Series / Četnické humoresky

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Četnické humoresky is a Czech crime television series about a gendarmerie investigative unit, stationed in the city of Brno. The story is set in the period of interbellic First Czechoslovak Republic and combines elements of crime drama and comedy. The stories are based on real case files from that era.

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Tropes of Četnické humoresky:

• 13 Is Unlucky: The bus driver in Lázeňské intermezzo notes that he always remembers when he drives thirteen passengers, because every time he drives thirteen passengers, something bad happens.
• Alliterative Name: Kamila Kliková, the journalist.
• And There Was Much Rejoicing: In Volavka, when Stela quits once the gendarmes start tossing her undercooked spaghetti at the ceiling, all of them start cheering the moment she leaves the room. Even Šiktanc is happy.
• Anti-Villain: Doctor Korous in the episode Doktor Smrt might be considered as one. He is killing his patients but it's only because they are likely to die and further treatment only prolongs their suffering.
• Aristocrats Are Evil: The murder culprit in Beáta is an antisemitic former Austro-Hungarian aristocrat.
• Ascended Extra: Karabela and Zahálka first appear as guest characters before joining the main cast.
• Asshole Victim: The murder victim from Klaudynka ultimately turns out to be such a reprehensible human being that even Arazím feels much sympathy with the murderer.
• Atrocious Alias: Jarý is audibly amused reading anarchists' nicknames out loud in Černá ruka.
• Bad People Abuse Animals: The victim in Lázeňské intermezzo, Mrs. Steiner, is noted to have been very fond of cats. After her death, her husband, Dr. Steiner, poisoned them all after her death to get rid of them. It is also eventually revealed he was the one who killed his wife.
• The Bait: Jarý in Volavka becomes one to lure out and catch the Serial Rapist.
• Bald of Evil: Exner in Repetent does not have a single hair on his head, and he is a conman wanted far and wide for his crimes.
• Big Bad: Kugel is the closest thing the series has to overall main antagonist. He first appears as a minor antagonist in Season 2's final episode until he becomes the main antagonist of the final season.
• Bittersweet Ending: The series ends with one thanks to incoming World War 2. One could argue that its more of a Downer Ending. Kugel is killed by gendarmes. Arazím's wife Ludmila with her children, Arazím's daughter Klaudie with her baby, Kamila Kliková, Elly Vienna and McGregor fly to England while Arazím and Jarý stay on duty in Brno. In the end they celebrate with other gendarmes that they are together but incoming occupation and war is inevitable leaving their fates unknown.
• Black Widow: Rozálie Mašková in Vdavky za všechny prachy is a serial black widow, having murdered three of her husbands for money. She ends up disposing of Hroch, another villain of the episode, as her fourth and final victim.
• Bluffing the Murderer: Arazím pulls this off in Ferda Mravenec during the reenactment of the tramp's death.
• Boom, Headshot!: The victim in Grunt gets shot in the head by the murderer at the beginning of the episode.
• Break the Cutie: Toníček's death has a huge negative impact on the usually nice Anděla, leaving the poor girl in tears. Not helping is the fact that she is at the time pregnant with Toníček's child.. She gets better though, falling in love with the new dog handler Ryba, eventually marrying him.
• Busman's Holiday: Lázeňské intermezzo involves Arazím and Ludmila going on holidays to a spa resort. A murder takes place there, and Arazím ends up spending more time investigating it than relaxing with Ludmila.
• Butt-Monkey: Zahálka tends to get himself into humiliating situations and often finds himself mocked by his fellow gendarmes for it.
• Call-Back:
  • Jarý mentions his girl disguise from Volavka in Repetent when Zahálka complains that his first case involves studying train schedules.
  • The bad mead from Medovina is referenced in Narodil se Kristus Pán.
• Candlelit Ritual: Menšíková organises one with other old ladies in Medovina to curse the thief who stole her hives.
• Christmas Episode: Narodil se Kristus Pán takes place during the Christmas period.
• Concealing Canvas: In Slepice versus Slepička, a painting in Deputy Slepička's mansion conceals a hidden electricity meter which allows him to steal electricity from local electric power company.
