Beat

I just watched this on Amazon and it's probably one of their grittier imports. Overall, I liked it. It had a complex story (more than it initially seems), a conflicted good guy, a very smart bad guy and spy service that sometimes is good and other times is bad.

Overall, I think the story was fairly complex and only at the very end you are able to unroll the layers. Dubbing wasn't that good but i guess there are no good dubbing out there.

At times, I felt some of the flashbacks were a bit much but I also don't like flashbacks in general.

A bit more detail about the main players:

The main hero is a conflicted techno club organizer that is being manipulated (I don't have to give up anything but it's much more than it seems) into being a under cover agent for secret service.

Bad guy seems to be cold blooded, calculating and extremely intelligent; thus proving a worthy opponent.

The secret police is more of a challenge. You never know where they stand and what they want. Only later we know realize their true motives. Keeps things very interesting.

Music is techno and visuals are bit dark and lots of gray. I was never a clubber myself, but I think I could see them doing a good job with it, that at times I felt I was in that chaos, where anything and everything was OK.

Overall, I enjoyed it.

I´m a Berliner myself and even though I´m 54, I can relate to the club scene and the story in this series. Beat is somebody I wouldn´t like to let too close to me but Jannis Niewöhner´s acting is irresistible. He has what an actor needs to make such a character come to life. I immediately fell in love with him, I must admit. The story is gripping and that´s because the whole package works. Acting, directing, camera, lighting, sites, a high production value and unfortunately there is no season 2 yet. I would love to have this series continued, the ending promised such a voyage.

I thought it started off very strong, but then tailed off. One of the central plot threads ended very abruptly around episode five or so (out of seven). And the other central plot thread was a giant cliche. Nevertheless, the characters of Beat and Emilia in particular were quite engaging, as was the music and the Berlin disco scene. And on another note - really, it's not exactly news but what's up with German culture and the German psyche, particularly in the realm of sex???

As a german I had to watch it to see if an Amazon Series may be better. And it actually is. The dubbing into English is sadly not so good. You may watch in german with other subs.

First Episodes may be hard to get invested in, but in Episode 4 it is hard to stop watching until you get forced to with the End of Episode 7. Phenomenal actors and grittier. That is adult TV par excellence. It has some weak points with the spy things, but well it was an easy plot to get. ;)

Anyway - 7 Episodes, worth the time and you may get more invested in it as you expect yourself. Have fun.

P.S: and if you like Techno you will get some nice Tracks to listen to. Really happy they kept that part very real with deep basses and driving sounds. My friend does not like Techno but still liked it all. He said: Made more sense then all the spy stuff at some stages ^^

If the show maintains this tone and pace, I'll be crying out for more!

There is something about continental European dramas. The writing is often quirkier and there's always a fresh feel to them. When I saw the cast list made up of Niewöhner, Berkel, Koffler and Ullmann I had to watch. Ullmann is fantastic... He looks like he's really enjoying this role.

Update; (possible spoiler) I finished the series and really enjoyed it. It went in a little bit of a different direction than I expected. I thought Ullmann's role was - after seeing the first episode - going to be bigger and that he would be the main antagonist. Probably a little bit of misdirection on behalf of the writers but I'm not complaining.

Definitely worth 7 hours of your time.