Still Smart

German television is mostly garbage. You know this if you’ve ever tried to find something to watch—endless Schwiegertochter gesucht, crime reruns, programming that seems designed to insult your intelligence. So when Rohce and Böhmermann got renewed, I felt something like relief. Not excitement exactly, but the specific easing you feel when you realize there’s still at least one smart show being made here.

I don’t know what the new season will look like or whether it’ll hold up to whatever came before. That’s not the point. The point is just that there’s a show still operating on the assumption that the audience can think, that wordplay matters, that you don’t need to pander to be funny. On German television, that’s almost shocking.

Anyway, it’s back.