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A human hand is found that, upon closer examination, is actually made from beef. At the same times a series of kidnappings of key public figures is shaking Vienna, where weirdly enough those kidnapped turn up again after a couple of days with no memory of where they had gone. President of police Pilch (Kurt Weinzierl) and his team (Walter Davy, Curt A. Tichy, Eddi Arent) don't get ahead in their investigations, so Pilch tries to persuade his most successful investigator, Kottan (Lukas Resetarits), to join the force again, but Kottan declines, instead accepts a job as caretaker for a Dr. Buesam (Otto Grünmandl), who shares all his secrets with Kottan right after employing him, like that he's really Dr. Mabuse and has kidnapped all this public figures to create clones only he can control. The clones only have one Achilles heel, they need tap water every 4 hours otherwise they'll disintegrate to dust. So Kottan lures Pilch into a trap for Mabuse to have him cloned, but then sends the real Pilch instead of the clone back to society with the express order to cut off all water supply for half a day - and really, all the clones fall to dust. Subsequently, Kottan - along with his wife (Bibiane Zeller), his mother (Gusti Wolf) and his lover (Eva Kerbler), neither of whom have business to be there - apprehends Mabuse, but not before creating three clones of himself, one for his wife and mother, one for his lover, and one to work on the force in his stead ...

The very last episode of Kottan ermittelt - the series would only be continued in a feature film, Kottan ermittelt: Rien ne va plus in 2010 - sure has its fair share of good and bad ideas: On the good side, it was a bit of a stroke of genius to go science fiction with the last episode, and feature a iconic screen villain at that - even if Otto Grünmandl well-spirited performance doesn't pay hommage to any of the former Mabuses. Plus, the ending with the three Kottan clones at least is a good punchline. On the downside though, the story of the episode is a complete mess, weighed down by way too many narrative threads with no apparent ideas how to resolve them - best exemplified in guest appearance of Kottan's arch-nemesis Horrak (Erich Konarek) in one utterly inconsequential scene -, many skits and lip-synched songs that lead nowhere, and a plot that relies entirely on co-incidence. All of this shows that despite its still anarchic approach the series as such has run out of steam and was ready to retire.

That said, Kottan ermittelt-writer Helmut Zenker was later responsible for the long-running (1990-98) comedy skit series Tohuwabohu that employed an anarchic form of humour similar to Kottan ermittelt - as well as several of the series actors - but totally abandoned all narrative coherence - to at best mixed results.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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