MovieChat Forums > Berlin Station (2016) Discussion > Some thoughts...

Some thoughts...

posted 8 years ago by mpdc_jonathan
2 replies | jump to latest

Contains Spoilers...

Let me begin by saying that I liked Berlin Station but just because you like something doesn't mean that it can't be done better. I think the series started with a lot of intrigue and a good premise but sort of ended as a patchwork quilt.

The whole Iosava story arc was over done. If the couple was simply running German brides to ISIL then they made the couple way to powerful. If the eye wash operation was simply to ferret out Thomas Shaw, Hans Richter with the BfV should have been able to provide more clarify information about the couple. That the Iosava's were counter surveilling some of the brides as they prepared to be sent to ISIL seems a bit over the top. Mix in that the wife would receive a phone call a short time after her husband was grabbed, that she would be with a group who was heavily armed and would begin shooting up a shopping mall after the grab. That they would have the technical support staff to arrange the negation with Frost seems a little over the top.

Why was Clay Williams going around having people killed and shredding the whole operation? Better to simply have said it was an eye wash to flush out Thomas Shaw who was embarrassing the whole agency.

I felt they gave the whole Thomas Shaw thing away to quickly. In the end the revelation was Hans was running Thomas Shaw but it would have been more suspenseful to not have the audience know Hector's role and leaving the audience guessing who exactly is Thomas Shaw. It may have been better if Miller was Shaw and was just a way to get back to Germany.

On that thought, the whole Richter and Krug running Thomas Shaw makes no sense. What was the end game of embarrassing the CIA? Was there an exit strategy? They simply wanted to embarrass the CIA station in Berlin and then when their plan might be exposed they simply cower to whomever may reveal their plan? What did he think was going to happen when he started to embarrass the CIA?

I think they made Hecktor a little to caring. Part of working for the CIA is using people. You may be friendly with a person, but they are simply a source of information so that you can get them to betray either someone or something. I get that Hecktor is remorseful for things that he did but the show could have been better in showing the way that they use up an asset and then when the asset is no longer needed or useful they can be easily discarded.

Like I said a good show but there were some ways it could have been done better.

[–] Sluggr-3 8 years ago

I agree that the motivation of Hans was a bit too thin. He was B*ttH*rt over the Merkel phone taps. BFD. I assume that both the German Intelligence and CIA have common enemies, so taking out berlin Station actually weakens the german defense against terrorism. Would have been better for Hans to have been an old-school former Stazi agent who was still fighting the cold war and hoping for a resurgence of the iron curtain.

The bride thing was weak. Now if they had been recruiting girls to go to Syria where they would be further indoctrinated to return to Germany as human bombs, then I could see people getting all worked up over that ring. As for the negotiation thing, knowing that they were in berlin, a friend told me that the CIA would have simply needed to send a repeating digital marker along with their transmission, and then have packet sniffers look for that segment in the Berlin internet trunklines to locate where they were going.

Clay was covering up the fact that their attempt to feed embellished information for Shaw to release was actually misinterpreted by the station as a serious threat. Clay only showed up as a janitor after the mall meeting cluster&#!%. He and Hans were working together, like Strangers on a Train, to coverup their mutual embarrassments. I was surprised that he got Heisenberg to come out of retirement to act as a hitman. ;-)

The shift in Hector's sentiments at the dark site were a bit too subtle. I think they wanted to make him like ????? in the Spy Who Came in from the Cold, a person who suddenly tired of being a pawn in someone else's game. At one point he was exposing what he believed were specific things that needed to be fixed in the CIA, but then Hans corrupted him into exposing everything about BS instead, so Hector lost the purpose of his original mission. Hector then had to adopt a different strategy to save his soul and correct the evil things he had done, and his last act was to free the Saudi asset.

Agree it was better than the flash whiz bang spy stuff. Most everything is still intact for a season 2 minus Hans and Frost, though I have to say that I really like everything that Jenkins does. With Hans gone, Ester protecting her new position, Daniel and hector OK with eachother, Frost off the grid, and Clay probably disgraced in Langely, they could restart season 2 with all the principals at their same jobs. I could tolerate a season of Kirsch and Valerie at eachother's throats. ;-)

My Chimp DNA seems to have lost its password temporarily. Sluggr-2

[–] gino-lee 8 years ago

I think the part where Hans say he is pissed off at the way Americans can do anything with impunity (especially in his own country) is all that is needed to explain why he choose to run Hector as Shaw. The Merkel taps were mentioned multiple times.

Hans is a spy working for his country, protecting his country and here you have CIA most likely doing whatever the hell they want in his country and he has to act all courteous to them. It is like if it broke that the Germans were tapping Obama's phone, but the head of the CIA can't/doesn't do anything about it and still treats the German diplomats well and lets them do whatever in America.

The whole eyewash situation was confusing. Maybe because I am exhausted, but I couldn't make the connection between the Romanian guy that supposedly kidnapped the husband of the lady sending brides to ISIL and what it had to do with making fake cables to hunt Thomas Shaw.