Binge Fever

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Television “Made in Germany” is having a golden moment with the rise of international streaming services. German series that appeal to global audiences through smart and original writing, diverse themes, talented lineups and opulent productions have never received so much attention. In this dossier, we’ll highlight binge-worthy German serials and fill you in on where to watch them in the Philippines.

We believed we could live in peace forever. But we were wrong.

Liv (Tribes of Europa)

About Binge Fever

From Germany to the Philippines

When Sisi falls in love with her cousin Franz Joseph, the Emperor of Austria, the tragedy plays out – because he was already engaged to her sister.

Picture Palace | Film
The Empress: A Rebel in a Gilded Cage

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.

German Series in the Philippines
Tribes of Europa

“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?

Still from the series "Oktoberfest 1900

German Series in the Philippines
Oktoberfest 1900: Beer and Blood

"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.

Still from the Netflix series Barbarians

German Series in the Philippines
„Barbaren“ - Latin lessons on the battlefield

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.

What is going on here? Strange happenings on board the Kerberos.

Picture Palace | Film
“1899”: Sailing Into the Dark Unknown

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?

Robert Finster as Sigmund Freud in the Netflix Original Series "Freud"

German Series in the Philippines
To Hell with Dr. Freud...and back

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

Cover of the Netflix series "How To Sell Drugs Online (Fast)".

German Series in the Philippines
How To Sell Drugs Online (Fast)

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.

Cut Biohackers Key Art

German Series in the Philippines
Biohackers

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.

Whatever we are fighting for, we pay the price for it in blood.

Arminius (Barbaren)

A bearded man in a hooded jacket

German Series in the Philippines
Dark

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

Still from the Netflix series "Wir sind die Welle / We are the wave" - Five masked people lurking between bales of waste paper

German Series in the Philippines
“We Are The (Next) Wave”

With their latest German production, the teen drama "We Are The Wave" that started airing early in 2020, Netflix is going daringly political.

German Series in the Philippines
Unorthodox - Escaping to a new life

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.

Standbild aus der Netflix Serie "Das letzte Wort

German Series in the Philippines
The Last Word

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.

Booth for Netflix’s “Dark” series at the 2019 Gamescom computer game exhibition in Cologne.

Streaming services
On demand

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.

Still from the TNT series "4 Blocks" Toni, Vince and Abbas seen through the windshield of their car, a handgun lying on the shelf.

German Series in the Philippines
4 Blocks: Berlin is ours now!

"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.

German Series in the Philippines
You Are Wanted

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.

Binge Fever Criminal: Germany

German Series in the Philippines
Criminal: Germany

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.

Will you tell me… what the future’s like?

H.G. Tannhaus (Dark)

Title theme of the Netflix series "The Billion Dollar Code

German Series in the Philippines
The Billion Dollar Code

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.

The Billion Dollar Code
Art from the future

The acclaimed Netflix series “The Billion Dollar Code” is based on the life of the artist Joachim Sauter. But who was this man who challenged Google?

“Petalclouds” by Art+Com at Changi Airport in Singapore.

Design Agency Art+Com
Art and communication blended into one

David vs. Goliath – who invented Google Earth? Thanks to a Netflix series, the design agency Art + Com is now known to a wider audience, but Art + Com has been regularly winning prizes for 30 years.

This is my generation: Generation Z. Limitless technological possibilities. And what do we do with it? Face-Swap.

Moritz Zimmermann in „How To Sell Drugs Online (Fast)"

Still photo ZDF series Perfume: Investigators Brettschneider (Marc Hosemann, l.) and Köhler (Juergen Maurer, 2nd from right) as well as prosecutor Grünberg (Wotan Wilke Möhring, 3rd from right) examine the crime scene and the victim with profiler Nadja Simon (Friederike Becht, 2nd from left).

German Series in the Philippines
"Perfume" - sweet scent of death

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?

The good thing is, bad conscience and fear have one thing in common: you get used to it.

Adam Pohl (Bad Banks)

Binge Fever animated Illustration of a hand holding a remote control

“TV has cracked. A symmetry of consumption has given way to a minefield of choice.”

– Jason Parham / Wired Magazine

On topic: German streaming TV series

Babylon Berlin: ambitious police typist Charlotte Ritter.

TV Series
A fascination with the past

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.

Hand is washed only by hand. If you want to take, you must also give.

