3 posts tagged “kommissar rex”

Rex reviews his global TV audience

No, Rex has not become Minister for Consumer Affairs for New South Wales - railing against "killer toys at Christmas".

No - tonight's episode of Inspector Rex on SBS Television featured hunt against a disgruntled would-be author who bumped off those who he thought had wronged him by aiming explosive-laden toys at them.

We also saw a new policing technique from Rex.

Rex was hunting for explosives being used to implant into killer toys.  (The Viennese Bomb Squad must have had a day off.)  In the scene, he suddenly sat down, prompting Bock to exclaim:

"Look - he's found the explosives!"

(He actually said it in German - I am using a rather free translation.)

So this is how a dog communicates this!  Next time I see a dog sit down, I'm running for cover.

But as mentioned before, who cares about this weak writing!  I could look at Rex all day.  What a dog!

This is probably a good point to launch the Doppelgangers series in this journal.

Readers of the California Chronicle would have noted previous noted similarities between:

• Lisa Forrest (Australian journalist and writer, Commonwealth Games medallist in swimming) and Peter Brady (of The Brady Bunch)
• Saddam Hussein (former dictator of Iraq) and Mel Gibson (former Australian actor, Honorary Medallist of the Order Of Australia, and current alleged drink-driver and bigot)
• George W Bush (incumbent President of the USA) and a chimpanzee (as found in your local zoo)
• Adolf Hitler (late former dictator of Nazi Germany) and some cats

This series is this continued as we note similarities yielded by actors in Inspector Rex:

• Martin Wienek and Curly Howard of The Three Stooges
  

  Curly Howard
• Heinz Weixelbraun and Martin Short (Canadian actor) (well, maybe I'm drawing a long bow here)
• Reginald van Ravenhorst (the 1st actor who played Rex) and Rin Tin Tin (American dog actor, story here)
• Rhett Butler (no really, the 2nd actor who played Rex) and Rin Tin Tin (see above)

Readers of the California Chronicle would have thrilled to the weekly posted installment of the Featured Ingredient, as featured on Iron Chef  (Ryōri no tetsujin - 料理の鉄人, "Ironmen of Cooking").

What was it this week?  Chicken?  Turkey (the fowl, not the country)?  Horse Mackarel?  Bird's Nest?

It has been quite a surprise to me to realise that I kept my readers on the edge of their seats for about 2 and a half years with this information.

However, times roll on, and blogs roll on (so to speak) - so its time to introduce a new weekly spotlight on an obscure SBS Television program.

Rex reviews his global TV audience

Kommissar Rex (link to German-language website) (re-titled Inspector Rex in Australia) brings us the adventures of an Austrian version of Rin Tin Tin. 

The plots are wafer thin, and the story lines have holes that you can drive the number 10 bus to central Wollongong through.  But who cares?  Rex is a beautiful dog who is smart, funny, cute (he has this tilt-the-head-sideways routine that melts the stoniest hearts), super-fit (after getting out of shape with bubble baths and too many ham rolls from his previous boss, Moser), and he absolutely hates bad guys

This must be why he has something of a cult following in Australia.  Apparently people ring up SBS and, forgetting that Rex lives in Austria,  ask to talk to him; a former staff member said in a recent newspaper interview that he (the staff member) would bark down the line, and the caller would be satisfied.

Rex is employed by the Vienna Police Force (and I use the term "Force" rather loosely). He has a good-hearted handler, Brandtner, as well as 2 offsiders who broadly qualify for nominations in the Doppelgangers series.

Gedeon Burkhardt

Rex's current handler (Brandtner) is, in my view, a vast improvement on his previous slovenly boss Moser.  Moser was an ugly bloke (despite being peddled by the show's producers as some sort of heart throb) who drank a bit, was embittered about his messy divorce, and often slept in or had bubble baths before work (but was still boss of his work unit);  Brandtner, on the other hand, is genuinely handsome, extremely fit (despite being given terrible scripts by the writers, involving a lot of running after Bad Guys' departing cars), self-deprecating, has a sense of humour, and genuinely respects ladies without having to chase after every bit of skirt that crosses his path.

Despite watching this program for some time, I regret that I have not yet learned much German (the program is sub-titled in English) - except for WURSTSEMMEL, which means "ham roll".  They are all (Rex included) fixated with wurstsemmel in this workplace - they eat them, talk about them, and toss them about at tea break in some sort of odd male-bonding macho display.

But like I said, who cares!  We watch this purely because of Rex (who is a better actor than the others, anyway).

Our American friends Barbara and Ingrid though Rex was wonderful when they sampled a movie-length episode here at Christmas 2004.  Also, Ingrid (who is originally from Germany) was amazed that a German-language program rated so well in an English-speaking nation.

And so to tonight's episode - entitled

GIFTGAS

which the SBS caption people helpfully subtitled "Poison Gas"; I'm glad they did, otherwise I would have thought that this was some sort of gas used at birthday parties.  (The episode titles in Inspector Rex lack subtlety;  the episode showing the death of Rex's previous boss, Moser, was entitled - surprise! surprise! - Moser's Death.)

This was a very loose story about 2 Russian Bad Guys (Bad Guys in this program seem to be inevitably from Russia or eastern Europe) who plan to let sarin gas off in some big jewellery exhibition in Vienna. 

What for?  Its not really made clear.  But again, who cares? Rex

• has some horse play with his boss over wurstsemmel for breakfast (ugh)
• advises the team about the biochemical reactions of the body to sarin gas whilst making them all tea to go with the yummy wurstsemmel
• tackles the chief Bad Guy despite being wounded by him in an earlier shoot-out

Is there no end to this dog's talents????  I think not.

• Inspector Rex is shown on SBS Television (Australia) on Thursdays at 8:30pm.  Wikipedia publishes a list of other countries where this is screened.