Secretaries - Superior from 9 to 5 Season 1 - DVD

Content: Actually, Katja Neumann (Ellenie Salvo González) had applied for a small office job in a toast factory. But by chance she lands on the post of executive secretary for the choleric Wolf Berger (Jochen Horst) - a job for which she is absolutely not qualified. This is also the opinion of her colleagues Nicole (Susan Hoecke) and Melanie (Nina Vorbrodt), who don't miss a single chance to show up the chaotic Katja in front of her boss. But with a lot of enthusiasm Katja defies all bullying attempts and all insults from Mr. Berger. And while especially Melanie spends most of her time idolizing the second company boss Marcus Schoener (Thorsten Feller), Katja does her best to meet the demands of her boss. But in the process she puts her foot in her mouth and drives Wolf Berger to the brink of insanity. Surviving from 9 to 5 is not as easy as one might think...

The RTL series Sekretärinnen never really had it easy. Because there is with Stromberg actually already the ultimate office comedy and also older in this environment set series such as Office Office and The Office still have a fairly wide fan base, the turbulent everyday life in the secretariat of Sonnenschein Toast AG had to be inevitably compared with these series. In order to stand out a little, an attempt was made to develop a lovable character in the form of the main character Katja, who is charmingly chaotic in an Ally McBeal-like way. With Ellenie Salvo González (Vollidiot, Hui Buh) an actress was found who could play such a character perfectly. A little bit through the wind, chaotic, but at the same time always sweet and sympathetic. And with Nina Vorbrodt (Sechserpack), Jochen Horst (Balko) or Susan Hoecke (18 - Allein unter Mädchen) she was also given co-stars who actually would have had enough acting and comedic potential for a successful comedy series.

In the beginning, the series tries to score with pleasantly irreverent, even a little macabre humor. But this is quickly replaced by rather flat silliness. And this is where the show's problem reveals itself, which can also be seen as the reason for its cancellation after just one season. The humor is so concerned with laughs that the characters are thereby degraded to completely exaggerated joke figures. While this is quite amusing here and there, it rarely becomes truly funny. Instead, hecticness, too forced gags and wasted opportunities reign, revealing what comedic potential a series like Secretaries could have actually had.

That this was not used and the intrinsically apt observations of everyday office life were buried under a too overdone production is a real shame. Because with a little more restraint and a slightly more pronounced focus on script elaboration, Secretaries could easily have been a comedy series with huge cult potential. As it is, however, it's just a nice series in its best moments, but one that never comes close to matching the quality of similarly constructed series.

Picture + Sound: Since for the test only a data-reduced press sample was available, no rating can be given here about the final picture and sound quality.

Extras: Also the bonus material could not be sighted on the press disc. For the purchase variant info on the shooting and interviews are announced.

Conclusion: Secretaries tries to depict the typical everyday life in a German office quirky and with a lot of bite. But unfortunately, the characters are too exaggerated clichés and the humor a bit too upbeat to really live up to the ambitions of the creators. The few really good laughs were then not enough to trigger the very big enthusiasm of the TV audience. And so this short first season is then also the only one that there will be of secretaries. But if you like classic comedy slapstick and can laugh at rather hackneyed clichés, you will definitely enjoy this turbulent everyday office life thanks to the likeable actors and some nice gags. All others should then but rather again to the Stromberg seasons reach

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp