Binge Fever!

How many people still believe in extraterrestrials today? The new Netflix Germany series The Signal, starring Peri Baumeister, Florian David Fitz, and Yuna Bennett, explores the possibility of non-human life in space—and aims to do much more. 

Disturbing plot twists, brutal cliffhangers, plenty of creepy atmosphere, and in the middle of it all, a mysterious little girl: For thriller series like "Dear Child," the term "binge-watching" was invented.

A picturesque mountain town conceals a criminal underworld that takes rich-guy privilege way past corruption into grotesque depravity, while the heroine is something of a sociopath herself, more comfortable communing with the dead than with human interaction. In this kind of crime thriller, trauma and psychoses make the world go round.

In the new streaming series “Becoming Karl Lagerfeld”, the fashion icon is brought to life by Daniel Brühl, a Marvel superstar. Their star-to-star biopic treatment is only one of many on the scene.

The series “Transatlantic” was inspired by the true story of American journalist Varian Fry and the Emergency Rescue Committee, which, during the time of the Vichy regime in France, aided over 2000 refugees, including numerous artists and intellectuals, in escaping from the Nazis.

Are you one of those people rolling their eyes at the seemingly never-ending “Sisi” mania? Don’t despair! Netflix has knocked the proverbial dust off the celluloid legacy of Elisabeth, Empress of Austria and Hungary, for a six-part drama entitled “The Empress”. The series includes plenty of intrigue, rebellion at the palace, and a glimpse of skin.

1987: Shortly after liquidating a businessman in West Berlin on behalf of a secret Stasi commando, top East German spy Kleo is arrested, denounced by the Stasi and even betrayed by her own grandfather. After two years in prison, the Berlin Wall suddenly falls and Kleo is released. Kleo thus embarks on a riotous revenge spree that leads her through the anarchic Berlin, improvised electro clubs and Mallorcan fincas all the way to Chile's Atacama Desert ...

There was immense hype in the run-up to its release: The team behind the wildly successful hit “Dark” promised even more mystery, even more thrills and chills, and even more riddles. So, was all the hard work worth it?

“Tribes of Europa” is a new Netflix miniseries produced in Germany that depicts a Europe in which society has broken down into tribal groups following an apocalypse. Can this dystopian Sci-Fi drama be interpreted as a declaration of love for the European ideal of a cohesive and united society?

Based on a true story, the Netflix miniseries The Billion Dollar Code recounts how two German developers sued Google for patent infringement, arguing that Google Earth blatantly appropriated their own Terravision program from the 1990s. The show makes the case into an enthralling, if sobering courtroom drama, and also a kind of parable, using parallel timelines to contrast the utopian dreams of the ‘90s with the disillusionment surrounding ‘Big Tech’ today.

Queer Eye Germany offers a very different take on a binge-able series. The show is … nice. Charming. Inspiring, even. The premise is that a crew of host experts, all proudly queer, drops in on a different person each episode and helps them rethink their life, aided and abetted by a new wardrobe and a remodeled pad. But the true makeovers here happen on the psychic and emotional levels.

"Oktoberfest 1900" tells the story of two beer dynasties fight for supremacy at the world's largest festival. The series takes the audience to a fantastic and mysterious Munich at the turn of the century and unfolds a modern myth about fateful love and the inexorable rise of capitalism.

Death suits her. In “The Last Word” Germany’s most versatile entertainer Anke Engelke plays a eulogist, exploring the taboos that surround the subject of death. The result is a touching and bittersweet (family) story about lies, secrets, unexpected endings, and bumpy new beginnings.

What if students secretly experiment with biohacking technologies that could change humanity? Biohackers tells a gripping story about friendship, love and revenge at a German University that is overshadowed by a revolutionary biohacking-technology and its ethical implications.

4 Blocks is far more than just proof that joining forces with the German hip hop scene can result in a TV series that will appeal to the Instagram and Tik Tok crowd.

​Netflix teams and Austria’s ORF network have produced an eight-part series about Sigmund Freud. The diagnosis: Freud is no history lesson, more like a lurid graphic novel come to life.

Set during 1888 and the years following at Berlin's Charité hospital, the German miniseries brings to light the triumphs of several famous German physicians and scientists, while revolving around a young woman who must work as an assistant nurse to discharge her debts to one of Berlin’s most elite hospitals.

Drug dealers have enjoyed even more popularity on Netflix than they did in the world of TV in the 1980s. To date, such series have tended to revolve around billionaire cartel bosses. By contrast, the first German-made drug tale is about an 18-year-old from Leipzig who goes by the name of “Shiny Flakes” on the darknet and in whose bedroom the cops discovered 320 kilograms of narcotics. (Not) a tutorial.  

With their latest German production, the teen drama WE ARE THE WAVE that started airing early in 2020, Netflix is going daringly political.

In the year 9 AD, several Germanic tribes unite to challenge the almost invincible Roman legions in a legendary battle: The battle in the Teutoburg Forest will change the history of Europe. At the center of this series about the bloody clash are three childhood friends who are linked by a tragic fate.

The four-part “Unorthodox” not only tells the stirring tale of a young woman’s escape from New York to Berlin. Celebrated by TV fans and critics alike, it also offers a fascinating insight into the parallel universe that is an ultra-orthodox Jewish community, where life is cut off from the rest of the world.

An original German-language drama, Deutschland 83 is a gripping coming-of-age story and spy thriller set in the divided Germany of the ‘80s.

​Is there any such thing as the ultimate fragrance? One whose aroma is so irresistible that it renders people powerless? Inspired by Patrick Süskind’s international bestseller “Perfume: The Story of a Murderer”, the six-part thriller series “Perfume” is about a monstrous killer and explores the question of whether humans are in fact capable of true love. Or will we inevitably be manipulated by our own sense of smell?

Three Christmases, three ladies, three generations: Grandma Vivi, daughter Sonja and granddaughter Lara. A story about three very different women and their experiences with love and life.

Sic Mundus Creatus Est... Creepy forests, sinister nuclear power plants, time-bending storylines and a host of stellar performances make DARK “Must see TV”.

The thriller series You Are Wanted became an overnight success. A hit all over the world, the series is more than just the proverbial game changer for Amazon.

On the eve of Germany’s World Cup qualifier, off-duty cop Grimmer spots police nearby at a fresh crime scene and is shocked to see who the victim is. What follows is the investigation by two cops who try to get to the bottom of this twisted case amidst controversy and underworld politics in Berlin.

Police interrogations set in the confines of an interview room is what the 4-part Criminal series is about. This stripped down, cat-and-mouse drama focuses on the intense mental conflict between the detectives and the suspects in question.

From Netflix and Apple TV to RTL Now, Germans are streaming more and more series and films. Public broadcasters are jumping on the bandwagon and making their own series looking to conquer the international market.

Sophisticated TV series  are considered to be one of the most interesting narrative formats. Up to now Germany has had a hard time keeping up with it, but things are about to change.

While the German television audience is unlikely to recognize her name, her stories move millions: she penned the “Weissensee” series set among East Berlin’s artists and Stasi loyalists, along with the “Ku’damm 56/59” TV series. Author Annette Hess has more than proven her impressive versatility throughout her career. 

German television shows tend to have a bad reputation for poor writing and cheap productions not suited for an international market and audience. Now series like “Deutschland ‘83” and “Babylon Berlin” are putting a new shine on that tarnished image. 

In the lead-up to the UK season finale of Deutschland 83, we had the chance to speak to Jörg Winger, creator and producer of the hit TV series.

In the past couple of years, there has been an ongoing debate about whether the status of cinema has been hijacked by TV series. In my opinion, this is framing the question in the wrong way.