• Cool Old Guy: Šiktanc. He is an old gendarme who retires in Season 1 but he still remains mentor figure to Arazím and other gendarmes and when asked for help, he goes to action.
• Con Man:
  • The main villain of the serious case in Repetent, a disabled man named Exner, presents himself as a trustworthy and generous individual, but he turns out to be using forged bank books to defraud banks of huge sums of money. He's convincing enough to have Zahálka trust in his innocence for a moment.
  • Aleš Hroch in Vdavky za všechny prachy is a marriage fraudster who impersonates Jiroušek as a part of his latest con. To his bad luck, he tries to scam certain Mašková, a Black Widow.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: Rýgl in Ohněstrůjce is a mining company co-owner and director who falsifies the amounts of mined stone, swindling the other company co-owners, and who forces the quarry worker Kolomazník to take blame for the injury which was caused by him being forced to use excessive amount of explosives by the company higher ups.
• Corrupt Politician: Two of them in the first episode, Slepice versus Slepička. The mayor, who turns out to be the poacher poaching on Deputy Slepička's grounds, and Deputy Slepička himself, who is revealed to be stealing electricity with the use of a secret electricity meter.
• Counterfeit Cash: A part of the scheme to steal money from the post office in Černá ruka involves replacement of a proper stack of a hundred thousand Czechoslovak crowns with a stack of counterfeit copies during counting of money.
• Darkened Building Shootout: One happens in the finale of Svatba between the killer Buzek and the gendarmes.
• Dead Guy Junior: Anděla's daughter is named Tonička in honour of her deceased father Toníček.
• Deadly Doctor: The villain of Arazím's plotline in Lázeňské intermezzo, Dr. Steiner, kills his wife.
• Deadpan Snarker: While about every member of the gendarmerie unit throws in a snarky line every now and then, Arazím still stands out as the biggest snarker of them all.
• Death from Above: In Beáta, the titular nun gets murdered this way, getting killed by a church bell dropped on her head.
• Defiled Forever: Volavka features several rape victims fearing their reputation becoming tarnished after the rape they endured.
• Demoted to Extra: Šiktanc is one of main characters in the first season. After he retires he becomes more of a guest character.
• Deuteragonist: Jarý is this to Arazím's protagonist as he is the second most important character.
• Disinherited Child: The debauched Vilém Kesler in Beáta knows his father's will has his sister inherit the vast inheritance, and spends the episode using various underhanded means to ensure he would get a bigger share from it. When he learns of his sister's death, he goes celebrate to a brothel, overjoyed of becoming the heir. Ultimately though, his celebrations turn out to be premature, as his father ends up changing his will, disinheriting him.
• Downer Ending:
  • Svatba ends with Argo injured by stabbing and Toníček shot dead the night before before his wedding with Anděla.
  • Klaudynka ends with the case resolved with the sympathetic murderer's death, Jarý forced to ask for transfer, Ludmila departing to Florida with McGregor due to Arazím's reluctance to marry and Klaudie leaving to study in Paris.
• Downfall by Sex: The perpetrator of the rapes in the Volavka episode, Mr. Černý, is an affable man with a house, loving family and a decent job of a foreman in a sizeable factory. His inability to control his sexual thirst however causes him to end up getting caught and arrested.
• Dragged into Drag: In Volavka, Jarý is ordered by Arazím to dress in female clothes and join the female factory workers as The Bait to lure out the rapist that attacked several of them before.
• Driven to Suicide: This happens several times.
  • In Volavka, one of the victims hangs herself after a furious husband attacks her when he hears her confession about being raped.
  • In Medovina, the arsonist, Mrs. Kadrnožková, kills herself after the gendarmes take her son for questioning.
  • At the end of Grunt, Pavelka Sr., the father of the episode's murderer as well as the uncaught murderer from many years ago commits suicide.
  • At the end of Repetent, Arazím is informed the conman Exner hanged himself in a prison cell using the straps of his prosthetic leg.
  • Margareta from Klaudynka chooses to drown herself after admitting being the murderer who killed her father. While Arazím laments he could have saved her if his leg was alright and that the justice system would have likely freed her due to the sheer amount of mitigating circumstances, it is ultimately noted that this would have made little difference since she wouldn't have been able to live a fulfilling life after all the traume that she had to suffer.
