Neumatt (2021– ) User Reviews

worth watching it

[duncanidaho123 · 6/10 · 2 October 2021]

This series is about a swiss dairy farm. As the head of the family commits suicide, the children, who led totally different lives so far, try to rescue the farm from bankruptcy.

I enjoyed most of the acting very much and the first 4 episodes are quite good, but in the second half the season becomes more and more a soap opera and many clichés are handeld. The consulting company seemed ridiculous with all their Anglicisms, no one talks like that - at least no one sane I know.

Nevertheless I am looking forward to seeing Season 2, the show still has great potentials.

Slice of life goodness

[kigaiyuuto · 7/10 · 14 May 2022]

Thank you Netflix for bringing this show for the world to see. This is something I have never seen before. Slice-of-life of running a dairy farm. I agree with the first reviewer here the first 4 episodes felt grounded and authentic and the second half is more dramatic and therefore less believable. I would prefer the season finale to be different but it makes sense given there'll be a season 2.

Well done dramatic series

[ronterry55 · 8/10 · 20 August 2022]

I very much enjoyed this Swiss series. The story of the young man Michi caught between his upscale life as a consultant and his family down on the farm causes him distress in his loyalties. Throw in that that he's an initially closeted gay man adds to his anxiety. Lead character Michi is at times a good guy; at times the bad guy. He loves and hurts the people he cares about. His mother, sister, brother & grandmother all figure prominently with their own stories.

It is well acted, and well produced.

Good plot, clumsy management of times

[manugw · 6/10 · 6 June 2022]

The plot is good and solid, the father dies and leaves a farm. A conflict breaks up among the inheritors, the wife and each son fight for their own selfish interest. The chraracters are good, the acting fine, and the rythm appropriate to allow the viewers to absorb everything and enjoy the drama but then there are a couple of brisk turn of events on the story that look out of pace and tarnish all the good creative job done particularly near the ending. At the first episodes I was wondering if the Imdb average low score was unfair and misleading but after I finished the series I realized why.

2nd series maybe ?

[flejklw · 7/10 · 11 November 2022]

Found this series to be somewhat un-easy to watch because I could'nt make my mind up about the character, Katharina, I think has the episodes go by you finally you do realize, things are not as they seem ,and as a viewer I think everyone will have a different opinion of her. I was just surprised she got slapped in the face only once ( based on her character, I stress again ).

The actual plot is brilliant, the acting is good and well worth watching the 8 episodes. I can see why some reviews have considered the ending a little disappointing, but hopefully there will be a second series, because it seemed unfinished.

Overall this series for me was an easy watch, not complicated, only rated it 7/10 because sometimes you just felt they could have just come out with some obvious questions and statements rather then drag it out, but like what i have said, still plenty of scope for a second series.

Great series about life on a Swiss farm

[tomperuhawaii · 10/10 · 15 May 2022]

I binge watched this great show in two days, not expecting much, but getting a truly great series with a solid cast, great story line and even more amazing characters. Wonderful to watch and cant wait for the next season!

Hit and Miss

[crabby516 · 20 November 2023]

I really enjoyed Season One. It was different and fresh. Season two I found much less interesting and very unbelievable. Frankly it seemed like an attack on Swiss women. Nearly every female character behaved in unrealistic ways. The main character Michi was constantly cleaning up the messes of others and getting no support from anyone. The Regula character is a farce. It is a shameful representation of supposedly a Swiss woman in business. The character is truly a bad caricature. Ironically on the writing team for this series there is only one episode written by a Swiss woman. Not sure what the message is supposed to be there.

Ups and downs (the ups compensate)

[Gostodeseries · 7/10 · 28 May 2022]

To be honest, this is an incredibly soapy, over the top, at times implausible, family drama. But what can I say? I still had great fun watching it. With all their downsides, the plot and the characters are relatable and great acting all around helps a lot. Plus, the production values are impecable, the details of country life are well portrayed (both its refreshing down-to-earthness and sometimes unbearable claustrophobia) as is the ridiculous posturing of a Zurich consulting firm. Be careful if you plan to watch it with young teenagers regardless of the + 13 rating. The erotic scenes (more precisely, homoerotic) are very explicit.

Hooked from the beginning

[tangojulietalpha · 9/10 · 24 July 2022]

I started watching this to help my Swiss-German (as a Brit living in Zurich) and it had me hooked from the outset. Brilliant story, great acting and I can't wait for the next season.

