When it comes to quality Netflix productions from Germany, everyone immediately thinks of the science-fiction thriller series ‘Dark.’
But there is another series that has been quite a revolution on German Netflix and is quickly amassing worldwide popularity. It is How to Sell Drugs Online (Fast).
The story revolves around Moritz Zimmermann, a stereotypical nerdish teenager attending a high school in a small German town. In order to reconcile with his former girlfriend, Moritz starts selling drugs online and soon becomes one of the most sought after drug dealers in Europe.
The series is extremely fast-paced with 6 episodes per season with 3 seasons released so far. The time duration of each episode ranges from 29-35 minutes which makes it very easy to keep track of.
The series has its fair share of twists and turns of events with a very unexpected and intriguing plotline. Humour in the series is also quite subtle and it overall does a very good job of mocking and depicting the current online trends prevalent among teenagers.
Many have compared the series with the American cult classic Breaking Bad with a touch of typical high school coming of age drama having heartbreaks and first love. Protagonists you can see in a standard teen romcom like Moritz and Lenny (school nerds), Daniel (jock who is uninterested in academics), Lisa (a well-rounded character, also the girlfriend of the protagonist), Fritzi (the hippie girl), Gerda (the nerdish girl belonging from a different demographic group).
This series introduces its audience to MDMA, a drug commonly known as Ecstasy. Moritz, after getting quite an outreach with his online drug business along with Lenny and Daniel, trades in bitcoins with his customers. This is another focal point of the series as Bitcoin trading and popularity in the world has quite increased over the past few years.
Also, the series does a very good job of depicting the dark side of the internet world. With incidents of hacking, blackmailing and the dark web being a recurring theme over the entire three seasons.
It is also quite unrealistic to imagine that the entire series was created on the premises of real-world events. Philipp Kässbohrer and Matthias Murmann, the creators of the series confirmed that the character Moritz was inspired by an 18-year-old named Maximilian S.
Maximilian, from Leipzig, Germany, earned millions worth of Bitcoins by trading drugs from his childhood bedroom, before eventually being caught by the police in 2015 and being sentenced to 5 years in prison.
How to Sell Drugs Online (Fast) is a series of its own kind. It is funny, humorous, full of adrenaline-inducing events and extremely easy to keep track of. So, if you are looking for a quick, light-hearted yet serious thrilling crime drama, you should definitely give it a watch.
Rassiq Aziz Kabir is a student of Economics at the University of Dhaka.
rassiq.aziz@gmail.com