Two Sides Of The Abyss Looks Like Germany’s Answer To Happy Valley
Loved Happy Valley but haven’t found a good new series to replace it? Fear not, as we’ve found you the next best crime thriller that’s giving the beloved show a run for its money…
Two Sides of the Abyss is a brand new German language drama produced in collaboration with Warner Bros and HBO Max. A psychological thriller, it follows a police officer whose world is rocked by the sudden early release of her daughter’s murderer from prison.
Intrigued? Here’s everything we know about Two Sides of the Abyss
Two Sides of the Abyss is set in the city of Wuppertal in western Germany, and our protagonist is police woman Luise Berg, played by German actress Anne Ratte-Polle (I Was, I Am, I Will Be). Somewhat similar to Sarah Lancashire’s steely PC Catherine Cawood in Happy Valley, Luise is a woman tormented by the death of her daughter, who was murdered several years before the events of the series. In the middle of an investigation into a series of seemingly unrelated murders, she discovers that Dennis Optiz, the man who killed her daughter, has been released early from prison. She’s confused and outraged by this revelation and demands answers.
Luise decides to go all in and place Dennis as the prime suspect in the murder case but is put on an avoidable collision course that may cause more harm than good. Is she right to immediately go after someone she suspects on gut feeling? Or does she have clouded judgement, affecting her duty to bring justice to the grieving families? Things only get more complicated as Luise begins to believe that Dennis is exacting revenge on his past tormentors and those that allowed him to be caught, and she is drawn into a complex game where the difference between law and true justice is blurred.
In addition to Anne Ratte-Polle, Two Sides of the Abyss features a cast of German actors including Anton Dreger (Tatort) as Dennis, Dirk Martens (Blood), Josephine Thiesen (A Small Cut), Yerman Gur (Luck) and Jessica Rau (It: Chapter Two). All six episodes of the miniseries premiered on RTL Deutschland last year, and then on HBO Max in May, with a UK release set to be announced in the near future.
Can’t wait for two side of the abyss? Check out the best of June’s streaming releases.
