What are the German words for zany and wacky? They surely figured into the pitch meeting for Netflix’s Kacken an der Havel (or Crap Happens in English). This nine-episode comedy about a failed rapper who returns to his hometown in rural Brandenburg could be described as fearlessly kooky. If you aren’t laughing one minute, the show’s creators will bring out something even more goofy in the next scene in their tireless attempts to tickle your funny bone.

By Josef Markus

Toni Fleischer (Anton Schneider, AKA Fatoni, actually a popular rapper in Germany), a burly white guy pushing 40, still clings to hopes of a rap career in Berlin, despite being reduced to working in a pizzeria and despite his dinosaur status in the clubs, where he tries to freestyle against kids who are a generation younger and, needless to say, infinitely cooler. When his mother dies in a freak accident, Toni has to reluctantly return to his hometown of Kacken an der Havel to face his disapproving family, as well as Charly (Sky Arndt), the teenage son he never even knew existed.

Lest that synopsis suggest anything tragic or even the least bit dour, rest assured series creators Alex and Dimitrij Schaad set a tone of winking mischief right from the start. Toni’s mother Vera dies trying to rescue a duck from a tree during a thunderstorm, and her demise is played as a sort of rueful slapstick. And the remote Brandenburg hamlet of Kacken is no boondocks slowly withering away. The town square is postcard perfect, and the regional isolation seems to have freed up the locals to be as cheerfully eccentric as they want to be. 

First among eccentrics could be Vera’s newly widowed husband Johnny Carrera, played by Dimitrij Schaad. Viewers of Netflix’s late, much-lamented Kleo, where he played Kleo’s bumbling cop partner, will recall Schaad’s gift for imparting drollery to any scene; here he’s an irrepressible source of comic energy, making Johnny an ideal foil for sad sack Toni.

NOT YOUR OPA’S HEIMATFILM

Kacken’s mayor, or Burgermeisterin, is “Veronica Ferres,” played by… Veronica Ferres, an actress who is a household name in Germany from countless movies and TV miniseries. Here Ferres sends up her celeb status via a deadpan version of herself as a Dear Leader–style dictator, which may be the Schaads’ impish way of suggesting that democracy has not quite taken hold in the provincial former East.

Ferres may be the mayor, but the real reigning authority here could be Wes Anderson, so often does the production design evoke one of his moving dioramas. That aesthetic extends to many of the camera setups, with the actors centered against sets that look like display windows. Factor in Netflix’s habitual equation of an eye-popping color grade with production value, and any notion of grey, wintry Brandenburg is banished. The interiors feature so many fluorescent greens and magentas that the characters could be dwelling inside a lava lamp.

IRREVERENT, BUT NEVER PUNCHING DOWN

"Kacken an der Havel" will do anything for a laugh. The creators layer throwaway gags and comic asides into every scene with an OCD-level of attention to detail. When so many jokes come flying at the viewer, some of them are bound to hit: the inspired nonsense here includes a ‘90s VHS tape showing the rise and fall of Huso, a rapping hand puppet, and Toni earnestly telling his sidekick, an animatronic duckling named Tupac Fleischer, “I’m sorry I doubted your gangster cred.” A teacher at the local high school introduces a new student from Switzerland by telling the class, “It’s not a stroke, kids, they really do talk like that.” The same high school kids are putting on a musical version of Armageddon, and one of Toni’s raps features a couplet that rhymes “Brusthaar” (chest hair) with “Zarathrustra.” The nonstop quirky humor might lead a viewer to wonder, early on, if Kacken an der Havel will ever take on any emotional stakes. But the casting of a nonbinary actor as Toni’s teenage son Charly significantly boosts the emotional resonance of Charly’s yearning for his father’s love and acceptance. The casting creates a dynamic, too visible to be called a subtext, that grounds the show and increasingly feels like the real subject matter of the series.

That’s just one of the many offbeat creative choices that makes Kacken an der Havel feel like a return to an earlier era of streaming series, when streamers took more risks in search of buzz. Kacken may be ‘niche,’ as they say in the entertainment industry, but it’s a welcome reminder that a niche can be a pleasant place to spend time in.

Translation note: There’s no polite way to say it, “kacken” is best translated as “to poop” or “take a crap.” But "Crap Happens", the ungainly English version of the show’s title, falls flat. “Crap happens” just isn’t a saying in English, but apparently Netflix shied away from using the more vulgar expression that everyone knows.

„Kacken an der Havel“ (a.k.a. “Crap Happens”)
Nine episodes, ca. 35 min. each
Starring: Anton “Fatoni” Schneider, Sky Arndt, Dimitrij Schaad, Jördis Triebel, Runa Greiner, Veronica Ferres
Production Company: Warner Bros. International Television