2024-10-25 16:57:00
“Don’t you think it’s strange that none of us have ever had sex with anyone else?” Freddie (Linda Blümchen) asks his friend Zeno (Simon Steinhorst). The two have been together since they were 15, half their lives. While restaurateur Zeno is happy with their love life, pharmacy assistant Freddie has a sneaky feeling that he might be missing something. During a party, her friend Tati (Cora Kneisz) proudly lists the success with which she has already completed her “bucket list” with her boyfriend Philipp (David Vormweg): trip around the world, a condominium, her own studio , couples therapy and now pregnancy. – Freddie Piatti immediately had a bold idea: and from now on we will have sex with other people for 30 days! Freddie counters Zeno’s surprised objection that he’s afraid they’ll hurt each other: “I’m afraid we’ll hurt each other if we don’t.”
Like the ARD series “30 Days of Lust”, the ZDF series “Best Family Forever”, which begins in the same period, questions the relationship status of thirty-year-olds and plays with new forms of coexistence. Law student Lena (Anna Schimrigk) has lost track of her ever-changing sexual partners. When she pulls out a forgotten condom and the pregnancy test shows a positive result, a whole host of typologies are called into question. But her mutual friend Nikita (Karmela Shako) saves her from abortion: she has wanted a child for a long time and wants to share parenthood with Lena. “Co-parenting” is the name of this new concept, passionately celebrated in this series. Lena’s two gay roommates (Anton Weil and Nico Stank) are also about to become parents, with the help of co-mother Juli (Johanna Wieking).
In both series, the heroines’ daring plans collide with real everyday life. In “30 Days of Lust” the hesitant Zeno experiences new experiences for the first time: During a threesome with the open-minded neighbor couple, he experiences the “prostate orgasm”. He ends up in bed with a married but dissatisfied classmate who confesses to him that she has always been his crush. With Freddie, however, sexual adventures often turn into cramps, for example when she wants to seduce her professor (Sebastian Blomberg in a splendid guest role) or orders a ring out of desperation. During a meeting they tighten the rules: no acquaintances, never sex with the same person and no exchange of information about it. But this is where a creeping alienation begins: why don’t they want to share their experiences? And why do we have to try everything? Why shouldn’t there be room for the open and unfulfilled?
“30 Days of Lust” – a strong ensemble performance
While the ARD series, billed as “Melancomedy,” is increasingly suffused with sadness, with Freddie and Zeno wandering increasingly lonely through Stuttgart nights, “Best Family Forever” on ZDF presents itself more like an exaggerated sitcom: the scenes they are set rather than mood-based on the humor of the dialogues and are commented on by comic drawings. The problems of shared parenting are addressed in a humorous way. Lena, whose pregnancy is counting eight episodes, has no intention of giving up men. Milan (Slavko Popadic) can help induce labor through sex. Co-mother Nikita, in turn, has fallen in love with the vivacious midwife Amelie (Eva Luca Klemmt).
“30 Days of Lust” also culminates in a special pregnancy scene in episode eight. Because the heavily pregnant Tati and her husband Philipp, the successful couple who pushed Freddie to take their “30 day trip” to their party, invite her. As a culmination, they want to become part of the sexual journey themselves. Linda Blümchen and Simon Steinhorst not only demonstrate sensitive acting in this scene: Freddie and Zeno really grow on you and invite you to identify – and not just the younger target audience! Representing the older ones, Nina Petri and Wolfram Koch play a couple who observe Zeno in a bar with a new friend (Nairi Hadodo) and wonder if the two are a couple. “30 Days of Lust,” an ensemble performance led by Bartosz Grudziecki as writer and director, received the Audience Award at the Serie Camp Festival in Cologne.
30 days of pleasure. Eight episodes, starting October 25th. in the ARD media library
Best friends forever. Eight episodes, starting October 25th. in the ZDF media library, from 5 November. on ZDFneo
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