German series have long been better than their reputation. Netflix has also been producing series in Germany for six years and has created internationally popular strokes of genius such as Dark and Unorthodox.
My colleague Esther Stroh and I discuss this in the podcast Rise of the German Netflix series. There are now 19 of them and that doesn’t even include films, documentaries and reality series. Which are the best? What do fans and critics from other countries celebrate about it?
“Foreign Brilliance”: The 5 best German Netflix series and why other countries love them
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It all started in 2017 with the time travel mindfuck Dark, written and directed by German power couple Jantje Friese and Baran bo Odar. To this day, the sci-fi story remains unchallenged among the German Netflix series in this country and internationally if we look at the ratings on Moviepilot and the Internet Movie Database (IMDb). With a 7.9 or an 8.7 Dark towers above the competition.
The renowned review site RogerEbert.com wrote about the 3rd and final season Dark that it “One of the most stunning series ever and perhaps the most unique Netflix original“ be. International fans at IMDb name them “a crazy sci-fi story and already legendary” and “foreign brilliance”.
The Reddit forums are full of theories and speculations about the complex time travel crime thriller. But it’s not just Dark that has impressed fans and critics in other countries.
The 5 best German Netflix series – according to Moviepilot ratings
Maria Schrader was the first German director to be nominated for an Emmy for Unorthodox – and won. All the major review sites wrote about the series. The New York Times called it unorthodox “a story of self-discovery with the intensity of a spy thriller“ and leading actress Shira Haas is one “Phenomenon”.
You can read about How to Sell Drugs Online (Fast) on the IMDb that it is totally underrated, excitingly told and feel very modern. “Hats off to you, Germany!”writes a fan. You can hear more international voices about the series in the podcast.
If we were to rank the German Netflix series according to the IMDb rating, then the historical romance series The Empress would be in 4th place and would knock Skylines out of the top 5.
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