Since Dear child launched on September 7, 2023, the German thriller is on hold #1 most-watched Netflix series Germany. Even worldwide, streaming audiences haven’t been able to get enough of the kidnapping thrill for the past two weeks.
I also wanted to know what was behind the hype surrounding Netflix’s surprise hit. The crime drama quickly captivated me with its psychological games. However, with the question of the identity of the kidnapper and with the big villain resolution, Dear Child trips itself up. After a strong start, I was ultimately disappointed.
The big twists in Netflix’s Dear Child help and harm the series at the same time
In love child make amazing twists are the series’ greatest appeal out of. At the beginning we see a woman and a girl escaping from an underground bunker. Lena was missing for 13 years, we learn from her parents who were summoned. But then at the end of the first episode it turns out that the woman who escaped is not Lena. Then why does her child look like a young Lena?
Warning, there are spoilers for the entire Netflix series and the ending of Dear Child.
Netflix
Dear child, kept quiet about the perpetrator for a long time
In the following 5 episodes, Dear Child hits Netflix one twist after the next out. Lena (Kim Riedle) is actually called Jasmin and has replaced the mother of the bunker children Hannah (Naila Schuberth) and Jonathan (Sammy Schrein). She wasn’t the first surrogate mother. The perpetrator wanted to build a “whole family” by kidnapping women. Daughter Hannah helps her perpetrator father with his dark machinations.
At the end, Dear Child explains all his riddles. The revelations that follow one after the other keep me going. But while the search for a solution is fun, the resolution is not entirely satisfactory. That’s because two big problems that the Netflix series creates for itself.
Problem 1 from Dear Child: The identity of the perpetrator is frustratingly irrelevant
Unlike in the novel Dear Child * by Romy Hausmann, the kidnapper in the series adaptation remains in the background most of the time. The Netflix thriller hides the “father” from us by showing him out of focus, from the neck down, or obscured by objects. What crime fans immediately leads to the assumption that we must know the perpetrator without a face.
I spent the first four episodes of Dear Child wondering who in the ensemble would be considered the villain. I even suspected police investigator Gerd Bühling (Hans Löw). Most of the clues pointed to Lena’s father Matthias Beck (Justus von Dohnányi). Hannah’s grandfather was suspicious, because his appearance matched the kidnapper’s few known characteristics. But also because his granddaughter recognized Matthias and he occasionally disappeared without explanation.
Netflix
Dear child: suspicious grandfather Matthias
In the end, this and other speculations turned out to be a false lead. The real kidnapper in Dear Child is Lars Rogner (Christian Beerman). A man we had only seen once, very briefly, in the background. The solution to the puzzle was a man who had not been given to us to choose from.
I’m one of those people who likes to be fooled by twists like those in The Sixth Sense or The Usual Suspects. But here I felt like a puzzle friend unpleasantly ripped off.
Dear Child’s Problem 2: The Netflix series doesn’t go far enough in its latest twist
Of course, behind this revelation of an unknown perpetrator there is another twist: We look for the kidnapper father and miss the perpetrator’s daughter. This realization could have saved dear child from the previous disappointment. Unfortunately, the series ultimately refuses to take the final step into the abyss.
The idea is actually brilliant: contrary to the series title the dear child is actually a bad child. Hannah is the favorite child of her (not even blood-related) kidnapper father. She spies on her surrogate mother who has fled and ultimately brings the bunker family back together. Suddenly Hannah is the one scariest character in the series. A girl who decides about the life and death of her changing mother behind her sunglasses.
Netflix
“Dear child” Hannah
The Netflix series would just have to be in order for this final twist to have its full impact Making Hannah even more sinister – evil. Maybe even as a string puller, instead of just a little accomplice who looks up to dad. But even though the series is so dark that the child stars were given altered scripts, Dear Child doesn’t dare do that.
What’s left at the end of Netflix’s Dear Child?
Instead, the girl advocates for Jasmin’s pardon, perhaps not even knowing exactly what she’s doing, and ends up seeming more like the pitiful victim of her circumstances. That may be more realistic than a scary horror child. But that’s how it is big resolution doesn’t have the pop effect it could have.
An unexpected German Netflix hit and twist-packed suspense piece, I don’t regret picking up Dear Child. However, it will not be remembered as an outstanding thriller series. Because at the end it is a mystery is only as satisfying as its solution.
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