• Due to the Dead: The gendarmes salute and fire a rifle salvo during Toníček's funeral.
• Evil Cripple: The villain of Repetent, Exner, a wanted conman, is a one-legged man who uses a prosthetic peg leg and a pair of crutches to walk.
• Evil Laugh: Arazím dreams of the treasurer Komiš having one targetted at him in Černá ruka.
• Evil Old Folks:
  • The murderer in Beáta is an elderly former aristocrat with adult children who ends up killing one of them due to his antisemitism.
  • The villain of Černá ruka, Komiš, is an elderly man just ahead of retirement.
• Evil Redhair: Rozálie Mašková in the episode Vdavky za všechny prachy has dark red hair and is a serial Black Widow.
• Extreme Libido: The victim of the episode Směšný vrah turns out to be an extreme nymphomaniac, to the degree that the murderer says that Messalina was a virgin when compared to her.
• Filching Food for Fun: In Repetent, Ryba lets other gendarmes have his pankakes, as he does not eat in the morning. Jarý claims his plate. The gendarmes then first grab all the pancakes on it, then proceed to return them to him... Only to then take pancakes from both Jarý's and Ryba's plate, leaving him with just one pancake in the end.
• The Food Poisoning Incident: Nearly happens to the gendarmes and guests celebrating Anděla and Toníček's engagement in Medovina as they are to toast with bad mead produced by the thief of hives, baker's helper Kotrba. Menšíková stops them moments before they drink it, then forces Kotrba to drink a full glass of it as a punishment for the theft. It causes him a very quick Potty Emergency.
• Foreshadowing: An Ouija Board ritual in one of the episodes of the first season shows Arazím the word "Klaudie". Noone makes much sense of that at that moment. The meaning reveals itself in the ending of Narodil se Kristus Pán, Klaudie being the name of Arazím's Russian daughter who came to Czechoslovakia to seek him out.
• Four Eyes, Zero Soul:
  • Dr. Steiner in Lázeňské intermezzo is a bespectacled man who murders his wife.
  • Treasurer Komiš in Černá ruka wears a pair of thick glasses and he works with a counterfeiter to steal tens of thousands of crowns from the postal office he works at.
• Gag Penis: In the episode Volavka, it's mentioned several times that the rapist has a particularly sizeable penis. Jarý is subsequently tasked with finding out who has the biggest penis in the factory where the rape victims worked.
• Genteel Interbellum Setting: The series is set in 1930s First Czechoslovak Republic and ends around the time the Third Reich begins to encroach on the country.
• Graceful Loser: Exner in Repetent recognises his defeat when the gendarmes catch him in a hotel room and only asks Arazím to let him finish his bottle of cognac.
• Gratuitous Russian: Klaudie's appearances have her often speak Russian. Justified, considering that Klaudie was raised by her Russian mother and Russian was thus her mother tongue.
• Greed Makes You Dumb: In Lázeňské intermezzo the murderer has a plan to have both himself and his accomplice escape justice, having the accomplice carry evidence - murder weapon and jewellery - from the crime scene, while he would claim to gendarmes that he and his wife were robbed and shot by the robbers. He also instructs the accomplice to destroy the items to make the gendarmes unable to prove that there was no robbery, as evidence to disprove that would never be found. The accomplice however decides to keep an ornamental necklace of the victim for herself, being too charmed by its beauty. She then gets seen trying to hide it, giving the gendarmes the evidence they need. When the gendarmes confront the murderer with the evidence, he snaps at the accomplice for ruining their plan due to her stupid greed.
• Hate Crimes Are a Special Kind of Evil: In Beáta, we see Arazím at one of his most furious points in the whole series when he confronts the antisemitic murderer, and he has to hold himself not to stab him with a bayonet when he keeps spitting antisemitic remarks. At that point, he even utters that he regrets that he has to respect the law.
