Bad Banks

A tale of espionage, ruthlessness and one-upmanship in the finance sector.

Disenchanted employee, Jana Liekam (Paula Beer), has been sacked from her role in one of Luxembourg's top banks, after having corrected a mistaken fact uttered by her sales partner in a high level meeting with important clients. The correction made him look foolish and he is petty enough to use family connections to have her fired.

So begins her quest for a new job. It will involve a precarious ride through the most corrupt parts of the German banking sector. A journey that proves to be even more cutthroat than Jana's experiences thus far.

There are a few moments when the financial jargon can leave you cold, but generally, the drama is layperson-friendly and the real story revolves around aspects of the human condition; loyalty, betrayal, and greed. And by greed, we mean the lust for more money, more influence, more power, and ultimately, more control.

Jana has entered a world of secret underhand deals, barefaced lies, male machismo, and dangerous opportunism.

Season One is a complete delight. Violent, sexy, fast paced, and with great acting throughout. Season Two leaves things in a state of limbo, and perhaps dwells in the banking world's technicalities a little too much, but is still highly watchable. 8.4/10

If you are familiar with international finance then you will know that the setting is unrealistic but the characters are all too recognizable. The twists and turns that swirl around the plots and counter plots can be dizzying but very fun to watch. There are no good or bad people, just winners and losers.

I really liked the first season 8/10. It had a nice concept, a beginning, an end and somewhat ironic moral and it can be taken seriously. The second season is completly different show 5-6/10. It feels like an after thought and desperate attempt to creat something new by borrowing heavily from the first season. It's completly ignoring what made the first season special and how audience was drawn into the exciting world of Bad Banks in a first place. It's more like a really bad remix of an original song that has no idea why it is remixing it in a first place. Basiclly the second season is a soap opera.

This show is a thrilling fiction based on the financial districts of Germany.

I've been working for several banks in recent years and I very much feel at home when I watch the show. From my perspective, people in Frankfurt - despite the fictional story - behave very much like the characters depicted in Bad Banks.

Camera, lighting, post-edit, costumes, dialogs, screenplay, actors ... all crafts have been performed excellently by great staff members.

However, from my perspective, for some of the main cast members I suggest to further attend acting school soon or to go performing on a live stage to drastically improve their pronunciation. Being a native speaker for decades I often find myself rewinding the show because I didn't understand a word.

I binge-watched Bad Banks because it was THAT good. It's pretty high-brow i.e. I feel that you need to concentrate to follow what is going on if you are unfamiliar with the banking world; however, you come out of every episode feeling as though you've learnt something. Also, the suspense is great.