Netflix and Germany have a killer partnership with the platform continuing to put out addictive programming from the country. Shows like Dark, How To Sell Drugs Online (Fast), and may others have put the country on the map. Will the latest series Biohackers do the same?
The series centers on a student who has high ambitions of working with a famous professor at a distinguished medical school and has elements of a thriller with a splash of a Young Adult novel.
But is Biohackers a show worth the stream? Here is our Biohackers review and whether viewers should binge the new series.
Biohackers review: Is the Netflix series worth watching or not?
Biohackers centers on Mia (Luna Wedler), a college freshman that has entered into the crazy world of bio-engineering science at a medical school.
She also has extreme ambitions to work alongside the university’s most popular teacher Professor Lorenz (Jessica Schwarz).
As Mia’s story begins, it gives the impression that her role is that of a “fish out of water” thrown into a wild environment of science-loving partyers.
As the show unravels, the intentions of Mia are far from coincidental. We discover she has an agenda, and it is vengeful in nature.
As the series kicks off, Biohackers does that writing trick that many successful addicting shows utilize. Vince Gilligan is notorious with using this method in his Breaking Bad universe.
This method involves teasing the outcome before we see how it starts.
The result makes us want to see how this horrible ending has led the characters to where they are. And admittingly, the banger of an opening tease is quite effective.
What audiences will not expect is Biohackers has an unexpected YA feel to the show. Most of the genre revolves around young romances and someone trying to find identity in the backdrop of fighting a villain.
And while this is not a person fighting against a fascist regime (The Hunger Games), Mia finds herself in a mix of trying to discover who she is, take down an enemy, and battle an unexpected love triangle amidst college chaos.
The issue with Biohackers is that unlike movies like The Hunger Games not everything works as fluidly in the believability department.
What made viewers believe Katniss and Peeta would fall for each other is the development they had over time and the fact they just experienced this massive traumatic event of almost dying together.
In Biohackers, the writers did not give the romantic subplot enough time to breathe, and because of this, it suffers in various ways.
Number one, when the love triangle begins, Mia comes off somewhat unlikeable as she switches romantic partners at the drop of a hat. And her partner comes off the same way.
The second way it suffers is that her motivations to jump in a love triangle seem out of character leading up to it. The tension in her current relationship is there for sure, but the progression towards it felt inorganic.
There is also a weird character evolution with one of the main actors who goes from sweet and vulnerable to aggressive psychopath instantaneously.
The character in question had no signs that he had such over-the-top behavior, and then when everything falls apart, he starts violently choking people he cares about in a fight.
This does not hinder the overall experience of Biohackers. It’s just with a little more character and story development these moments could have landed with greater satisfaction.
Out of place character choices aside, Biohackers is quite a fun show. Just like How To Sell Drugs Online (Fast), the series has solid energy that never feels boring and is always moving.
Not to mention, it’s full of lovable characters, especially those who share a flat with Mia.
And Jessica Schwarz, as the antagonist, is especially good in Biohackers. Her role as Professor Lorenz is cold and calculating, as well as soft. It’s very similar to Elizabeth Shue’s performance from Amazon’s The Boys.
The series ends on a note that raises a ton of questions for a second outing. The show may have mixed results for some audiences, but those who stay until the end might find the promise of things to come worth the investment.
Overall Thoughts
Biohackers has some fascinating aspects and concepts such as illuminated animals, neon marijuana plants, and sketching someone’s facial likeness only using DNA.
The series even has a Young Adult novel/television show feel that will absolutely get the attention of a target audience.
While the character decisions in the show do not make sense, the series maintains enough interest to make it binge-able.
It’s not as great as Dark or How To Sell Drugs Online, but with six episodes at 30 minutes, it’s an easy binge-worthy distraction for the week ahead.
Biohackers is now streaming on Netflix.
“Number one, when the love triangle begins, Mia comes off somewhat unlikeable as she switches romantic partners at the drop of a hat”. I think it was clear from the start that Mia isn’t interested in Jasper, rather Niklas. So, it shouldn’t be surprising. Secondly, when Niklas offers his help, we couldn’t have seen Mia’s feelings clearly, as only her reflection was shown. It seemed to me as though, getting involved with Niklas is also part of her new plan.
“There is also a weird character evolution with one of the main actors who goes from sweet and vulnerable to aggressive psychopath instantaneously”. Jasper had been suspicious of Mia since the start, which he didn’t want to come true. And from one day to the next, his entire world changes – the girl he loves could be a potential spy and his best friend breaks his trust – so him turning into a psycho isn’t a surprise.