• Hate Sink:
  • The murderer in Beáta, Ervín Kesler, is a particularly horrid villain. He is a former Austro-Hungarian aristocrat who has a Holier Than Thou attitude toward Arazím because the latter happens to be an atheist and who happens to be a staunch antisemite, to the degree that he murders his own daughter over her being in love with a Jewish doctor, and later attempts to kill the Jewish doctor as well. Arazím visibly does not enjoy being in his presence, and when confronting him in the episode's finale, he is livid to the point that he nearly stabs him with a bayonet over his antisemitic talk.
  • The murder victim of Klaudynka - the miller - is without a doubt one when his backstory is revealed. He turns out to have been a tyrannical father who terrorrised the family and who regularly raped his underage daughter, infecting her with syphilis and breaking the poor girl's mental health. He was also responsible for the his wife's death by leaving her to die in a burning barn that was set alight in a struggle caused by him - even calmly eating a dinner after the incident. He later tried to murder his daughter by attempting to strangle her at night, and he would have succeeded if his sons were not awakened during the struggle, with the ensuing fight giving the daughter a window of opportunity to finally kill him with an axe. It is quite telling that noone missed him afer his sudden disappearance and when the daughter tells Arazím the whole truth, he feels sympathetic for her more than anything.
• Heroes Love Dogs: All members of the unit love dogs.
• Heroic Sacrifice: After Buzek sets fire to the building he was hiding in, Toníček rushes into the building to save children trapped in the building from the fire, exposing himself in the process while the killer is still around. While Toníček manages to save the children from the fire, he ends up getting fatally shot in the back by Buzek who uses the window of opportunity.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: The murdering tramp in Ferda Mravenec dies while attempting to commit another murder, strangled by the very scarf he used to strangle his victims with.
• I Can't Hear You: When Jarý comes to Arazím waiting in a pub in Medovina, he notes that it's too loud in there. Arazím says that he can't hear him... Because it's too loud in there.
• Immoral Journalist: Subverted with Kliková who is always looking for story but when it comes to it she acts morally and helping others.
• The Insomniac: It is revealed in Repetent that Turko is one. His trouble sleeping at night stems from an incident that left him crippled and his colleague killed, which was caused by him sleeping too hard once.
• Interrogation by Vandalism: In Grunt, Arazím needs to find a murder weapon, a gun matching the bullet that killed the victim. The suspect, Pavelka Jr., is however very uncooperative and adamantly refuses to reveal its location. He is also a man extremely proud of his ownership of the largest farm in the village he lives in, and Arazím makes use of this in the episode's finale. First, he tricks Pavelka into giving the gendarmes permission to search his estate, then he orders the gendarmes to commit an extremely thorough search of the grounds, all while Pavelka would be watching. Pavelka protests the search making a mess of his precious estate, but keeps refusing to tell where the gun is, getting Arazím to order the roof of the farmhouse to be dismantled. The sight of the roof getting taken apart is too much for Pavelka, and so he capitulates and reveals the weapon's location.
• Interrupted Intimacy:
  • Vilém Kesler in the finale of Beáta is about to have sex with a prostitute when one of the gendarmes finds him. The gendarme notes to him that he should be glad, for it means he has an alibi.
  • This also happens in Ferda Mravenec to a pair of unsuspecting lovers accidentally caught by the gendarmes.
• It's Personal: The Con Man Hroch in Vdavky za všechny prachy impersonates the gendarme Sláva Jiroušek. The real Jiroušek understandably takes it personally and starts investigating on his own despite Arazím banning him from the investigation.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Arazím. He is rude and often angry, but ultimately, he is a loyal friend and overall a good guy.
• Karma Houdini:
  • Cinkánová in Krkatá bába turns out to be organising trade of newborn infants from mothers who don't want to keep them to mothers who do want them but can't give birth, not for personal gain, but because she believes she is doing the right thing. Due to moral ambiguity of the matter, the gendarmes ultimately decide to let her go.
  • Doctor Korous in the episode Doktor Smrt gets away with his crimes.
• Kindhearted Cat Lover: The murder victim in Lázeňské intermezzo is noted by the masseur to have been a generally kind woman very fond of cats. It soon turns out her husband didn't share his wife's love for her numerous cats and had them them after her murder.
