Beat (2018) User Reviews

spend some time with Beat

[hamlet-16 · 8/10 · 14 December 2019]

The plot is familiar. I have seen thrillers with similar themes many times BUT and it is a HUGE BUT, this series is a must watch for the truly mesmerising performance of Janis Niewöhner.

A performance that deservedly won him an International Emmy nomination for Best Actor.

His Beat is a complex flawed damaged character worth meeting.

This is a violent series with a lot of nudity and sex so be warned. But if you can get past this it is a rewarding and at times exciting experience.

Flawed Techno Club Guy in the Middle of All Sorts of Crime

[bsant54 · 8/10 · 14 November 2018]

First of all, Jannis Niewöhner was really good in this as BEAT. At first I thought, oh here we go again another pretty boy to get audience attention BUT as it turns out, the guy's a good actor. He plays a very flawed techno club party promoter that gets mixed up in crime around him of all sorts.

You have sympathy for orphaned as a child BEAT but you come to realize he is one messed up guy with a conscience and a strong sense of right and wrong unless it interferes with his drug taking habit and partying. So in that, Jannis Niewöhner did a pretty good job I'd say of presenting an anti-hero of sorts.

The rest of the cast is pretty good too. The emotionless bad guy that will sell his Mother's organs if had to, Secret Service head and the woman handler that cares about him (when every one else uses him), his well meaning but somewhat clueless best friend, his creepy childhood psycho secret admirer, etc. A lot of variety in characters that kept me interested. And ya, they even threw in your perfunctory Russian Mob gun smugglers and human traffickers...just for good measure.

The show was a thriller from the point of view if he bites it in the end or not as a result of all the dirt he has on the bad guys (and to a lesser extent, if he finally gets to find out who his parents are).

All in all, pretty good. And yes, you hinge on every facial nuance of BEAT through the whole series.

One episode in and this is quite unlike anything I've seen before!

[brenswee · 8/10 · 5 January 2020]

If the show maintains this tone and pace, I'll be crying out for more!

There is something about continental European dramas. The writing is often quirkier and there's always a fresh feel to them. When I saw the cast list made up of Niewöhner, Berkel, Koffler and Ullmann I had to watch. Ullmann is fantastic... He looks like he's really enjoying this role.

Update; (possible spoiler) I finished the series and really enjoyed it. It went in a little bit of a different direction than I expected. I thought Ullmann's role was - after seeing the first episode - going to be bigger and that he would be the main antagonist. Probably a little bit of misdirection on behalf of the writers but I'm not complaining.

Definitely worth 7 hours of your time.

Loved it!

[christy5150 · 9/10 · 10 November 2018]

I wasn't sure about it going into the first episode, but the more I watched it, the more I loved it. By the end I was totally invested in Beat's life and that of his inner circle. It was a whirlwind for sure and had some very heartbreaking moments, but I loved it and hope to see a season 2! (It is in German, with English subtitles.)

So much more than murder on the dancefloor!

[Artifam · 9/10 · 15 November 2018]

Leave your expectations of a club scene exposé at the door with the bouncers, as despite Beat giving the viewer an introductory tour of Berlin's hedonism and his friend Paul's club, a sinister tone quickly descends upon Beat's carefree world. Murder in clubland suddenly drags our drug-addled drifter protagonist into a plot to go undercover to investigate something much bigger afoot and at that point you'd be forgiven for fearing a ludicrous plot lies ahead. However, like a good club track the story builds and builds, adding complex layers then stripping them back with reveals, but always taking you on a journey and this one is a dark thriller.

Watching in German language is the only way to do this series justice, as subtitles really do melt away under the acting power of Jannis Niewöhner as the affable but anarchic Beat and Alexander Fehling as the sociopathic Vossberg, among other convincing performances.

From a critical standpoint, the portrayal of the 'ESI' is perhaps a little unconvincing and at worst clichéd, Jasper's story-line falls somewhat flat of the wider plot and everything happens in a stage-managed environment where the media doesn't seem to interfere and the real police only show up when called upon. However, some suspension of disbelief is always demanded in all storytelling and the story grips hold of you and twists and turns until you feel some of the pain and dread of the characters themselves. This is where 'Beat' succeeds and earns its credibility as a surprisingly compelling and powerful piece of TV/cinema that just happens to be set against an edgy Berlin clubland setting. That it is is no bad thing though, as the setting lends itself to a great music score and gritty backdrop to this original and highly enjoyable epic.

just an answer

[mladenk9 · 10 November 2018]

Underoath the comment you left just buries the hopes for humanity. To come on the WORLD WIDE WEB and say you can not watch a show that is in a language other than English!?!? This is why noone trusts IMBD anymore!

