Berlin Alexanderplatz as a groundbreaking 13-part narrative for TV - and its woeful epilogue

By any measure Rainer Werner Fassbinder's 13-part (plus epilogue) series, Berlin Alexanderplatz was ground-breaking in 1980 and has been hugely influential in charting the way for a highly intelligent and literary long-form narrative for television (today, streaming). BA is the antecedent of such long-form, character-driven dramas as The Sopranos, The Wire, House of Cards - the list could go on. RWF's epic, based on the 1929 novel by Alfred Doblin, does look a little dated, of course - some of the voice-overs and title screens look more '60s than '80s, but in its scope and ambition alone it stands well ahead of its time. The series is set in the heart of postwar Berlin in 1928, a time of huge unemployment, no social services, an economy still reeling after the war, and a time of political unrest, w/ right- and left-wing organizations vying for power and public attention. Checking back on my notes from when I read Doblin's novel 5 or so years back, I can see that RWF hued closely to the novel - except in his free-wheeling 2-hour epilogue, which is largely RWF's vision. At the center of every moment of the series (and novel) is Franz Biberkopf (Gunter Lamprecht); the series begins w/ his exit from prison, where he has served 4 years (!!) for the murder of his wife. Throughout, he remains an entirely unsympathetic character: cruel and violent toward women, a petty criminal, full of self-pity. And yet - we see him as part of his time and place, a victim of an indifferent society that offers no help or hope to people like him, no way to get his life on track: We see him for a while try to make a living in sales (newspapers, pornography, shoe strings!), with no success, so he's of course drawn to violent crime and to "pimping" - even of his seemingly beloved Mieze. You can't root (or even hope) for this guy, but you can's stop watching his demise. Interestingly, in both book and miniseries, there is a not a bit of back story on Franz (nor on any other character, for that matter). The filmmaking itself is largely convention - a social-realist drama that could well have been played on stage; RWF does a great job creating a visual (and audio) reality - nearly the entire film shot in hues of brown and orange; in the very few moments when the plot diverts from the urban setting, the bright colors or an ordinary summer day are shocking and astonishing. The musical score involves "theme" music for most of the major characters and a period re-creation using some 20s jazz motifs. All of which brings us to the epilogue - where RWF breaks ranks and shows his own interpretation of Fran's fate - which involves a journey through an afterlife and a search for his murdered girlfriend (and perhaps for vengeance?) - and I can only say that this part of the series seems pretentious and labored and is at times so gruesome that I had to skip ahead rather than watch more naked bodies being dismembered - so, viewer, beware.