Babylon Berlin · Season 1 · Sky Deutschland / Netflix
Babylon Berlin Season 1
Babylon Berlin Season 1 is a MUST-WATCH, BollyMeter 9.0/10. 8 episodes on Sky Deutschland / Netflix from 13 October 2017.
Updated
What BollyAI Thinks
Babylon Berlin arrived as the most expensive German TV production ever made and delivers a sensory and intellectual argument that period drama can be genuinely destabilising. Gereon Rath, the morphine-addicted Cologne detective assigned to Berlin's vice squad, becomes a guide through a city that already smells like its own future. Season 1 stands out for its recreation of Weimar nightlife, with cabaret sequences that are both spectacular and politically coded, its handling of post-WWI trauma, and its refusal to let thriller mechanics distract from the historical weight. The story also earns strong audience interest, with an IMDb score of 8.4. The series sets a new benchmark for European period drama.
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The Room
“A ravishing, morally complex thriller that uses Weimar Germany's twilight to illuminate every political nightmare that followed.”
Rotten Tomatoes (critics consensus)
Standout Episodes
The hours worth arguing about - premieres, finales, and the turning points. BollyAI reads the room episode by episode.
- E1Episode 18.0
A controlled, chilly pilot where therapy, police work, and one hidden film turn procedure into pressure.
The moment: The Moka Efti nightclub sequence: a hundred extras, a full period orchestra, and the camera gliding through it all as if the scene is both celebration and funeral.
Full review of E1 → - E8Episode 89.1
The Season 1 finale ties the Russian gold-train conspiracy, the vice-squad investigation, and Rath's personal demons into a close that is emotionally precise rather than operatically violent. The show demonstrates that historical consequence can be conveyed through the collapse of a single relationship. Charlotte Ritter's arc resolves into something quietly devastating.
The moment: The final scene's image of Berlin's skyline - gorgeous, doomed, complicit - serves as the show's thesis in one held shot.
“Babylon Berlin closes its first season having achieved something rare: a thriller that grieves for its own world.” - Rotten Tomatoes (critics consensus)