Beat

I wasn't sure about it going into the first episode, but the more I watched it, the more I loved it. By the end I was totally invested in Beat's life and that of his inner circle. It was a whirlwind for sure and had some very heartbreaking moments, but I loved it and hope to see a season 2! (It is in German, with English subtitles.)

The plot is familiar. I have seen thrillers with similar themes many times BUT and it is a HUGE BUT, this series is a must watch for the truly mesmerising performance of Janis Niewöhner.

A performance that deservedly won him an International Emmy nomination for Best Actor.

His Beat is a complex flawed damaged character worth meeting.

This is a violent series with a lot of nudity and sex so be warned. But if you can get past this it is a rewarding and at times exciting experience.

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 ^^

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.

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.