WEIMAR? BECAUSE WE REICH YOU! Germany’s ‘Babylon Berlin’ Crime Series Is Like ‘Cabaret’ On Cocaine.

It’s quite watchable (read: binge-able), if at times a bit anachronistic; the giant nightclub that many scenes are set in is far more reminiscent of the ’20s-meets-hip-hop production design of Leonardo DiCaprio’s Great Gatsby movie than Bob Fosse’s Cabaret. But the Netflix import is a detective story, not an epistemological history lesson; if you want to understand how German mores and morals hit rock-bottom and set the stage for one of history’s darkest hours, Babylon Berlin won’t do it, but it does make for gripping (if occasionally aesthetically vile) television.

(Classical reference in headline.)