A techno cash in.

[torrascotia · 6/10 · 13 November 2018]

Beat has been heavily promoted as a thriller based around the clubbing scene. Right now techno and in particular German/Berlin techno is arguably the coolest musical scene with clubs like Berghain and Tresor being known as the best or most exclusive clubs in the world. Electronic dance music in 2018 is undergoing a resurgence on a par with the 90s. While we had movies like Human Traffic in the past there does not appear to be many film makers too interested in capturing the current clubbing experience. Beat has been advertised in a way that plays up the clubbing aspect of the series and has been covered prior to release in many of the major dance music websites. Even Marcel Dettman has been drafted into to compose the closing credits music. Therefor expectations were quite high and what we seen in the press and trailers did look like they took the underground clubbing experience seriously. However this is not really a series about clubbing. It takes a few episodes to understand just what this is actually about. Is it about a serial killer? Arms trafficking? Illegal organ transplants? Terrorism? There are alot of different plots and subplots, so many that it feels they have crammed far too much into a seven episode series. Some of the plot reveals take a very long time so the series is best watched in a binge as you may forget about some of the story lines crammed into each episode. The series is basically a spy thriller with a club promoter the main character. There are some scenes set in the club which are done quite well but its all very superficial with montages of people taking drugs and very little focus on the music with faceless DJs playing and none of the musical highlights that clubber actually go to experience. The use of German techno and the clubbing scene seems to be used as a marketing gimmick hoping to benefit from the popularity of dance music. This is a good crime/thriller series which will keep you engaged with plenty of violence and plot twists, its just not the series that the promotion promised. Its a fairly standard affair and the clubbing aspects could easily be removed and it wouldn't affect the story in any way. The series concludes in such a way that a second series may be in the pipeline and that the series may end up in that other Mecca of clubland....Ibiza. If that is the case then it seems the producers are intent on exploiting another clubbing scene as a gimmick to increase their audience share. Watch this if you enjoy spy/crime thriller but do not expect much in the way of music or clubbing, despite the title or what any of the adverts promise. I had watched the original German language version with subtitles.

Worth the ride

[Duli_van_Son · 9/10 · 14 June 2019]

As a german I had to watch it to see if an Amazon Series may be better. And it actually is. The dubbing into English is sadly not so good. You may watch in german with other subs.

First Episodes may be hard to get invested in, but in Episode 4 it is hard to stop watching until you get forced to with the End of Episode 7. Phenomenal actors and grittier. That is adult TV par excellence. It has some weak points with the spy things, but well it was an easy plot to get. ;)

Anyway - 7 Episodes, worth the time and you may get more invested in it as you expect yourself. Have fun.

P.S: and if you like Techno you will get some nice Tracks to listen to. Really happy they kept that part very real with deep basses and driving sounds. My friend does not like Techno but still liked it all. He said: Made more sense then all the spy stuff at some stages ^^

Some Music, Some Drugs, Some Cabaret, Some Crime

[palainausa · 7/10 · 29 November 2018]

I thought it started off very strong, but then tailed off. One of the central plot threads ended very abruptly around episode five or so (out of seven). And the other central plot thread was a giant cliche. Nevertheless, the characters of Beat and Emilia in particular were quite engaging, as was the music and the Berlin disco scene. And on another note - really, it's not exactly news but what's up with German culture and the German psyche, particularly in the realm of sex???

Like a fresh wind

[Waedliman · 10/10 · 19 June 2020]

I´m a Berliner myself and even though I´m 54, I can relate to the club scene and the story in this series. Beat is somebody I wouldn´t like to let too close to me but Jannis Niewöhner´s acting is irresistible. He has what an actor needs to make such a character come to life. I immediately fell in love with him, I must admit. The story is gripping and that´s because the whole package works. Acting, directing, camera, lighting, sites, a high production value and unfortunately there is no season 2 yet. I would love to have this series continued, the ending promised such a voyage.

Nice story and characters but issues with plot

[hermidalc · 7/10 · 22 September 2020]

It's an interesting story but the club scene after the first couple episodes is really just a backdrop and not material to the story. The characters and acting are pretty good. My main issue is with some plot points being totally unbelievable, like when Beat is at the farm why doesn't he manage to take even one picture with his phone, especially when he was in the trash bin, of the dead body with the chest sutures? He onlu used his phone to notify ESI. Or the fact that they know Vossberg's half-sister is driving to and from the farm or their new location after they bailed, then why aren't ESI or police getting a warrant to track her car or phone? Even without a warrant just have police secretly follow her car and voila done. It's somewhat disappointing when writers have a plot that totally depends on these unbelievable little things not happening otherwise the story would be finished much quicker.