• Ladykiller in Love: At the start of the series, Arazím has a reputation of a big womaniser and is in the process of ending yet another relationship in the first episode. He genuinely falls in love with the florist Ludmila, though his reputation causes him troubles courting her. When Ludmila departs Czechoslovakia, he genuinely falls in love again with Karlička. After circumstances force him to end his relationship with Karlička and after Ludmila returns to Czechoslovakia, he returns to courting her and ultimately ends up marrying her.
• Language Barrier: Downplayed. While Klaudie mostly speaks Russian and knows next to no Czech when she arrives in Czechoslovakia and all of the gendarmes speak Czech and have little to no knowledge of Russian, they more or less manage to understand each other, as the two languages are both Slavic. There are however still some differences which lead to misunderstandings, like when Arazím accidentally insults Klaudie's cooking while intending to praise it^note he calls the cooking "úžasné", meaning "amazing", which however sounds like the Russian word ужасные, which means "awful, horrible".
• Lethal Chef: Stela, the Gendarmerie unit's cook in Anděla's absence. Pretty much all of the gendarmes hate her cooking and not even the Station's dogs want to eat food cooked by her.
• Long-Lost Relative: Arazím and Klaudie are a father and daughter who never met each other, with Arazím departing Russia before her birth. Klaudie only knew of her father's existence from her mother's stories, and in fact, Arazím had no idea that he had a daughter. By the time they first meet in Narodil se Kristus Pán, Arazím is a middle-aged man and Klaudie is an adult woman.
• Love-Obstructing Parents:
  • Due to her own experience of her husband dying in the Great War, Anděla's mother refuses to let her marry Toníček, as she fears that as a gendarme, he is working a too dangerous job that will get him killed and leave Anděla a widow as well. She turns out to be right.
  • Arazím himself becomes one during Klaudynka, frantically trying to prevent her and Jarý from developing a romantic relationship. This ultimately leads to the two gendarmes getting in a fight at the end of the episode.
• Lower-Deck Episode: The episode Rýhonosec řepný focuses on Zahálka.
  • Poklad gives very small role to the main cast and focuses mostly on guest characters.
  • Skokan focuses mainly on Kvido who is a guest character.
• Mayor Pain: The mayor in the first episode, Slepice versus Slepička, is as unhelpful to the gendarmes as possible, finding them one blind and one deaf helper, refuses to support Arazím's claim that Deputy Slepička was aiming at him with a gun despite being a witness to it and also briefly becomes Arazím's rival for Ludmila's attention. He also happens to be the poacher the gendarmes are searching for in the episode.
• Mean Boss: Arazím turns into one over the course of Klaudynka, relieving his annoyances with Jarý, Klaudie, Ludmila and his injured leg on the gendarmes by terrorising them with his sudden authoritarian behaviour and bad mood.
• Multi-Part Episode: The episode Doktor Smrt is split into two parts, Doktor Smrt I and Doktor Smrt II.
• Murder the Hypotenuse: The murder case in Krkatá bába turns out to be this, with a woman's husband getting killed by his friend so that the latter could later marry the widowed wife.
• My Significance Sense Is Tingling: In Ohněstrůjce, when Anděla's mother suffers a stroke, Anděla feels something bad happened while she is cutting onions. She cuts her finger due to being distracted by the thought.
• Naturalized Name: Ludmila's stepbrother Joseph McGregor used to be named Josef Řehoř, but he changed his name after emigrating to America as nobody could pronouce his Czech surname there.
• Nepotism: Skrčílek is implied to be the case.
• Never Mess with Granny: The elderly lady Menšíková not only manages to terrify all of the gendarmes with her repeated presence and unshuttuble sharp-tongued mouth, but she also manages to investigate and solve one of the crimes in Medovina by herself, catching the thief who stole her hives and parading him all the way to the Gendarmerie Station, punishing him before the eyes of all gendarmes.
• Nice Girl: Anděla is a very sweet girl liked by all of the Brno gendarmes.
• No Mercy for Murderers: In Směšný vrah, the victim turns out to be a crazy nymphomaniac who was murdered by her lover, a hairdresser named Keliš, who decided to murder her after an incident when she came to his salon, chased out his customers and demanded sex on spot. The victim was also despised by her stepdaughter Jana, who sincerely wanted something horrible to happen to her, and when Jana meets the murderer in custody, she confesses to him that she wished for her stepmother to die and even gives him a small gift. He is nevertheless imprisoned.