Interesting and kept my attention

[mmillington554 · 6/10 · 8 May 2023]

Interesting series set on a farm struggling for economic survival, owned and managed by an extended family determinedly tearing itself apart. I know more about milk production and corporate finance now than I ever expected (or wanted) to. That part of it did get rather boring and repetitive, and the details of the financial issues difficult to follow. The main character, a gay coke snorting financier, was well played, but the character was rather unlikeable, and it was difficult to see why his boyfriend put up with so much crap from him for as long as he did. I have only watched series one, and this review is limited to that.

Should be shorter, bad character development

[logbinder · 5/10 · 23 July 2022]

The first few episodes are pretty good, but halfway through the season, you realize they are going to stretch out the plot that's been already exhausted into 8 episodes and that's when it gets downhill. The character development was also questionable and some decisions that were made often didn't result from the character arc, so it was very disappointing to see the plot go some ways where you know that the character is going against his character arc. Some characters were too flat and one-dimensional and their decisions were again not backed by anything and it all looks like wishful story writing with some cringe scenes.

By the end of it, I couldn't wait for it to finish.

A family drama crossed by multiple dimensions

[danybur · 8/10 · 9 June 2022]

Summary

The Swiss series New Heights effectively intersects the family drama with the corporate world, the conflicts between family and industrial farming, the pressures of local interests, and the opposition between semi-rural and urban cultures over the fate of a farm near Zürich.

Review

The inheritance and fate of a farm near Zürich gives rise to complex and shifting conflicts between members of a family.

The Wys run an old-fashioned dairy farm called Neumatt (original title of the series). One of the sons, Michi (Julian Koechlin), pursues a promising career as a consultant in Zürich; His sister Sarah (Sophie Hutter) runs a gym in the town near the farm, and his younger brother, Lorenz (Jérome Humm), is the one who seems destined to carry on the family tradition, graduating from an agricultural school. But when the family must meet to decide the future of the farm, a series of conflicts over competing interests are unleashed, generating shifting alliances between its members, as if it were a petit bourgeois Succession. This new dynamic will also stir up and bring to light some family secrets.

At the same time, Michi's consulting firm is working to save a large Swiss dairy company from bankruptcy, which introduces us to corporate dealings related to the dairy industry. In this way, Nuevas Alturas effectively crosses the family drama with the corporate drama, the conflict between family and industrialized agriculture and the pressures of local interests as well as the semi-rural culture with the urban.

With a beginning that threatens to be a thriller, the series outlines its characters very well (sometimes contradictory, sometimes unscrupulous) and confronts them with situations that seem to have no way out but that they later overcome thanks to a generally well-thought-out script. The protagonist, Michi, is the ambitious, impulsive and moody successful gay consultant who is suddenly forced to combine his corporate work with a return to the family farm. But perhaps the most captivating character in the series is Katharina, his mother, in a formidable work by Rachel Braunschweig.

Bad Swiss Telenovela/Soap opera

[scottinhawaii-1 · 4/10 · 24 January 2024]

This thing is a huge mess. Every character is horrid. Nobody is likable, especially the lead. He's handsome.

The writing is cliched. The acting all over the place. Some good, but mostly not. Everyone is miserable, especially the sister. What's her motivation through the whole thing? Money to buy spin machines for her gym. Sabotaging her own family! That's downright evil.

The sullen brother only reacts with absolute RAGE.

Almost every character is a one dimensional archetype. The mean boss is comical in how stereotypical the character and acting is.

The plot is drug out over way too many episodes.

Netflix has pushed this series on me for years. I finally succumbed. I regret it.

A unique Swiss storytelling

[teoiosifidis · 9/10 · 27 May 2022]

Just decided to watch this one expecting a light family drama and found myself crying over the death of a calf.

Such a compelling and truthful plot, so many twists and excellent performances by a cast of (totally unknown to me previously) Swiss actors. The language, the scenery and the conflicts of the characters, who try to help and fight against each other at the same time, makes this a special story that I would definitely watch again. Well done Switzerland!

Deeply moving, superbly executed.

