“Werewolves” on ARD: A gripping hybrid

As a child, my favorite game at children's birthday parties was “Murder in the Dark” - my love for the sophisticated crime story was undeniable.

The principle is quickly explained: innocent citizens live their lives, the light goes out, a person is tapped and “dies”. The lights go back on and the party has to quickly find out who the culprit - who is lying, of course - was before he continues the murder.

So good, so not suitable for children and that's why it's so beloved. But by the time people hit puberty, such games were no longer party highlights. Awkward attempts at flirting and binge drinking quickly became more interesting. It's a shame actually.

Fortunately, over the last few years, the variants “Mafia” and “Werewolf” have become more and more popular in pop culture: Youtubers turned the game into content, shows like “The Traitors” became a phenomenon in the USA and Germany, and then there was the public service answer from last year, “Werewolves – The Game of Cunning and Deception”.

“Werewolves” was advertised as the first “reality format” on public broadcasting and immediately caused a stir about the ÖRR’s educational mission, a debate in which Hugo Egon Balder took part.

That shouldn't detract from the popularity of the show, which, according to ARD, became one of its most successful media library formats and is now being continued with a second season, in which, among others, an ex-agent, a medium, a forensic psychologist and an auditor unmask each other as werewolves and want to win 25,000 euros.

If there is something wrong with “Werewolves”, it is the fact that it is called reality TV, because the very entertaining lying, cheating and manipulation has little to do with real life. Rather, “Werewolves” is an entertaining hybrid of a gripping mystery crime thriller and the great game shows of a bygone era.

The only difference is that actor Michael Kessler's off-screen voice cuts a much better figure than the late Thomas Gottschalk in "Wetten,dass.." and the amateur actors could teach some graduates of German drama schools a lot. Maybe it's not so bad that "Tatort" is canceled this week, because the "Werewolves" show how good German television can be if it dares to do just a little bit of anarchy.