• Offing the Offspring: The murderer of the titular nun in Beáta turns out to be her antisemitic father furious over her relationship with a Jewish doctor.
• Oh, Crap!: In Černá ruka, Komiš gets a magnificent look on his face acknowledging how screwed he is after the stolen money is finally found in his house.
• Ornamental Weapon: The gendarmes are sometimes seen carrying sabres as part of their uniform, but they're never really used by them. It's Truth in Television - sabres were a part of historical interwar Czechoslovak gendarmerie's equipment.
• Pain to the Ass: The mayor in Slepice versus Slepička ends up getting shot in the butt by the hunting grounds keeper when caught and revealed as a poacher.
• Papa Wolf: Arazím, after he finds out he is a father, becomes very protective about Klaudie.
• Parental Incest: Margareta in Klaudynka turns out to have been the victim of rape by her father a number of times, even getting infected with syphilis from him.
• Planet of Steves: A hilarious downplayed example happens in Černá ruka. One of the plot points of the episode is the fact that the burglary in the post office happened on the eve of Karel's name day. Arazím, Karel himself, keeps finding characters named Karel all throughout the episode, much to his annoyance.
• Poke the Poodle: The perpertrator of the comedic case of Repetent breaks into schools, steals school supplies and leaves his excrements at the crime scene. Arazím is visibly more amused than anything else when finally meeting him after he surrenders and is brought to the station.
• Police Lineup: At the end of Krkatá bába, one happens at a courthouse. To provide the final piece of evidence to resolve the murder case, a child witness is asked to identify the man she saw entering and leaving the secret entrance of the cavern where the murder happened.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: The murderer in Beáta is a former aristocrat holding antisemitic views. He recommends the gendarmes to read The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, murders his daughter over her relationship with a Jewish doctor and eventually tries to kill the doctor as well.
• Precision Fstrike: In Medovina, furious Arazím tells Menšíková he has better stuff to do than search for her (what could be translated as) fucking hives.
• Pretty in Mink: The first appearance of Arazím's Russian aristocratic daughter Klaudie in Narodil se Kristus Pán has her dressed in a thick fur coat and hat.
• Rank Up: After Šiktanc retires, Arazím is promoted to his position of chief gendarme of the Brno station. Jarý is then awarded a promotion as well, becoming Arazím's deputy.
• Really Gets Around: The murder victim in Směšný vrah kept a diary recalling her extensive sexual life, and while it's never specified just how many partners she had, it's implied she switched them as soon as she grew tired of them, as she planned to replace her last one (the hairdresser Keliš) once he couldn't satisfy her Extreme Libido anymore.
• Right-Hand Cat: The Black Widow Mašková in Vdavky za všechny prachy has a Persian cat with which she discusses her plans.
• Romantic Candlelit Dinner: Arazím and Ludmila have one at the end of their spa vacation in Lázeňské intermezzo.
• Serial Rapist: The rapist in the episode Volavka rapes four women and is caught trying to rape a fifth one. The fifth one happens to be Jarý in disguise.
• Shout-Out: In Lázeňské intermezzo, Jarý and Anděla go to a cinema where they watch a comedy film. The comedy the two watch is Hej rup!, a real 1934 Czechoslovak film starring Jan Werich and Jiří Voskovec.
• Shotgun Wedding: In Narodil se Kristus Pán, Arazím learns that Mr. Celestýn, the suspect in the less serious case, fathered a child and then proceeded to abandon the mother. Later when he is caught of comitting the crime, Arazím offers him two options - either jail, or marrying the girl he left. Celestýn chooses the marriage.
• Smug Snake: Komiš in Černá ruka is noticeably smirking when the gendarmes search his house, confident that they won't find the lost banknotes there. He even smugly tells Arazím that he will oversee the gendarmes cleaning the mess they made during the search. He loses his smug composure when Arazím finds the banknotes after realising where they are really hidden in the last moment.
• Snark-to-Snark Combat: Ludmila is prone to engaging in these with Arazím. The unit members also engage in mutual snarking from time to time.
