The Amazon Prime Video offer is picking up speed and was recently able to lure in particular with The Boys and Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. Now there’s a new series that puts a lot of that to shame: The Griffin.
What series is this? “Der Greif” is a fantasy series that was produced in Germany. The first season consists of six episodes, directed by Sebastian Marka and Max Count, based on an idea by Erol Yesilkaya.
You can stream them on Amazon Prime Video since May. The six episodes all have a duration of about an hour.
The series is based on the 1989 novel of the same name by Heike and Wolfgang Hohlbein. It tells the story of three friends who discover a dangerous and fantastical world called The Black Tower, ruled by a fearsome griffin.
The 16-year-old protagonist Mark (Jeremias Meyer) is the only one who can defeat the griffin – but he doesn’t see himself as a hero and doesn’t want to be one either. But after someone is kidnapped into the world of the griffin, he has to enter the world of the Black Tower.
Here you can see a teaser trailer for the fantasy series:
Teaser Trailer: The Griffin on Amazon Prime Video
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According to our colleagues at Moviepilot, the plot is reminiscent of Supernatural because: Two brothers and their missing father are faced with the task of preserving the family legacy with the help of a family chronicle.
The griffin is set in the ’90s, which is emphasized by the clothes, hairstyles and music, making it similar to Stranger Things – even though the series is set a decade earlier.
More popular than Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power and House of the Dragon
How popular is the series? “Der Greif” is well received on Amazon’s streaming platform. The first season currently has 586 ratings there with a rating of 4.1 out of 5. This means that it performs better on average than Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power – where the first season only has a 3.3.
The users on Rotten Tomatoes are also enthusiastic about the German production. “Der Greif” (listed there with the English title “The Gryphon”) has an average audience rating of 89%.
For comparison: House of the Dragon does quite well with 82%, but at least on Rotten Tomatoes it doesn’t come close to the German fantasy series. By the way, Stranger Things has a viewer rating of 90%.
Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power scores just 38% there. The production of the first season was more expensive than one of the best series on Netflix overall.