Zu schön um wahr zu sein

Die Pfefferkörner is a German television series produced by Der Kinderkanal. The peppercorns are five friends from Hamburg: Jana Holstein Coutre, Natasha "Tascha" Jaonzäns, Philip "Fiete" Overbeck, Cem Gülec and Vivien "Vivi" Overbeck, Fiete's eight year old sister. After school, the young detectives meet at a high level of a spice warehouse of the company Overbeck & Associates, which belongs to Fiete and Vivi's parents in the first part, but is later given to Fiete and Vivi to look after. Here, in the historic warehouse district, the five friends have their headquarters. With smarts, combined delivery and support of the Internet, they find their cases here. The detectives convict polluters, animal dealers and drug smugglers. They also help each other with personal problems they encounter. Cem has lost his parents in a car accident and sometimes feels sad and lonely. Jana lives with her divorcee mother, a lawyer who is rarely at home. Natasha comes from Latvia. Her parents initially have very strict rules in terms of her education, that make Natasha unhappy. Fiete has problems showing his feelings and hides them behind grumpiness and hostility towards girls, until he falls in love with Natasha. Vivi is suffering from her role of the youngest member of the group. She believes that she must constantly struggle for recognition.

Mid-forties Franziska is pregnant. Instead of looking forward to it, her husband Andreas opens up that he separates from her because he can no longer endure her neurotic control rage. As much as Franziska always wanted a child, as a single parent she sees no perspective. But then she meets the pregnant, 19-year-old Lilli. The funky woman whirls Franziska strictly regulated everyday life together and shows her how wonderful life can be, if you allow it

A show about two Bavarian police officers, Franz Hubert and Johannes Staller, who sometimes work a bit differently. Where Franz wants to follow regulations, Johannes likes to do things his own way.

The former professional footballer Alex Brehm has taken care of his daughter Charlie since the accidental death of his wife. The girl suffers greatly from the loss of her beloved mother, but is an avid footballer and finds distraction from her grief, at least for a short while. Also, she is "completely the daddy" - until Alex learns one day after a blood test of his daughter that neither he nor his deceased wife Charlie's biological parents can be.

The body of a Turkish film student is found in the Wittelsbach fountain in Munich. Apparently Ömer Özkan drowned, but not in the fountain water, but in the beer. His lungs are filled with beer from "Minga Bräu", a traditional Munich brewery that is allegedly being sold to Istanbul. A Turkish student drowned in Bavarian beer. A puzzling case for Inspector Pasha and his Migra. While Pius Leipold enters the beer milieu with great vigor, Zeki's investigative zeal is very subdued.

Lawyer Sarah Stein has her life firmly under control and a clear goal for her career: to become a partner in the renowned Frankfurt law firm she works for. However, the latest case her boss entrusts her with seems more like a beginner's job: the elderly foster father of winegrower Peter Jahn has died. As there appears to be no will, his biological son Siggi, as sole heir, claims all rights to the family vineyard. And as Peter has not responded to a letter from a lawyer, Sarah is now supposed to hand him the notice of termination in person.

Berlin piano maker Jan Epstein knows exactly what to do when it comes to restoring highly sensitive instruments. However, he is at least as unsuccessful as a small businessman as he is in his role as a family man. Jan secretly mourns his failed marriage to Serafina and he has a lot to make up to his daughter Mia. An unexpected opportunity arises when Mia unexpectedly wants to accompany him on the delivery of a piano to Italy.

Melanie loves her work, but often forgets about her boyfriend. He feels neglected. Later, she takes some time for him, but her work gets in the way again. This leads to a big argument that ends in a break-up. To relax, Melanie goes to a massage studio. There she tells the Thai masseuse about her problems. After the massage, Melanie lies down in her bed. When she wakes up the next morning, she has aged decades. She tries to find out what happened. But she has to come to terms with the fact that she is now 70 years old.

After years of waiting for her big break, singer Amanda has finally achieved her goal: she is allowed to host a big TV show. Unfortunately, it's Christmas of all times, so she has no time for her ten-year-old son Joshua, whom she wants to send by courier to his father Bernhard, who lives somewhere remote in the mountains. On the way, the courier driver Maurice learns what a valuable cargo Joshua is and, together with the waitress Lizzi, plans to kidnap the little boy and collect a ransom. However, when the kidnapping is supposed to take place at night, the two are drunk, so an accident occurs on the way to their hideout, a lonely mountain hut, and Joshua manages to escape. Left to his own devices, he now tries to get back to the valley, where the greatest adventure of his life begins.

Author Steffen Teuffel moved from Berlin to sleepy, 'dying' Brandenburg (ex-GDR) small-town Krummenwalde with his wife Beate, who runs the local beverage firm, and their kids: smart son Kai opted out of college and happily works in the only pub; his shallow sister Lisa lets a classmate obsess over losing her virginity to farm boys; kid sister Sophie attracts kids' attention by waving a gold coin she found diving into the town lake, until Lutheran vicar Juchem, who needs to pay for a new church roof, snaps it up and enlists Steffen's research skills plus knowledge of French to help him and bossy mayor Gerd Jänicke, who wants to revitalize the town, research the local archives concerning a legend about a Napoleonic regimental treasure being lost in that very lake the golden Napoléon came from and split it three ways.

German ship captain Gottfried Hinrichs reluctantly retires to his Bavarian home, hoping to find comfort when his daughter Barbara moves back home, convenient now she has become a commercial pilot. So he dishes out the usual objections when she tells to have found her mate, while ma Lisbeth tries to shush. When the lovers turn up for Christmas Eve, a culture shock follows, for her dream prince is Palestinian unemployed would be-pilot Kamal Abu Khalil, and neither 'liberal' parent extends effective tolerance to Islamic in-potential laws. Ultimately Gottfried is worn down, but then the incompatible religious marriage norms seem to break up the couple itself. It gets even worse when his parents found out and fly in, while she feels neglected as Kemal starts an electronic muezzin Internet firm with a friend.

Hanna, who works with her husband Martin at a Hamburg shipyard, is to be promoted to Deputy Managing Director. Enthusiastically, she accepts the job. But her boss Bernd Möller aims at closing the yard and uses Hanna for his perfidious plans. It must enforce unpopular decisions that affect Martin's work. It does not take long for her private and family life to be seriously harmed by the workload. Not only the future of the company, but also the marriage of Hanna and Martin is at stake

One could almost believe, two fresh lovers would kiss here tenderly. In fact, Jan and Katja come straight from the divorce judge who finished what had started promisingly - a harmonious, fulfilled marriage and family life. The common house building was too much for their relationship. While a dream came true for Katja, the building was a pure torture for Jan. He escaped more and more and started an affair. When Katja comes after the infidelity, there is only one consequence for her: Divorce.