"Tatort: Unvergänglich" with Batic and Leitmayr: A Farewell for the Ages – Review and Verdict

There are moments on telly that feel like a party you've been looking forward to for years, but also like the funeral of your former self from 20 years ago. The departure of Ivo Batic and Franz Leitmayr is such a moment. 35 years, 100 cases – who would have thought that a pair of grumpy, adopted Munich lads would grow so close to our hearts? Finally, on Easter Sunday and Monday, the two-part film "Unvergänglich" aired, and I watched both parts. With tears in my eyes, yes, but also with a grin, because these two old warhorses haven't matured one bit. Here's my detailed review – a kind of guide to this emotional state of emergency.

From a body in a bunker to Captagon mayhem

The first big question, of course: How on earth do you let a team like this bow out? Director Sven Bohse and writers Johanna Thalmann & Moritz Binder had one hell of a tough job. The plot kicks off with a rather grim discovery: deep beneath Munich, in a municipal utility bunker, the charred body of a woman is found. Classic "Tatort" opening – dark, cold, hopeless. But you quickly realise: the crime is just the backdrop. The real story is what happens between Batic and Leitmayr on that narrow tightrope between colleagues, friends, and an old married couple without the certificate.

The case leads into a world of dodgy bed-and-breakfast flats, a phantom who gains access to other people's keys, and eventually organised crime involving the stimulant drug Captagon. It's solidly written, but keeps stalling because the two investigators keep getting in their own way. But that's exactly what we want to see, right?

• The plot (Part 1): Investigations into a janitor, a cat-and-mouse game, an arrest – actually, that could be the end. The gentlemen are even officially bid farewell into retirement.
• The twist (Part 2): Not a chance! The main witness suddenly resurfaces, it turns out there are far bigger players at work – and suddenly Batic and Leitmayr are private citizens without badges, investigating on their own.

A guide to the emotional world of two grumpy old men

How do you actually use "unvergänglich" (imperishable) in everyday life? Ask the ad folk, and they'd apply it to a diamond. But here, with Batic and Leitmayr, it's the friendship that neither can bring himself to name. In a key scene from the first part, Batic has nowhere to stay for the night. Leitmayr is terrified that the old man wants to kip on his sofa. So he just keeps going on about when he can finally move his suitcase out of the flat. It's tragicomic, it's pathetic – and it's so infinitely human.

That's the real value of this two-parter. Not the resolution of the Captagon ring, not the action. But the silence in which the two men of their generation finally realise that they love each other – without ever saying it. Leitmayr buys an old Porsche he can't fix. Batic flees to Croatia, flirts with a mature lady, only to find out that the grandmother would rather go swimming with her grandchildren. The world out there isn't for them. Only together, in their fight against the young (embodied by Ferdinand Hofer as the exasperated successor Kalli), do they find their place.

Why the makers kept the ending under wraps (spoiler alert for the feels)

You know that the people behind the film kept the last five minutes of the second part under lock and key. I'm telling you: that was clever. Because in that final quarter of an hour, it's decided whether we'll be crying or laughing in front of the telly. Without giving too much away: it's not the expected action-packed exit with a heroic death (which would have been a tired cliché, as Leitmayr himself drily notes). Instead, it's a quiet, almost humble "goodbye". The two sit down together one more time, there's one final, wonderfully awkward moment of affection – and then it's over. Full stop. The end. Done.

The many guest appearances of familiar faces (Lisa Wagner as Christine Lerch or Michael Fitz as Carlo Menzinger) are the icing on the cake for die-hard fans. If you don't know these characters, you might miss a bit of the subtext – but for everyone else, "Unvergänglich" is a worthy, quirky, and surprisingly wise swan song to an era. That's how you say goodbye. 7 out of 10 points – but for the heart, a solid 10.