[anthony-742 · 10/10 · 4 September 2022]

You cannot have superlative performances without a good script, and you can't make a good script out of a lousy story. Certain naysayers on this site do not seem to comprehend this simple fact, the A-B-Cs of a good movie or TV series. New Heights has all three. The story itself is organic and archetypal, here a drama focusing on internecine against the backdrop of the familiar topic of the new pushing out the old. New Heights doesn't exaggerate its points, but tells a story of human frailties and imperfections, in some cases gross imperfections...especially when it comes to families. Only one of the main characters is totally hateful; others, just like in real life, portray characters with both good and bad traits. Familiar? For those who have never acted "childishly" nor had the common misfortune of knowing others who have, I suppose you would not deign this series worthy of your narrow-minded attentions. Again, the acting is as good as it gets, with a particularly jaw-dropping performance be Jerome Hunn, who portrays Lorenz (Lolly) the saint-like human with the flaw of a marginal intelligence.

A weakly scripted and poorly told Swiss Soap Opera

[qui_j · 3/10 · 21 May 2022]

This Swiss soap tries to be everything to everyone. It's woke with diversity, has different sexual themes in the mix, but the script is so weak, and the editing really choppy, that the viewer has to do a lot of work to connect the dots. There is little sexual chemistry between the two male leads so asking viewers to believe the gay story line is difficult. It's similar to an American Hallmark or Lifetime series, and like Swiss milk chocolate a bit sickly sweet at times.

Julian Koechlin Is Amazing

[edw1976 · 10/10 · 11 July 2022]

Michi is a gorgeous gay guy (on the show, of course). This show really works because of him. His handsome charms and demons make for an amazing watch. Fun for the whole family!

Stiff acting and script

[Alexanders-2 · 5/10 · 4 January 2023]

Farmer Wyss commits suicide, his wife tries to keep quiet about it, but the children, and thus the whole village, find out anyway. Now the question is what is to happen to the farm, intrigues and misunderstandings ensue. Michi, actually a consultant, gets into a downward spiral and so we know that the whole series is not exactly hugging you with joy. What is the problem with it are the sometimes not very charismatic to bad actors who have attended acting schools but succumb to the seduction of not drawing their roles properly either by playing too much or too little. On top of that, there is hardly any development and actually everyone could be an archetype of a play by Ibsen. What I find most objectionable about the casting directors is that with Benito Bause they have cast such a boring actor as Joel Bachmann that the supposed love story between him and Michi cannot work at all. I have seen Bause before in a gay role in which he also grins 80% of the time - which corresponds to his resting face - as well as speaking artificially and overly clearly, that he has no place in a film for me. By the way, this also applies to some of the other actors, above all Sophie Hutter as Michi's sister who has little acting talent. And then the question of whether this farm near Zurich, where these 8 episodes take place, is supposed to be the starting point for an urban-rural conflict or whether the people who surround it are sworn villagers who can't get along with Michi, a city dweller, is not clearly answered, just as many things remain unclear. For me, it was a very bumpy series that was clearly made for television and unfortunately fell short of my expectations.

Nice, but very "Netlix".

[damo-30792 · 8/10 · 23 May 2022]

This was a good series with a relatable lead character. I grew up in the country, ended up working in the city, and enjoyed watching this. Being Netflix they had to squeeze the diversity into it, which felt unnecessary and forced, especially in a Swiss drama. It is pretty irritating and I guarantee it has an effect that is quite the opposite of what the people pushing this so relentlessly are hoping for. I'll still keep watching though, as the lead character is great.

Terrible

[trancaophuc-35405 · 1/10 · 25 May 2022]

What an awful series with bad characters and childish behaviors. Oh my god. Everything in this series is negative and not recommended for young people. They taught us how to act negatively. Each character was built to be bad and ugly so there is no happy ending or these endings were such horrible. I am very upset to watch a terrible ending for LBGT. Unbelievable and shameful.

Terrible ending, childish characters

[jaxlol-63091 · 1/10 · 7 July 2022]

What a waste of time watching this serie. The end was terrible and upsetting, everithing bad that happens to the charters is because of their childish and impulsive behaviour. They mess things up, making everybody suffer for their mistakes and then they fell sorry for themselves , this drama doesn't produce sympathy but obnoxiusness.

UDDER NONSENSE!

[ricopet · 4/10 · 9 July 2022]

Well acted, with interesting characters; Good cinematography, with an excellent depiction of the hardships of running a small farm. And, while the Consulting Frim scenes were rather simplistic, they did highlight the plight of small farms versus corporate greed and avarice. The ending came out of nowhere and should have been dropped. Seems like the all pervasive gay tinge of the series could have been handled more deftly.