Kleo [Netflix]

pixelburp

I watched this trailer and my first, immediate thought was "no way this got green-lit without someone thinking on tapping those Killing Eve vibes"; a German series coming August 19 about an East German assassin going rogue. Looks to have a very darkly humorous streak within it, and a fair bit of globe trotting, plus a bold aesthetic. So, yeah. Killing Eve.

Said it before elsewhere but will say it again: Netflix's non-English language output seems to be where the interesting swings are happening these days.

https://youtu.be/Zd3k7BOlJpE

Slydice

Looks like they might have given it a good shot.

Slydice

It opens saying "THIS IS A TRUE STORY" and "NONE OF THIS REALLY HAPPENED"

I don't know if it is a true story but I felt the need to pause and google it about 30 mins in. 😲

I couldn't find any info except some review sites for the show itself and none of them seemed to link to anything. There's no wiki.

1: OK Then! This introduces the year and the main character and it's just around the time everything changed with the wall going down in Berlin.

It feels a bit wierd but I keep asking myself if it doesn't feel like maybe it's grounded. Like the cringe dancing in the disco.. but not cringe "it's tv/film disco".. more cringe .. this is kinda like how awkward it was.

Some of the characters reminded me of different actors. Like the grandfather looks a bit like Arnie! The cop a bit like Matthew Rhys (The Americans)

So then..

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Like.. it's early days and all but it feels like she's gonna track down loads of people and kill them

That maybe the end goal is to get to the suit case.. in Chile.. and kill someone there

Speaking of which.. that ending! I was like.. WTF! Where'd that come from!?!?

pixelburp

Oh wait, it's out?

Sigh. Never change Netflix.

Slydice

This show is brought to you by the letters T-E-C-H-N-O! 🙂

2: The pain of the new squeaky trainers! Too Real!!! 😁

Predator style healing scene! Yuh!

Right so..

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More kills. Tracking down people and starting to go international. I'm guessing Majorca in the next episode.

Also this angry dude who seemed to be one of her handlers in episode one.. I'm guessing he'll be a bit fight scene down the road.

The Puffer Fish.. poison made but no one dead .. yet. I guess it will come up later.

The sad song she sang in the park was some verse from Der kleine Trompeter: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Der_kleine_Trompeter

Not all of it, just from one of the middle verses.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119493551#Comment_119493551

It is indeed out. Can't find much info on it while I'm avoiding reviewers site. It does have and imdb and rt.. but very few ratings given:

imdb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15135104/

rt: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/kleo/s01

Slydice

I might subtitle this show as: Kleo - An Assassin's Tale

3: Business episode. Where.. Assassin..ing is the business 🙂

Right so...

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That's the boss taken care of. Now onto a politician. I'm half guessing or at least from the money-aspect of this element.. thinking that maybe someone from the west might have organised this. Now whether it was money .. or CIA related.. hmmm... not sure.

Cop is definitely feels like he's in over his head.

On the sidestories, the scenes with Thillo are very funny!

Slydice

Right.. halfway through! This is pretty decent. Overall story had a hook and it's all feels consistent. Definitely an Assassin series.

I'd thought killing eve would be like this but killing eve didn't feel like it turned out like this.

4: Noooooooooooo! 😲

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Not Andi! The final betrayal! the circle is complete!

Does she have anyone left? Seems not. Just Thilo and the cop now I guess.

I wonder what the world ending intel is gonna have been.

Anyway... lots of clever stuff in this one..

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She has twins Rosa and Marx 😁

Thilo and the conspiracy stuff!

Getting the politician out of the prison using the kid was genius!

Using the Makarov and pillow to kill him. The Makarov being one of the easier guns to suppress noise with.. though that was still probably taking some creative liberties.

The gut punch about her grandfather was bad but including Andi too.. damnnnn.

I swear I thought she was gonna flamethrower the cop and his family.. she better get over there quick and get the defusal done.

From googling, the sign up in Uwes place is a quote from Feliks Dzierzynski "Only someone with a cool head, a warm heart and clean hands can be a chekist. A chekist has to be cleaner and more honest than anyone - he has to be as clear as crystal."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_Dzerzhinsky_Guards_Regiment

The Felix Dzerzhinsky Guards Regiment (German: Wachregiment "Feliks E. Dzierzynski") was the paramilitary wing of the Ministry for State Security (Stasi),[1] the security service of the German Democratic Republic (GDR).

Thilo mentioned Reagan and Scouts for Peace so I googled but found little... BUT.. and I haven't a clue if it's related...

I found this wiki page of Gabriele Gast

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriele_Gast

There is little indication that she had become a convinced Marxist, but she was committed to the belief, encouraged by her ultimate spy chief, Markus Wolf, that by acting as an information channel between the intelligence services of west and east Germany, she could see herself as a "scout for peace" ("Kundschafterin des Friedens ").

I haven't read that full wiki article but maybe it's related. I should probably come back to it... I mean like.. because her timeline and ending up in prison and all that

Slydice

5: No! 😠

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Fuck this show if they've killed her like that. There's no way they've done. It must've been Andi taking out Uwe or the cop showed up with the gun he found on the couch or the west german agent getting involved.

They can't have killed her off. There's still three episodes. wtf.