Well worth the ride

[iconians · 9/10 · 12 November 2018]

I just watched this on Amazon and it's probably one of their grittier imports. Overall, I liked it. It had a complex story (more than it initially seems), a conflicted good guy, a very smart bad guy and spy service that sometimes is good and other times is bad.

Overall, I think the story was fairly complex and only at the very end you are able to unroll the layers. Dubbing wasn't that good but i guess there are no good dubbing out there.

At times, I felt some of the flashbacks were a bit much but I also don't like flashbacks in general.

A bit more detail about the main players:

The main hero is a conflicted techno club organizer that is being manipulated (I don't have to give up anything but it's much more than it seems) into being a under cover agent for secret service.

Bad guy seems to be cold blooded, calculating and extremely intelligent; thus proving a worthy opponent.

The secret police is more of a challenge. You never know where they stand and what they want. Only later we know realize their true motives. Keeps things very interesting.

Music is techno and visuals are bit dark and lots of gray. I was never a clubber myself, but I think I could see them doing a good job with it, that at times I felt I was in that chaos, where anything and everything was OK.

Overall, I enjoyed it.

Better than expected, worse than it could have been

[SurfGuard · 7/10 · 31 January 2021]

After the first episode I wasn't sure if I wanted to continue with the series. I found the characters clichéd, Jasper in particular, and I thought the plot was a bit schematic and foreseeable. However, I continued watching and was positively surprised by how the story unfolded in ways I did not expect. I also started to like Beat's character.

In the end I thought that one or two fewer episodes would have done the series good, the story was dragged out a bit. Sadly, there were some major plot holes. For example, why was the body that fell in the harbor never mentioned again? It should have been found and the police would have figured out how it was connected to the crimes. Or why did Beat not take any pictures when he found out about the cottage?

Overall I give it a 7/10. It was enjoyable and kept me glued to the screen.

Boring

[lerrika89 · 2/10 · 2 August 2020]

The first episode was ok. But the rest of the show is just so weak. Characters are unremarkable. Story is just not interesting. Just not a good show for me. I like some German shows and was very disappointed in this one.

Brilliant

[eilidhmackintosh · 9/10 · 16 November 2018]

Loved it! I have been a fan of Jannis Niewöhner for years and this performance has been my favourite by far.

For me the best german tv Show ever

[bohrersebastian · 10/10 · 13 November 2018]

Every Actor played an imterresting roll on high Level, Music is fantastic, 10/10 Setdesign best im a Long Time 10/10 I Never was bored or did not belive what i saw After two days i sadly finished the las Episode. Please more!

uneven but absorbing series-1

[manschelde-1 · 7/10 · 1 June 2019]

#Series-1 seem uneven for me, 7 episodes each up to 70 minutes in length which is perhaps too long.

Despite that unevenness I found it was absorbing enough. I watched it with English-subtitles as my Deutsch is poor.

Sometimes there were double-subtitles if characters spoke Russian (Deutsch subtitles), which obscured the English subtitles, annoying.

Chaotic early scenes lead to more straightforward later episodes. Difficult to care for the cokeheads from these early episodes.

Somewhat difficult to see the relationships as anything other than superficial for most of the episodes, although the plot requires a blood-brothers type of connection to accept later plot twists.

Some twists are obvious long before they happen. At least once scene is incomprehensible. An earlier main character suicides in Episode-5, so it's somewhat a mess but somehow works overall.

It allows a few of the main characters to engage in philosophy at times, which is engaging for that genre.

One might think differently at Berghain, if sober, after seeing this :-)

A Tough Challenge well executed

[tbarwick · 9/10 · 23 February 2019]

There is a lot to like about the way this show is made a gritty thriller set in the Berlin Techno scene, could be terrible, the makers are clearly aware of this and take time to avoid. A corny love story, a purely heterosexual lead, he has a sensual tactile side thats so fresh in a male character, the intimacy between the male characters is one of the real successes here. Even between Beat & Philip there is an intimacy a tension.

The problem for new detective shows, is that the writer needs a person that would naturally be moving around within a situation with a reason to be able to move between societal strata. The detective, the busybody old lady, the vicar, the lawyer, the spy, its' a limited pool. A club promoter is a clever addition. We believe BEAT would be able to be at operate with the very rich and also be credible to the more hand to mouth clubber as well.

He's an obvious replacement for James Bond in that sense, this hero is not a misogynist, he believes in the power of collective unity, he is innocent and cynical. Bond is cynical through experience. BEATS character is likeable in that sense, vulnerable. His 'handler' Amelia is concerned for him but not in love with him, in thats sense he is the 'Damsel in distress' and she is his knight in shining armour, it's a nice twist with classical undertones as she gives him gun training to protect him, but also to draw him into the 'Quest'.