Bruno Wolter (Babylon Berlin)

BINGE FEVER! Spotify Playlist

Binge this! Soundtracks and original scores from streaming German TV series in this “Binge Fever!” Spotify playlist. Play it on shuffle for sublime binge-listening pleasure!

Im Angesicht des Verbrechens

TV Series
High Quality or High Viewing Figures?

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.

A reliable Sunday primetime viewer magnet since 1970: Tatort.

Drawn to the scene of the crime
Hunting serial offenders

Every Sunday evening, around ten million people settle down in front of the telly to watch the German police procedural, Tatort, or “crime scene” in English. Regional mysteries and thrillers are also flying off the shelves in bookstores. So what is it that makes a good murder mystery so riveting?

The Heute-Show with Oliver Welke

Political Satire Shows
“Satire and journalism can complement each other”

Satire shows on German television are increasingly addressing political issues. It is still, however, difficult to compare them with their American role models, says media scientist, Benedict Porzelt.

Bad Banks (2017)

Berlinale Bloggers 2018
Is the cinema-versus-TV debate still relevant?

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 the wrong way.

Deutschland 83

Deutschland 83: Interview with producer Jörg Winger

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.

Now you die in peace. I'll call you then.

Kommissar Thiel (Tatort Münster)

“Streaming TV Is not just a new way to watch. It's a new genre.”

– James Poniewozik / NY Times

A New Genre

Streaming services such as Netflix, Amazon Video or Google allow unrestricted access to a large number of German films and television programs in subtitled versions in the Philippines.

Providers give subscribers of these services unlimited access to new movies and series that would seldom have made it into the Philippine theatrical distribution, standard cable networks or traditional commercial broadcasting networks. The internet is becoming more and more the standard method by which television is consumed.

These new distribution channels have not only changed the user behavior dramatically (linear television gives way to the “binge” behavior) but also the quality and formats of the productions created under these new parameters. International streaming services and German production companies as well as regional broadcasters have understood the sea change and are currently generating a lot of attention to German television with series that appeal to global audiences through intelligent and original writing, diverse themes, talented lineups and opulent productions. Conversely, this development means decidedly more high-quality productions developed in Germany, which, in turn, enriches the domestic market and promotes German talents.

Foto (Zuschnitt): © Nik Konietzny/Bavaria Fiction GmbH, 2018
Das Boot
If you suffer from claustrophobia, then this series might cause some anxiety. Das Boot retells the events that took place aboard German Kriegsmarine U-612 submarine in 1942, and realistically recreates the oppressive atmosphere on board. The price tag is not for the faint of heart either: the 2018 series sequel to Wolfgang Petersen’s 1981 film cost 26.5 million euros. So Das Boot was even more expensive per episode than pay-TV channel Sky’s mammoth Babylon Berlin.
Photo (detail): © picture-alliance/dpa/Nestor Bachmann
Weissensee
Weissensee is a series about the decline of the GDR and two East Berlin families who could not be more different: while one is loyal to the regime and works closely with the Stasi, the other is part of the dissident underground. It’s a story of love between members of two warring families, of betrayal, greed, struggle and power. But Weissensee is also a political thriller in which German history plays an important role before, during and after reunification.
Photo (detail): © MDR/Julie Vrabelova
Charité
At the end of the 19th century, doctors, nurses and researchers worked under tough conditions at Charité Hospital in Berlin. Simple infections were often fatal and half of all newborns did not survive. In 1888, the year of the Three Emperors, the Charité is fighting diseases such as syphilis, diphtheria and tuberculosis. The story is densely atmospheric, and today’s Charité board praised the historical accuracy director Sönke Wortmann used to tell the story of doctors like Rudolf Virchow and Robert Koch, who were making medical history at the time.
Photo (detail): ©UFA FICTION GmbH/Anika Molnár
Deutschland 83 / 86
Like Weissensee, Deutschland 83 is the story of a divided Germany. The focus here though shifts away from the personal to the political: espionage, the Cold War and the possible outbreak of a third world war. In Deutschland 83 viewers watch as the world powers play a tricky game of chess. A sequel has since been released: Deutschland 86. The follow-up explores whether the practicality of capitalism could be used to save communism.
Photo (detail): © ZDF/Stefan Erhard
Ku’damm 56/ 59
Another series with a simple title: Ku’damm 56 and 59. Strictly speaking, it is more a three-part TV mini-series about emancipation in the 1950s. It reflects on German society in the post-war period and during the economic miracle illustrated through the family-run Galant dance school on the famous Ku’damm, where guests go to sound out the limits of prudery and live out their sexuality.

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