Despite in the beginning there were difficulties, that this show would even make it on the screen (on the first run, it was canceled after some volumes), it might be one of the best shows that ever aired in Germany. Basically, it may seem just like another one of dozens of Reality TV-Shows. But they got Christian Ulmen in it. A girl (and in three cases a young man) have to spend a weekend with a complete stranger and pretend he is her/his pardner to their friends and families (this was done in British TV before, I think). Ulmen did a great job in playing the "fake-friends" as complete whackos and assholes - and this is why this show is so great: he is Knut a (literally) stinking old-fashioned rock dude and self-declared artist, who enjoys to shout out very obscene and unbelievably bad jokes. Or "Ecke", an obvious dope-smoker, who ever does silly and nerve-enduring raps. Or "Alexander", a man from the nobility, who is keen on inhuman "New Economy"-business tacticts and treats every other persons at servant. The contestants (who would win 10 000 Euro, when they lasted one weekend with this dude) mostly had a really hard time! Because of Ulmens talent as an actor, this is far more a comedian show than a Reality show. Bad thing is there will (and was not planned) any continuation of these mini-series with seven or eight episodes, because Ulmen estimated after the first airing, that in future times he will be recognized to easily...
Review of Mein neuer Freund
