline before in 2005 with Lena (John's older sister), Tim and Henrik which was thankfully scrapped after a short time.

[Huntress]

Last night the German Soap Award took place for the second time. The winners were determined by a jury and internet voting.

The winners were:

Best actress: Lucy Scherer (currently stars as Marlene on "Sturm der Liebe", was also nominated for her role as lesbian student Jenny on the cancelled soap "Hand aufs Herz")

Best actor: Wolfram Grandezka (has appeared as Ansgar von Lahnstein von "Verbotene Liebe" since 2004, starred on "Unter uns" from 1998 to 2000)

Best villain: Sarah Mühlhause (starred as Carla Rhönstedt on the cancelled soap "Anna und die Liebe" from 2010 to 2012)

Sexiest female: Sila Sahin (has appeared as Ayla Özgül on "Gute Zeiten, Schlechte Zeiten" since 2009)

Sexiest male: Frederic Heidorn (starred as Ronnie on the cancelled soap "Hand aufs Herz")

Best newcomer: Caroline Maria Frier (currently stars as Bea on "Alles was zählt", previously appeared on the cancelled soap "Hand aufs Herz")

Best couple: Sila Sahin and Jörn Schlönvoigt (Ayla & Philip) from "Gute Zeiten, Schlechte Zeiten". They are a couple in real life as well.

Female fan favorite: Kasia Borek (starred as lesbian student Emma on "Hand aufs Herz" and as photographer Olivia on "Anna und die Liebe", both shows were cancelled)

Male fan favorite: Jo Weil (has appeared as Oliver on "Verbotene Liebe" from 2000 to 2002 and since 2007)

Best soap: "Gute Zeiten, Schlechte Zeiten"

Best social issues-orientated storytelling: "Unter uns"

Special sprize: Marie-Luise Marjan (has appeared as Helga Beimer on "Lindenstraße" since the first episode in 1985)

[DRW50]

Do you agree with the results?

It must have been a little unsettling for the people there (was this an actual ceremony?) if so many awards were for canceled shows. Writing on the wall.

I'm surprised they didn't have these in earlier years.

[Huntress]

Actually you can't take this award show seriously. The so-called "jury" consisted of three people from various gossip magazines and of course mainly teenagers took part in the internet voting. "Hand aufs Herz" and "Anna und die Liebe" had (and still have) a huge online fanbase (HaH mainly due to its lesbian couple Emma and Jenny), but apart from these people, hardly anyone watched these shows so they were cancelled.

And a category for the sexiest person? A bit shallow, if you ask me. I guess Sila Sahin only won because she appeared totally nude in the German edition of "Playboy" last year which was quite a scandal since she is a Muslim.

[DRW50]

The British soaps also have the sexiest categories, although most of the winners are rarely sexy.

[Huntress]

Preview pics for December 2012

Alles was zählt

1. Marco (Salvatore Greco) and Viktoria (Rosetta Pedone) 2. Deniz (Igor Dolgatschew), Marian (Sam Eisenstein) and Lena (Juliette Menke) 3. Simone (Tatjana Clasing), Richard (Silvan-Pierre Leirich) and Jenny (Kaja Schmidt-Tychsen) 4. Maximilian (Francisco Medina) and Isabelle (Ania Niedieck) 5. Isabelle and Maximilian 6. Jenny and Friederike (Annelinde Gerstl) 7. Simone, Richard and Rüdiger (Ulrich Drewes) 8. Marian, Deniz and Can (new contract cast member Volkan Isbert) 9. Jenny and Hendrik (Martin Rother) 10. Simone, Richard and Rüdiger

Gute Zeiten, Schlechte Zeiten

​1. Jo Gerner (Wolfgang Bahro) and his deceased son Patrick (Björn Harras) 2. Emily (Anne Menden) and Patrick 3. Gerner and Emily 4. Tayfun (Tayfun Baydar) and Emily 5. Pia (Isabell Horn), John (Felix von Jascheroff) and Leon (Daniel Fehlow) 6. Katrin (Ulrike Frank), Johanna and Gerner 7. Kurt (Tim Williams) and Jasmin (Janina Uhse) 8. Tayfun and Emily 9. Ayla (Sila Sahin) and Philip (Jörn Schlönvoigt) 10. Maren (Eva Mona Rodekirchen) and Lilly (Iris Mareike Steen)

Unter uns

​1. Eva (Claudelle Deckert) 2. Paco (Milos Vukovic) and Anna (Marylu Saskia Poolman) 3. Micki (Joy Lee Juana Abiola-Müller) and Tobias (Patrick Müller) 4. Till (Ben Ruedinger) and Irene (Petra Blossey) 5. Eva and Till 6. Erik (Maximilian Claus) and Sina (Valea Katharina Scalabrino) 7. Tobias and Kira (Barbara Prakopenka) 8. Tobias, Micki and Bela (Bela Klentze) 9. Easy (Lars Steinhöfel) and Suji (Mine Voß) 10. Irene and Anna

Verbotene Liebe

​1. Marlene (Melanie Kogler) 2. Ricardo (Daniel Sellier), Ludwig (Krystian Martinek) and Elisabeth (Martina Servatius) 3. Assistant, Tanja (Miriam Lahnstein) and Rebecca (Tatjana Kästel) 4. Olli (Jo Weil) and Charlie (Gabriele Metzger) 5. Olli and Bella (Janina Isabell Batoly) 6. Ludwig 7. Rebecca and Marlene 8. Jessica (Jana Julie Kilka) and Olli 9. Clarissa (Isa Jank) and Ansgar (Wolfram Grandezka) 10. Kim (Nicole Mieth) and Emilio (Florian Wünsche)

[DRW50]

Who is on the slab?

