“Love Sucks”: New vampire series in the ZDF media library with Sex and Crime

On a neon pink fairground night, an undead and a mortal face each other, first in a boxing ring, then in a moment of embarrassment. Love strikes like lightning and paralyzes brain cells. The dialogue goes like this:

He: “I’ve never met a woman like you.”
Her: “How many women have you met?”
Him: “I don’t know, I stopped counting.”

You have to know that Ben von Greifenstein is not only wealthy and good-looking, but at 287 years old he also had a lot of time to date. Prizefighter Zelda (Havana Joy), on the other hand, a shaggy beauty with a Cara Delevingne grin, is young, lives in a caravan with her brother and father (Stipe Erceg) and moves with them from fair to fair.

Memories of the “Twilight” films come back, it was 15 years ago when part one was in our cinemas. In contrast to Edward Cullen and Bella Swan, who only have sex in the fourth part because Edward is afraid that he won’t be able to control his lust and will kill Bella in bed, things get hot in the first episode of “Love Sucks”. Undead invite you to a fetish party à la Kit-Kat Club and are up to no good.

Similar to Edward Cullen, Ben is a vampire with remorse. When he kills someone, he is ashamed of it afterwards. And so a vampire series in 2024 obviously cannot do without political correctness. Zelda asks Ben, “Do men and women taste the same?” “Do all skin colors taste the same?” Yes, he says.

“All people taste the same.”

This works well because scenes like this are played by Hardung and Joy with a lot of irony in their voices. There’s even more humor at the dinner table in the vampire villa, where heavy curtains block out the sunlight. “I’ve been working my ass off here for almost 300 years,” complains mother Katharina von Greifenstein (Anne Ratte-Polle). Vampire families also have conflicts, and not too many of them, which is no wonder since no child here moves out at the age of 18.

The myth of eternal love is trending

The fact that public television is now coming around the corner with a modernly interpreted vampire series also has to do with the book market. The longing for true love is booming and is evoked in numerous romance novels that today go under the name “New Adult”. So successful that an entire hall at the Frankfurt Book Fair this year is even dedicated to the genre. Damian Hardung is part of the theme, as he starred in the series “Maxton Hall”, which is based on the novels by author Mona Kasten. The love story is number one on the Amazon streaming charts in over 120 regions worldwide, and season two is currently being filmed.

Other than Hardung, “Maxton Hall” and “Love Sucks” have little in common. Just from the title you could assume a little more depth. “Love Sucks” can be translated as “love is annoying”, but there is also the bloodsucker reference, because in English “suck” also means “to suck”. Maybe this is a little too complicated for tired media library users who just want to rest from work in the evening, but love is complicated, so why a simple title.

What is clear at this point: The makers have thought everything through down to the smallest detail, and this attention to detail is what makes the series worth watching. The aesthetic – blood grimaces in the strobe light, black painted men’s fingernails, a refrigerator full of blood supplies is fun. The music is also well chosen, in the end credits of each episode, for example, Sharon van Etten plays “Every time the sun comes up, I’m in trouble.”

From romance to horror, there’s a little too much of everything in “Love Sucks.”

Now you don’t want to read too much into a teen series, but once you’re sitting there, maybe with a red wine in your glass instead of film blood, you can let your mind wander. Immortality, would that be something for you? Live forever through all the decades? Bad fashions, bad music, having to meet even more people, the whole damn world misery and no end in sight? But with a human being – an undead that you love?

Just when the eternal love myth that was so annoying in “Twilight” threatens to become too much between Ben and Zelda, the story turns to “Romeo and Juliet”. Then it becomes sad and brutal, so that sometimes you have to look away.

Romance, crime thriller, horror, humor, it’s all there, but it’s all not consistently thought through, which is also due to the fact that each episode only lasts 30 minutes, too short to fall in love with, to really feel sorry for, to sink your teeth into the characters. What remains is an original series idea and images that you won’t forget.

The eight-part series “Love Sucks”, with Havana Joy, Damian Hardung, Stipe Erceg, Rick Okon and Anne Ratte-Polle, among others, can be seen in the ZDF media library from October 11th and on TV from Thursday, October 31st .