Babylon Berlin: S03 - 2020 - 6/10

When will I ever learn? After one or two seasons, inspiration and creative fire for most shows ebb away.
So too here, the third installment of a series which dazzled over the course of two back-to-back seasons.
Where the narrative once took bold leaps within a dynamic Weimar Berlin, now the plot inches incrementally.
The threads seem smaller. Murders on a film set. (The troubled film, “Dämonen der Leidenschaft,” may remind decadent buffs of Sebastian Droste’s work in “Tragödie der Macht”.)
Gereon’s personal problems, Charlotte’s family and career problems, Greta’s incarceration.
The minutes creep doggedly by. Bits of an arc advance here, piece of action there.
The Hollywood writing room crutch of “milking” a series, of dragging the pace in order to stretch an eight episode series into twelve, is sadly and shamefully evident.
Babylon Berlin becomes another dull soap opera (thanks, Netflix), which is regrettable because this had been, for me, a thrilling show.