[Huntress]

That's Patrick Gerner, as played by Björn Harras since November 2009. A very controversial character due to the fact that they rewrote the show's history in an implausible way just to make him Jo Gerner's son. Now Patrick's being killed off which makes the retcon even more pointless.

Poor Emily is pregnant with Patrick's child, but Tayfun will support her as it seems. They'll probably become the next hot couple since Tayfun's wife Dascha won't return to the canvas.

[DRW50]

Thanks.

That's how it often is on soaps - ugly rewrites that end pointlessly. I guess he's like AMC's Josh Madden (they rewrote Erica Kane's abortion to claim she had a grown son, then a few years later, killed him off, never mentioning him again).

[Huntress]

Yeah, I read about that Josh Madden story.

In Patrick's case, the story went as the following: His parents, Patrick Sr. and Elke, were both on the show from the first episode on. They were classmates but grew apart once they had left school. One year later, Jo Gerner was introduced as Patrick's older half-brother. Sometime later that year, Elke and Patrick became a couple, but they broke up in 1994. Elke then had a short fling with Jo, which ended quickly because Jo has always been a rascal. Afterwards Elke couldn't stand Jo and she reunited with Patrick whom she eventually married in 1995. In late 1995, Patrick found out that he had brain cancer. He died in January 1996. After his death, Elke found out that she was pregnant and she gave birth to Patrick Jr. in the fall of 1996. In May 1997, Elke left town with her new boyfriend. She returned for a week in 1999.

In November 2009, an all grown-up Patrick Jr. reappeared in town and he tried to become a part of his uncle's family (which consists of Jo, Jo's son Dominik, Jo's wife Katrin, Katrin's daughter Jasmin and Jo's and Katrin's daughter Johanna). He even changed his name to become Patrick Gerner. There was a lot of turmoil between all the family members including a hostage situation.

The character of Elke was ruined in the process because she was suddenly portrayed to be a bad mother who had abandoned Patrick etc. She was eventually killed off off-screen two weeks ago. On her death bed she confessed that Patrick was Jo's son which is completely impossible because Elke would have never had sex with Jo at the time that Patrick was conceived. Because Patrick feels unloved by the Gerner family, Patrick fakes his suicide. However, he has an accident and eventually dies for real.

[DRW50]

Well, that sounds incredibly grim and pointless. Sometimes I think soaps want to chase viewers away. I think all that is missing is someone developing tuberculosis.

[Huntress]

Unter uns has updated its opening, without Nils, Bine, Rebecca and Lili and with Suji, Ringo, Kira, Sonja, Paul and Erik. This time they shuffled characters around instead of just removing and adding them.

Version A

Order: Marylu Saskia as Anna Weigel & Milos Vukovic as Paco Weigel – Joy Lee Juana Abiola-Müller as Micki Fink, Isabell Hertel as Ute Fink, Benjamin Kiss as Henning Fink & Marvin Linke as Moritz Schönfeld – Lars Steinhöfel as Easy Winter & Mine Voss as Suji Wagner – Kai Noll as Rufus Sturm – Ben Ruedinger as Till Weigel, Petra Blossey as Irene Weigel, Valea Scalabrino as Sina Uhland & Stefan Franz as Rolf Jäger – Unter uns

Changes from the previous version: Scenes 2 and 3 were swapped. Ute was shown with Eva, who was removed from this version. New footage of Micki and Henning was added to the scene. Old footage of Moritz – from scene 2 – was also added. In scene 3, Easy was previously shown with Sina, Moritz and Lili. Rufus was moved over from version B, replacing Malte's old single shot.

Version B

Order: Timothy Boldt as Ringo Beckmann, Barbara Prakopenka as Kira Beckmann, Eric Langner as Paul Beckmann & Anne Apitzsch as Sonja Beckmann – Claudelle Deckert as Eva Wagner – Bela Klentze as Bela Hoffmann, Patrick Müller as Tobias Lassner & Joy Lee Juana Abiola-Müller as Micki Fink – Valea Scalabrino as Sina Uhland & Maximilian Claus as Erik Hansen – Milos Vukovic as Paco Weigel – Stefan Bockelmann as Malte Winter & Tabea Heynig as Britta Schönfeld – Unter uns

Changes from the previous version: The Beckmann family replaces the old shot of Nils, Bine and Bela. Tobias and Micki received new footage. Sina and Erik replace Rebecca and Rufus. Ute and Henning have been removed from the final shot, which now only shows Malte and Britta.

[DRW50]

Thank you so much.

Those Unter Uns hands-on-hip poses crack me up.