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A BET­TER PLACE – New ARD Series by SE#1 Alumni

A BET­TER PLACE, the new ARD series cre­ated by our SERI­AL EYES alumni Alex­an­der Lindh (Writer & Showrun­ner) and Laurent Mer­ci­er (Cre­at­or) is now live and can be watched in the ARD Media­thek! Alex­an­der joined the Seri­al Eyes lec­turer Timo Gössler in a TALK TO A SERI­AL EYE ses­sion to dis­cuss how the pro­gram opened doors for him and helped shape his career.

Dive deep­er into Alex­an­der Lindh’s inspir­ing jour­ney from Seri­al Eye alum­nus to showrun­ner of A BET­TER PLACE. In this TALK TO A SERI­AL EYE online ses­sion, Alex­an­der shared insights into his col­lab­or­a­tion with his Seri­al Eye co-gradu­ate Laurent Mer­ci­er, the chal­lenges of cre­at­ing the series, and the les­sons learned while work­ing with edit­ors, pro­duc­tion teams, and broad­casters. He also reflec­ted on the unique demands of bal­an­cing cre­at­ive roles as a writer, showrun­ner, and collaborator.

This is a rare oppor­tun­ity to learn how SERI­AL EYES fosters tal­ent and equips alumni to take on ambi­tious, ground­break­ing pro­jects like A Bet­ter Place.

Watch the TALK TO A SERI­AL EYE ses­sion here

About A BET­TER PLACE

A BET­TER PLACE is a bold, socio-psy­cho­lo­gic­al drama that reima­gines a world without pris­ons. This grip­ping series, set in a fic­tion­al city, fol­lows a pro­gress­ive may­or and a sci­ent­ist as they imple­ment a revolu­tion­ary rehab­il­it­a­tion pro­gram aimed at rein­teg­rat­ing offend­ers into soci­ety and clos­ing the loc­al pris­on. While the ini­ti­at­ive sparks hope, it also faces fierce res­ist­ance from a skep­tic­al public.

Through an intric­ate and layered nar­rat­ive, the show explores the lives of offend­ers fight­ing pre­ju­dice and fail­ure in their jour­ney toward rehab­il­it­a­tion, as well as the exper­i­ences of the vic­tims, fam­il­ies, and advoc­ates wrest­ling with themes of justice and for­give­ness. The series doesn’t shy away from ask­ing tough ques­tions about soci­et­al norms, eth­ics, and humanity’s capa­city for change.

Pro­duc­tion & Team

Pro­duced by KOM­PLIZEN SERI­EN and STU­DI­OCANAL SERIES in col­lab­or­a­tion with WDR, ARD Degeto, Canal+ France, and Canal+ Aus­tria, the series boasts a stel­lar team. Dir­ec­ted by Anne Zohra Ber­rached (24 WEEKS, DIE WELT WIRD EINE ANDERE SEIN) and Kon­stantin Bock (CAPER­NAUM), A BET­TER PLACE com­bines artist­ic excel­lence with thought-pro­vok­ing storytelling.

The series is pro­duced by Dav­id Keitsch, Jonas Dorn­bach, and Jan­ine Jack­owski (Kom­plizen Seri­en), along­side Nic­olas Loock and Kalle Friz (STU­DI­OCANAL SERIES). Key col­lab­or­at­ors include Car­en Toen­n­is­sen and Frank Töns­mann (WDR), Chris­toph Pel­lander (ARD Degeto), Brice Mon­doloni (Canal+ France), and Phil­ipp Boech­heimer (Canal+ Aus­tria). Film­ing began in July 2023 in North Rhine-West­phalia, Ger­many, with fund­ing from the Ger­man Motion Pic­ture Fund, Cre­at­ive Europe MEDIA, and Films­tif­tung NRW.