Der letzte Bulle


Der letzte Bulle is a German television series that was first aired in 2010. The series is about a policeman from the 1980s put into a modern police department in Essen.

Plot

The plot revolves around German homicide detective Mick Brisgau, who was shot in the head on duty in the late 1980s. As a result of this head shot, he was in a coma for 20 years. The show starts when he awakes suddenly from said coma. Being a star for the media he is allowed to return to his old job at the homicide department.
As an old-school macho-cop, he doesn't know about modern technology and deals with modern world homicide cases in his 1980s-style manner, thus making him a unique officer in Essen police headquarters in the center of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region.
While spectators might find resemblances with Life on Mars, it is actually doing the inverse; the rough style of the main character is complemented by his prudent partner Andreas Kringge. The series presents a number of 1980s music and items, such as the main character driving an old Opel Diplomat V8.
The setting includes his old partner from the 1980s, Martin Ferchert, who is now the chief of department, and his former wife, who has married the coroner Roland Meisner, who both serve in the same department. In some episodes his adult daughter, Isabelle, appears, whom he had known only as a baby. Amongst the social problems, police psychologist Tanja Haffner tries to conciliate.

Production and transmission

The series ran first on 12 April 2010 on Sat.1 Television with 2.99 million viewers somewhat below the average of the TV channel. However viewer share increased especially among younger viewers. With the start of the second season, the viewer share almost doubled and Sat.1 ordered a third season. The fourth season aired in Germany beginning 21 January 2013.
The show has been aired in combination with the Sat.1 production Danni Lowinski from the start, but while the latter scored better in the beginning it is now The Last Cop that shows better results. With a viewer share of 15% for The Last Cop and with the two series being the best-running productions of Sat.1, it was announced on 9 April 2013 that a fifth season was being planned for both shows.
The series has been sold to neighbouring countries; it has run on Austrian ÖRF since 31 May 2011. The French Direct 8 has run a dubbed version since March 2012 under the title of Mick Brisgau, le come-back d’un super flic. It is also dubbed for Italian Rai 1 where it runs under the title of Last Cop - L'ultimo sbirro during the summer. In Bulgaria, the series runs as Ченге от миналото on Diema in a dubbed version. In Brazil the show is being aired on cable channel Globosat+ under the name O Último Policial, in German language with Portuguese subtitles. In Spain the series is dubbed and runs as El último poli duro on Canal+ Spain and Cuatro.

Remakes

French

:fr:Falco |Falco is the series that started in 2013.

U.S.

At Turner Upfront TNT has announced to produce a pilot for a US remake of the German series. The adaptation will see the 1990s cop Mick Branigan to awake after 20 years of coma returning to his job at the LAPD. The pilot is produced by Sylvester Stallone with Fuse Entertainment and Fox Television Studios co-producing the show for TNT.

Estonian

started the series under name Viimane võmm in 2014. The main characters are Mikk Kotkas, Andreas Prikk and Tanja Murrik. Kotkas drives old white Volvo 700-series wagon.

Japanese

and Hulu announced to produce the mini-series for a Japanese remake of the German series, scheduled to start summer 2015.

Russian

produced first two seasons of Последний мент in 2015-2016. Gosha Kutsenko plays the lead role - captain Alexey Divov.

Czech

The Czech remake :cs:Polda |Polda premiered on 23 October 2016. Three seasons ran on TV Prima and fourth is scheduled to air in 2020.