INTERVIEW: ‘Berlin Station’ Cast & Creator on the chilling realities of the series stories

Tonight sees the return of what has quickly become one of my favorite shows, Berlin Station. Set in a fictional CIA Station in Berlin, Germany, the show deals with many of the most compelling political stories of the day. Season one focused on an Edward Snowden like mole within the CIA itself, and Season two is shifting focus to the growing menace of the alt-right in Europe.

“We started conceiving [the story] in the fall of 2016, and knew I wanted to do a story on the rise of the alt-right in Europe because I knew that we would be writing, shooting, and airing the show in the electoral cycle in Germany,” says Bradford Winters, Executive Producer. “I saw it as the perfect opportunity to sort of take on very pressing issues of the moment, but I think the advantage that we have with a show set in Europe is that we can take those vexing issues and transpose them to a European context, and so come at it a bit more obliquely than a show about the 2016 election cycle in America.”

“The idea of the rise of the alt-right, the allowing of hatred back into politics – it’s happening right now,” says Leland Orser, who plays the second in command of Berlin Station, Robert Kirsch. Of course, balancing the telling of a timely story like those that Berlin Station chooses to portray can be tricky. “Finding a balance between a television show which is going to be on point, and on message, and topical, and at the same time has to have a level of entertainment, that was what made me uncomfortable because sometimes it felt like we were sensationalizing, but of course we’re not,” said series star Richard Armitage, who plays CIA agent Daniel Miller.

When we left Daniel in Season 1 (SPOILER ALERT!), he’d just exposed his friend Hector DeJean as the CIA mole, and chose to allow Hector to escape. So what does that mean for Daniel going forward, and who he is as a person now? According to Armitage, Daniel now has “a public face and professional face whilst hiding his personal opinions inside, and I feel like as we come into the second season that plays as a big theme for Daniel.” He adds, “The party line is what he has to say to the world, and what he feels inside is something which is screaming out and doesn’t always get a voice.”

Check out the rest of our interviews with Richard Armitage, Bradford Winters, and Leland Orser below:

Berlin Station airs on EPIX in the US Sundays at 9pm EST starting tonight, 15th October, and the first 2 episodes are available for viewing now for free on Epix.com. Here’s the trailer: