The SOKO Köln investigates the cathedral city with humor and often with hard work. Their cases take them into a variety of environments, from the Cologne clique to the terraced housing estates on the outskirts of the city.

The first series with Anke Engelke and Bastian Pastewka. Maria and Ralf are both stuck in their lives. Together, however, they would be the absolute dream team - if only they would finally meet ...

Con artist Maik Schäfer switches his fake conductor's suit for a real soutane while trying to escape custody and ends up in the catholic parish of Läuterberg. Standing in for Vicar Sanman, Maik participates in the parish members' fates and fortunes, and deals with their problems in his own unconventional way.

During an evening performance in the an urban multiplex cinema the spectators of a social drama are suddenly torn from the film Reality: Karsten, charismatic leader of a group of starry-eyed idealists, interrupts the running film, steps before the white screen and starts a talk about structural violence and global injustice to the protesting audience. When the first spectators want to defend themselves against this intervention in her evening plans and go it becomes very clear that Karsten is not anlone and is supported by some armed comrades. As the first shots fall, the audience realizes that they are held hostage in a seriously menacing situation and there seems to be no way out from the obstructed cinema.

There is no one-size-fits-all recipe for the right way to die. Cancer-stricken pensioner Hermann is having a hard time dealing with the inevitable: He doesn't want to wait for death and instead wants to give it a helping hand - but discreetly.

High school teacher Andreas Vossen (39) is an avid soccer fan who goes to his team's games every Saturday. At least that's what everyone thinks. In reality, however, he spends his weekends enjoying fights with hooligans. His double life is jeopardized by the appearance of a new pupil. Benny (18) is a hooligan by conviction. A confrontation begins that drives the teacher more and more into a corner.

1992. A group of multicultural refugees sit squeezed together in the back of a minibus. Plagued by cold, exhaustion and thoughts of a life left behind, a large cello case becomes the centre of what at first seems like a banal conflict.

Jan meets Judith by accident and realizes that she is the woman who was supposed to have shot and killed his father, who worked as a security officer at the bank.

Bruno has lost his medical license and is now practicing illegally, no questions asked. His interest is aroused when a lawyer offers to have him treat a leukemia-stricken mafioso. This not only gets him caught between rival gangs, but also puts his old life further and further out of reach.

Two young guys in a bar hit on the woman they fancy by sending one of them over who tells her that the other one is terminally ill...

Thomas Wellmann is an electrical engineer at the municipal utilities in a small town and is replaced by an AI in his mid-50s. Then a prolonged power cut becomes the trigger for Thomas to prepare himself, his wife and his two daughters for an emergency...

A notoriously overtired master baker Oliver Maibach has been working late at night in the family bakery to provide fresh bread and rolls together with his mother Elisabeth. One day, when he meets the attractive cellist Greta, the widowed father begins to doubt whether his future lies in this never-changing daily grind. Elisabeth also has her problems: in order to spare her friend Kemal Yildirim, a greengrocer, from being deported to Turkey, she unceremoniously walks him down the aisle.

David has already endured multiple unsuccessful attempts at detox, and his latest stay in a clinic ends with yet another dropout. Just when he finds a fleeting sense of freedom, his return to addiction is abruptly derailed when all the doors that once were open to him suddenly slam shut. Overwhelmed by debt, he loses his apartment, and his depressed mother withdraws all support as a form of self-protection. He is lacking both money and drugs, and even his social worker, Stefan, only grudgingly allows him to stay overnight — merely with the intent of returning him to rehab the next day. In search of escape, David dives into a night of excess that leads to a monumental blackout.

The Wieland and Aschenbach families urgently need daycare places. Fortunately, the director of the municipal daycare center, Johannes Herder, is moving in right next door to them. However, there is only one free daycare place left. That's why every family is now trying to impress Herder. He uses the parents' eagerness to his advantage until the situation gets out of hand just before Christmas.

The scientist Agnes must take care of a foreign flat. Without her family knowing about it, she visits this flat regularly and begins a parallel life. One day she falls asleep there. When she wakes, a foreign man lies beside her in the bed.