• Stealing from the Till:
  • In Repetent, a savings bank clerk embezzles one hundred thousand Czechoslovak crowns from the bank and disappears. She is eventually caught with the conman Exner.
  • In Černá ruka, the post office treasurer Komiš orchestrates a scheme to steal tens of thousands of Czechoslovak crowns from the post office he works at.
• Still Fighting the Civil War: Ervín Kesler from Beáta is a former aristocrat who still keeps a portrait of Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria-Hungary hung in his mansion even though the setting is 1930s First Czechoslovak Republic, and he keeps a book in his library which brands President Masaryk a traitor to the nation.
• Supreme Chef:
  • Anděla is one, with her cooking loved by all of the gendarmes. Her getting temporarily replaced by Stela in Volavka is regarded as a great tragedy by the entire gendarmerie unit.
  • Klaudie turns out to be one in Klaudynka, her fancy dinner quickly winning her the favour of the gendarmes.
  • Stela's sister Blažena, despite Arazím's initial fears, turns out to be a great replacement of Anděla as the gendarmerie unit's cook when the Anděla permanently leaves the station to take care of her deceased mother's farm. It is mentioned by Anděla in Ohněstrůjce that it was in fact Blažena who taught her how to cook so well.
• Sympathetic Murderer: The murderer from Klaudynka was systematically raped by her father as an underage (as a result of which she got syphilis), saw her mother die in a fire caused by her father during a struggle in a barn and got nearly strangled by the father. Arazím sympathises with her and does not particualrly blame her when she tells him that she hit the father from behind with an axe while he fought her brothers who were trying to defend her.
• Tell Him I'm Not Speaking to Him: In Slepice versus Slepička, Arazím and Jarý communicate through Arazím's dog Kikina like this for some time until Arazím warms up to Jarý a bit.
• Till Murder Do Us Part: The murder in Lázeňské intermezzo turns out to be a case of this trope - the Doctor preparing and executing a murder of his wife.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Skrčílek is initally introduced as an unsympathetic idiot who rats on others and only creates problems. At the end he is injured when chasing robbers during which he shows more selfless side. After his injury he leaves the Gendarmerie Station. He returns during last episode when he is revealed to be transferred to police archive. He is shown in more sympathetic light during the episode as he openly shows disgust with Nazis and is one of main focuses in the B story.
• Two Lines, No Waiting: Each episode usually focuses on 2 criminal cases - serious one (usually murder) and comedy relief case.
• Verbal Backspace: When Jarý catches the Serial Rapist in Volavka and prepares to summon the nearby gendarmes to arrest him, he says he's sorry, only to immediately realise what he said, backpedal and say that he's not.
• Villainous Breakdown: In Beáta, when confronted with the fact that many biblical characters are Jewish, the religious and antisemitic Ervín Kesler suffers a mental breakdown during which he attempts to attack Arazím with a crucifix. In his last moments onscreen, he starts Laughing Mad after telling the gendarmes he disinherited his debauched son earlier that day.
• Villain with Good Publicity: The murderer in Krkatá bába is a respected professor and a city councilor.
• War Hero: Arazím is one, having fought in World War I and Russian Civil War as a member of the Czechoslovak Legion. It is even mentioned that he met the future President Masaryk on the Russian front and escorted him across a square shelled by the Bolsheviks once.
• Wedding Episode:
  • Svatba is set up to become one between Toníček and Anděla, with even the name of the episode literally meaning "wedding". This is however averted due to Toníček's untimely death the night before the wedding.
  • Klaudynka starts with a wedding between Anděla and Václav.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Cinkánová in Krkatá bába could be considered one. She organises trade of newborn children between mothers who don't want to keep their children and mothers want to have children who cannot give birth. She sincerely believes what she is doing is the right thing, as she believes giving the unwanted babies a loving family is much better than having them grow up in an orphanage.
• World of Snark: About all of the members of the Brno Gendarmerie Station throw a sarcastic comment every now and then.
• You Need a Breath Mint: Arazím's date with Ludmila in Svatba ends up being unsuccessful due to Arazím's lunch - roasted pig tails with garlic - giving him foul breath.

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