Right. Anyway. That song seems to be one used in a lot of show/films like Shutter Island, Handmaids Tale, Arrival

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blue_Notebooks

The track "On the Nature of Daylight" has been used extensively throughout cinema and television

On The Nature Of Daylight - Orchestral Version (2016)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jJO0SV19l8

All right, let me think..

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Good thing the sniper rifle didn't hit. I'm pretty sure that was an SVD and probably would've ripped her asunder.

Appears from the subtitles that Bumsen is used for **** buddies but translations websites seem to only have it as fuckin/screwin/sexing somehow

example: https://m.interglot.com/de/en/bumsen

Oh and I think it's not a (fully) true story.. I looked up Erich Mielke: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erich_Mielke

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He died in a nursing home.

Slydice

6: Alright, backstory and setup for the last two episodes I think. Guessing there'll have to be a cliffhanger in 7!

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So.. the Kleo story will surely see her coming into confrontation with Andi.

Then.. the bigger story.. has to have the guy Jorge from Chillie from the backstory involved I think. That plus the connection to Chillie in episode 1.

Maybe that's going to be a setup for a season 2. So season 1 might end with an Andi fight but a reveal about Chillie.

The 80s sounding song from during the backstory..

Gaby Rückert - Berührung 1980

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tJHsscd4HY

Slydice

7: I'd call that episode a tornado of plot twists! 😲 So let me see...

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Andi is dead.. yer wan is Ramona... you know.. it almost feels like Andis whole story is left open to interpretation on both sides.

Thilo! Oh no! Oh no Thilo! 😁 If a future season was being setup.. I'd half guess that he could be her money source and the techno club be a hideaway.

The cop .. Sven.. getting down in the leg with the tv tower statue! 😲😁

I don't get the fire killing the head wan from west german intel.. I am guessing she was concussed... though at the same time.. even though she looks dead... this would make a right setup for a baddie with a vendetta for a future season.

With all the plot twists happening.. I'm wondering if Min Sun is genuinely a rookie or maybe working for china.

I'm not seeing all the storylines getting closed down in the last episode unless they do another tornado of plot twists.. which they could. Everything might feel a bit rushed if they did though.

Slydice

Oh.. almost forgot.. (for episode 7)

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I put the map coordinates into google maps: https://www.google.ie/maps/place/23°30'54.5"S+69°03'52.4"W

About 1,484 km away from Santiago

In the middle of nowhere...

Slydice

Finished! Overall this was decent. Definitely going back and sticking to my earlier call of it being An Assassins Tale. The first half of the season felt very raw assassin style. The latter half pushing more into an action/story development mix. Still assassin business throughout though. There was also a kind of slapstick humour element added in. Seemed to be a creative decision and sure.. it was funny but I'm not sure I fully get why.

Where it could use a bit of improvement was in dotting the i's and crossing the t's in the story. The details had a lot of hits but some misses too where bits felt glossed over or a bit light-tough soap-opera style.

8: Don't even ask me what happened with

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Thilo.. that was all kinds of Fargo season 3!

Anyway.. so the Suitcase and all that happened was because Raegan and the head of east Germany made a pact to keep the cold war going... right so. Makes sense that it's still a big deal to some of them since the full collapse hadn't happened just yet. Pretty close though.

Ramona giving birth! Oh dear! :D The chase and crash felt a bit much for little payoff but the earlier coffee cut/poison thing was done well I thought.

Min Sun turning the case over to the USA.. yeah definitely something felt off about her.

What a freakin gut punch when the mother turned her away. Everything felt in chaos. Then the followup sex and betrayal and chase scene.. my head was all over the place.

I'm guessing that had to be down to set the show up to go for a season 2.

Which doesn't feel too bad actually.. I'd guess herself and Sven might do alright as a buddy-cop.. well.. buddy-assassin show.

The credits had multiple scenes.. they are done when the Kleo logo shows up.

Song from the end:

Red Army Choir: Oh Fields, My fields.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYnmFVTFT3E

Future: I think this could definitely go places with a season 2. Just not sure I'm seeing any push for it. Very limited resources on the web about it. Maybe the connection to Russia is a bit of a no-go at the moment.

gmisk

Enjoyable first episode lots of obvious comparisons, killing eve especially, along with the Deutschland series (83 still the best of those imo) but enjoyable enough in its own right.

Thoroughly enjoyed this. Kleo was very well played by Jella Haase, really good actor. The plot twisted and turned, sometimes almost doubling back on itself in the intrigue. Recommended

cdgalwegian

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119509453#Comment_119509453

First 3 episodes in and it's a heavy Deutschland backdrop feel, with the central character in a revenge story rather than a spy origin story. Inevitably this will suffer from Killing Eve comparison in lead's temperament, though not motivations for killing, but Kleo's history makes her much more complex; easier to root for, making her coldbloodedness more shocking.

All the main characters in the story interesting in their own ways. and good fun to watch. The Sven Petzold character is hilarious.

cdgalwegian

Kleo often has the look of Elizabeth Moss. It was bugging me who Sven Potzold looks like, until it clicked - Charlie Day from It's Always Sunny..

cdgalwegian

Thought this was great fun.

https://about.netflix.com/en/news/kleo-netflix-confirms-the-second-season-of-the-action-thriller

Acosta

I enjoyed it. Some of the bits with the Techno lad were a bit silly, but overall it was pretty good. I'll watch the second season