Men don't set fires, they break bones: That's what the Dortmund crime scene says. So, is the suspected thug behind the deadly arson after all?

Things are heating up in Dortmund's "Tatort: ​​Feuer" (Tatort: ​​Fire). Especially when Jens Hielscher (Sebastian Zimmler) appears. Hielscher is a man who, by nature, takes a confrontational stance with his environment, tough as nails and physically brutal. He likes to show this and enjoys it when others are afraid of him. Especially his partner Meike Gebken (Nadja Becker), her son Finn from his first marriage (Caspar Hoffmann), and their young daughter Zoe (Tesla Tekin).

Hielscher is a thug who beats his partner throughout the apartment. Finn suffers greatly as a witness. Zoe is spared from her father's violence. For now. The scene of the abuse is the Hielschers' shared home. At one point, the woman is found dead in the house. Not bludgeoned, but the victim of carbon monoxide poisoning following an arson attack. The police find the young daughter distraught on the street with a stuffed animal, the son is missing, and a family is destroyed. That Hielscher is a perpetrator and an empathy-less monster is clear from the start. But the question remains: Did he also set the fire?

Setting fires isn't a man's job, we hear this twice in this crime thriller – each time delivered with a certain satisfaction. The first time, right at the beginning, comes from Inspector Faber (Jörg Hartmann), who cites statistics. The second time, one of Hielscher's cronies explains that it's more masculine to break a few of his opponents' bones. Fortunately, this male image doesn't appear as a stereotype in this "Tatort."

After all, sensitive parka-wearing Faber, with his car, whose side mirrors are taped to the wall, can hardly be a merciless macho. Neither can the new team member, Otto Pösgen (Malick Bauer), who acts as a charismatic presence in the background. That doesn't mean the detective and his team always strike the right tone. When Faber questions a hungover witness, he follows her to the bathroom while she vomits – and continues to dig in, unfazed. It takes a long time before he relents and says: "Take it easy."

In search of the arsonist who caused Meike Gebken's death, Faber's colleague Rosa Herzog (Stefanie Reinsperger) goes undercover—and without the approval of the highest authorities—to check into the women's shelter where the deceased sought refuge from her tormentor. Rosa Herzog wants to know what prompted the deceased to return to her home. In doing so, she engages in conversation with the women living there. Director Nana Neul and screenwriter Markus Busch, who wrote the 2019 crime scene "Inferno," have the opportunity to delve deeper into their topic—violence against women.

Although the Dortmund detectives are rapidly moving forward with the search for the perpetrator, several tensions are smoldering among their colleagues that have nothing to do with the case. Faber dislikes his new supervisor, Ira Klasnić (Alessija Lause), while Rosa Herzog dislikes her colleague, Pösgen, all the more. Faber's adversary, Daniel Kossik (Stefan Konarske), reappears, spewing venom, while public prosecutor Matuschek (Moritz Führmann) has to bring the team into line. In general, there's an atmosphere of low-level viciousness, and there's a grinding grind—there's no trace of do-gooderism among the criminal investigation team either. But at least the show's running, somehow and despite everything.

"Tatort" from Dortmund: "Fire." Monday, 8:15 p.m., SRF 1 / ARD.