Der letzte Bulle

Der letzte Bulle
Written by	Robert Dannenberg Stefan Scheich
Starring	Henning Baum Maximilian Grill Proschat Madani Helmfried von Lüttichau Robert Lohr
Opening theme	"Real Wild Child (Wild One)" by Iggy Pop (seasons 1-4) Vertigo by U2 (season 5)
Composer(s)	Thomas Klemm
Country of origin	Germany
Original language(s)	German
No. of seasons	5
No. of episodes	60 (list of episodes)
Production
Location(s)	Essen, Germany
Running time	42 minutes
Production company(s)	ITV Studios Germany greenskyfilms
Broadcast
Original channel	Sat.1
Picture format	480i (SDTV) 1080i (HDTV)
Original run	April 12, 2010 (2010-04-12) – present
External links
Official website
Production website

Der letzte Bulle (The last cop) is a German television series that was first aired in 2010. The series is about a cop from the 1980s put into a modern police department in Essen.

Plot

The plot revolves around German homicide detective Mick Brisgau who was shot in the head on duty in the late 1980s. As a result of this headshot, he was in a coma for 20 years. The show starts when he awakes suddenly from said coma. Being a star for the media he is allowed to return to his old job at the homicide department.

As an old-school macho-cop, he doesn't know about modern technology (e.g., cellphones, computers, modern investigation methods) and deals with modern world homicide cases in his ’80s-style manner. Thus making him a unique officer in today's city of Essen police headquarters in the center of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region.

While spectators might find resemblances with Life on Mars, it is actually doing the inverse - the rough style of the main character (portrayed by Henning Baum) is complemented by his prudent partner Andreas Kringge (portrayed by Maximilian Grill). The series presents a number of 1980s music and items, the main character is even driving an old Opel Diplomat V8^[1]

The setting includes his old partner, Martin Ferchert, from the 1980s who is now the chief of department, and his former wife has married the coroner Roland Meisner who both serve in the same department. In some episodes his adult daughter, Isabelle, appears, whom he had known only as a baby. Amongst the social problems, police psychologist Tanja Haffner tries to conciliate.

Production and transmission

The series ran first on 12 April 2010 on Sat.1 Television with 2.99 million viewers (or 9.2 percent) somewhat below the average of the TV channel. However viewer share increased especially among younger viewers. With the start of the second season the viewer share had almost doubled and Sat.1 ordered a third season. The fourth season aired in Germany beginning 21 January 2013.

The show has been aired in combination with the Sat1 production Danni Lowinski from the start but while the latter scored better in the beginning it is now The Last Cop that shows better results.^[2] With a viewer share of 15% for the Last Cop and with both series being the best running productions of Sat1, it was announced on 9. April 2013 that a fifth season is being planned for both shows.^[2]

The series has been sold to neighbouring countries; Austrian ÖRF runs it since 31 May 2011. The French Direct 8 runs a dubbed version since March 2012 under the title of Mick Brisgau, le come-back d’un super flic. It is also dubbed for Italian Rai 1 where it runs under the title of Last Cop - L'ultimo sbirro on Summer. In Bulgaria, the series runs as Ченге от миналото on Diema in a dubbed version. In Brazil the show is being aired on cable channel Globosat+ under the name O Último Policial, in German language with Portuguese subtitles. In Spain the series is dubbed and runs as El último poli duro on Canal+ Spain and Cuatro.

U.S. Remake

At Turner Upfront TNT has announced to produce a pilot for a US remake of the German series. The adaptation will see the 1990s cop Mick Branigan to awake after 20 years of coma returning to his job at the LAPD. The pilot is produced by Sylvester Stallone with Fuse Entertainment and Fox Television Studios coproducing the show for TNT.^[3]^[4]^[5]

Japanese Remake

Nippon Television Network & Hulu announced to produce the mini-series for a Japanese remake of the German series, schedule to start summer 2015.

References