'Babylon Berlin' Releases First Look as Final Season Begins Filming

Of the TV series from other networks surfaced by Netflix's almighty streaming algorithm over the last decade, the one I may be most grateful to it for is Babylon Berlin. Set in the waning days of the Weimar Republic in 1929, the series gives the outward appearance of being one of the dozens of stereotypical film-noir police procedurals that dominate Walter Presents' lineup, but the actual story told is how German nationalism rose in a sleeping democracy. Due to its uncanny topicality, the series built a cult audience in the spring of 2020, who found the subversive highlighting of wanton police brutality deployed by the government during moments like the historical Workers Day Riots a little too close to home.

Unfortunately, the show's sudden spike in popularity cracked the fragile relationship between the series' many producers, causing Season 4 never to make it to Netflix, and a four-year delay in getting the show's planned fifth and final season into production. However, much like The Handmaid's Tale, that managed to cause the series' final season right back into the uncanny valley, as the show's arc will end on March 5, 1933, 92 years to the day that I'm hitting publish on this post.

“In five weeks, the whole country was turned upside down,” series co-creator Tom Tykwer said in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. “Suddenly [Hitler’s stormtroopers] numbered in thousands, they became the police and were allowed to shoot and arrest socialists and communists. The first camps were opened, the whole of society was threatened on a massive scale, and at the same time, there was this promise that everything would be transformed.”

Here's the synopsis for the show's final season:

Berlin, January 30, 1933: Adolf Hitler becomes Reich Chancellor. As the end of the Weimar Republic looms, the darkest chapter in German history begins. On March 5, 1933, new elections will give Hitler’s party complete power. But in these five weeks preceding the election, every single person in Germany is faced with difficult decisions: to adapt, to risk open opposition, or to flee. And while Gereon disappears from the face of the earth, Charlotte digs deep into a mysterious case of a series of murders of former front-line soldiers. There are growing signs that there is a direct link to Gereon’s past – and that of the new Reich Chancellor…

Volker Bruch (The Girl in the Spider's Web) and Liv Lisa Fries (Freud's Last Session) are confirmed to return to reprise their roles of Gereon Rath and Charlotte Ritter. The rest of the returning ensemble includes Christian Friedel (The Zone of Interest) as Reinhold Gräf, Hannah Herzsprung (The Bloom of Yesterday) as Helga Rath, Lars Eidinger (All The Light We Cannot See) as Alfred Nyssen, Karl Markovics (The Regime) as Samuel Katelbach, Peter Kurth (SOKO Wismar) as Bruno Wolter, Matthias Brandt (Dark Woods) as August Benda, and Sebastian Urzendowsky (Borgia) as Max Fuchs.

The director/writer trio of Henk Handlogten, Achim von Borries, and Tom Tykwer will also return for the final season, penning all eight episodes and splitting helming duties. The series will be co-produced by Christoph Pellander and Carolin Haasis from ARD Degeto, Manfred Hattendorf and Monika Denisch from SWR, and Alexander Bickel and Caren Toennissen-Brand from WDR. Stefan Arndt, Uwe Schott, and Michael Polle executive produce for X-Filme alongside Jan Mojto, Dirk Schürhoff, and Moritz Herzogenberg for Beta Film.

Babylon Berlin Season 5 is currently in production and expected to be released in Germany before the end o 2025. Seasons 1 through 4 are currently only available in the U.S. on MHzChoice, which is where Season 5 will debut when it crosses the pond.