Vienna Blood

The Masterpiece/Mystery series Vienna Blood is a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine. At first, it was not quite cozy enough for me as mysteries go—it leaned into the blood part of the title a bit heavily for my tastes—but as I was reading more about Vienna I went back to it. When it is trying its hardest to evoke a 1907 version of the city, it can be immensely charming.

The premise of Vienna Blood is that the cultured, insightful young psychoanalyst, Max Liebermann, teams up with the no-nonsense police detective, Oskar Rheinhardt, to solve crimes where a psychological profile of the killer comes in handy. The number of these intense, complicated cases that pop up in a short period of time may strain credulity, but the backdrop of the show is gorgeous and incredibly detailed, breathing life into the individual stories. It was shot on location in Vienna, and it shows. The sets are also beautiful and conjure up real sites such as the Hotel Imperial or the State Opera House, in a convincing way that draws the viewer in.

It is well-acted, with even the minor characters pulling their weight—especially Conleth Hill darting in every now and then to play another foil for Max, as his loving but practical father, who is not sure this psychoanalytical business constitutes a real job.

Though the two leads, Max and Oskar, first come across as competent in their respective fields, over time they reveal certain weaknesses that draw them together and weave their own stories into the general psychological theme. The revelations of these flaws or flashes of backstory help build both the relationship and feeling of depth to the overall arc. It can occasionally make for an interesting tension, such as when Max has to solve a case in order to salvage his reputation—and resents it that Oskar understands this acutely and can use it against him, to draw him back into police work.

For me, the real appeal of the series is the way each of the stories taps into the xenophobic and antisemitic underground of the city, below its polished surfaces. There is an intensity to the themes and, especially, the musical score, but they feel earned by how dramatic and world-historically important this hidden world turned out to be. This is the Vienna where the young Hitler received his political—and aesthetic—education, a connection that feels omnipresent without receiving too much direct emphasis. It is the Vienna of Sigmund Freud that comes across more directly.

The show is unusually successful at what it is trying to do. The evident love for its location and the attention to detail set it above the average detective series.