Clever editing cuts between two often quite different storylines, as things happen simultaneously. Great trick to extend viewers engagement as we process two things at the same time. And contrast in general is used really well all the time that paradox between a strong sense of family and that desire to be hedonistic and escape from it all is used to great effect. We believe BEAT is a self-centred pleasure monkey AND a caring man too.

OUR VILLAIN is very good, establishing from the start that the more he attempts to be normal and charming the more chilling he becomes. He's a real monologue guy a proper BOND villain, puzzled by morality and humanity but not challenged by it he's aimless, unlike old villains, thats more scary. The chunkier the sweater the colder he seems. Beautiful understatement as he stands with another monster waiting for the coffee machine to complete its cycle, heart beat probably at 48 bpm

SO MUCH POTENTIAL HERE...keep going, the club origin is now back story for a potentially great character as he grows and navigates an amoral universe.

Favourite scene

Amelia says absolutely nothing and just stares at the doctor as he speaks, so powerful, power held back, just this stare. This makes me feel she is tougher and cooler than any amount of shoot out action.

I feel this is being made by a team that think obliquely, see pitfalls and cliches and actively work through them or steer away from them totally taking the heroic quest and making it as nuanced and morally ambiguous as the 21st century deserves.

One star held back, because the score is good, BUT come on guys decades of techno to draw on a more 'Tarantino' approach is advised. Enjoy those tunes more. HE LOVES TECHNO, share that with us old clubbers a bit more.

Hands down, this is a hidden gem.

[lanycera · 9/10 · 23 December 2018]

I stumbled across "Beat" by accident on imdb, and it wasn't promoted at all on Amazon Prime - I was even surprised to find it there.

It's impossible to write an extended review without spoiling too much of the plot, so I'll keep it short. "Beat" is a German thriller / crime show; it's incredibly well acted with Jannis Niewöhner, Herfurth and Kostja Ullmann (what a pleasant surprise!) shining in their roles. The pace is at times a bit slow, but it never feels out of place and keeps you at the edge of your seat - it's such a gripping, dark storyline. The soundtrack is just superb!

While I did think there were some plotholes, the overall impression is still great. The English translation is mostly well done (can't agree with a reviewer before me), I'm a German and paid attention when I was watching it with my english-speaking partner.

Highly recommended. I hope this show gets some more attention!

A must-see

[cinefiloempedernido · 10/10 · 19 November 2018]

A very interesting and entertaining series: an exciting plot that deepens its roots in the underworld of Berlin's techno environment. It contains many parallel stories that compel the viewer to pay close attention to all the details and characters that appear throughout the episodes. I hope that Amazon shoots a second season to see what awaits the main character: Beat.

Subtitling

[dfhbac0 · 16 December 2018]

Most English subtitling lately is atrocious. Looks like auto translaters are being used. Bad language translation does a major disservice to the original.

Boring plots, heavy acting and big clichés.

[olivier-hergault · 4/10 · 4 September 2019]

I was really excited to get a german serie with a Berlin techno-scene background.

Alas, I felt no empathy for the main characters or interests in the plots: the direction is too conventional and full of too obvious effects. For example: as the main character hesitates to collaborate with the police, you get a 3 seconds close-up on his tense hands (E02). Before that, when he becomes aware that he cannot spend his life under drugs, you see him throwing away cokes and starting some .. crunchs. Yes! The first things he does to start a new life is working on his abds! This is just ridiculous. I'm soooo disappointed. I won't even continue watching this to work on my german.

Much better than expected

[patrick-markowski · 9/10 · 25 November 2018]

Although I am German, I am not a fan of German series or movies compared to British or US. But the Niveau rises starting with Dark an Beat has also some scenes, you wont't forget. Escpecially the fantastic villain or the Russian orgy and some more. Great work!

Good !

[ggregod · 9/10 · 14 November 2018]

It is not easy to find a series in which there are several types of crimes converge and the series does not become ultra fantastic and border on the unbelievable. Beat manages to merge drugs, drug trafficking, organ trafficking and conspiracies as a group of legal associations. Extra point for the locations that generate a dark climate.

Brilliant Beat

[nealehanvey-56132 · 10/10 · 10 August 2019]

I was initially turned off by the dubbed soundtrack (personal gripe), but was able to disable this and hear the actors own voices. I'm glad I did because this is a great crime thriller, with a great soundtrack. It's in the league of other great Euro crime/thrillers like The Killing and Engrenage, but it's is also very different. The acting is superb as is the cinematography, plot lines and script. 10/10. More please.