Der Greif

I was excited to see, this will be a series. The novel this show is based on was my start into fantasy and is probably not known to an international audience. Funnily the plot is set in 1994 which is about the time I devoured the book as a 14-year-old. I remember reading around 250 pages on a rainy Sunday.

So as it is obvious the creators are trying to follow the success of "Stranger Things" in some ways, do not make the mistake to compare The Gryphon too much to the Netflix hit. It is an original story that Hohlbein created long before. As far as I can tell after three episodes (earlier start in Germany as it is a German production) the buildup is good and leaves enough things to your imagination, while hinting enough to keep it interesting.

The series seems to be a little darker than the book, which was youth fantasy, whereas this is fun to watch as an adult. CGI quality is better than I expected and acting and plot are fine. So is the depiction of 1994 Germany, although the town of Krefelden is fictious. I feel like most clothing styles of the teenagers came up a few years later.

After almost thirty years after first reading the book (and many others by Wolfgang Hohlbein) I enjoy this so far and will keep watching, respectively bingeing the episodes to come. I just fear this season will end in a cliffhanger and the wait for continuation will be painful.

English dub is pretty good, beyond the typical lip syncing issues.

Strong acting, good direction, strong production value, pretty good cgi, and prosthetics used for custom/ monsters, story is a lil predictable at times even for people who didn't read the novels.

Similar vibes to stranger things, the hollow, where teens cross over to another world, but this is a darker tale, not for the squeamish or people looking for a happy ending where everyone is fine and healthy with minimal trauma.

Hope for season 2 !

What else to mention,

minimal filler it gets to the point, some threads left open (teen drama bs and some villain stuff).

Other wise resolved.

I binged it all oops,

I randomly stumbled upon the English dubbed version of The Gryphon and it's a YES for me. Kind of surprised by the mediocre reviews. I feel like it has a Netflix 'Dark' x 'Stranger Things' kind of feel to it. It's set in the early 90's (ish) and has a lot of that synth background music like stranger things (love that). In addition to the 80's synthe music there are a ton of well known alternative songs and old school popular hip hop songs. The villains kind of look like white-walkers, and the other creatures to be feared look like something out of the "Alien" movie franchise. All-in-all I am happy that I found this series and I look forward to future season(s). Fingers Crossed!

I thoroughly enjoyed this series, very unlike anything else I've seen before. The series had me hooked and I binge watched it, shame there are only 6 episodes. I might have to check out the book that it's based on if it is available in English.

The characters were likeable and well acted and there was a lot of nostalgia for be as I would have been around the same age as the main characters in 1994 and love all of the rock, metal and grunge that they listen to.

I'd highly recommend watching it with the original German audio, with English subtitles, English dubbing kind of sucks and although you can kind of ignore it after a while, there's a lot to be said for watching it in the original audio.

Long time fan of the original books here: It has very little in common with the original text, I was a huge fan of back when I was a child. But let this not be a deterence to watch this show.

The actors, even if a little stiff at times, leave little to be desired. The overall "feel" of the show, albeit a slight ripoff of the more recent "stranger things" was very fitting.

The makup/special effecs vaguely reminicent of del toros pans labyrinth and the overall very fitting sounddesing will leave the viewer with an overall very satisfying experience.

I highly recommend this show from a book-reader perspective. If you can ignore the obvious deviances of the source material and are able to enjoy this show on it´s own merits.

For anybody who wants the true experience of the teenage psychological horror i cannot recommend the original book enough, though.