‘Beat’, The Drug-Fuelled TV Thriller About Berlin’s Techno Scene, Is Finally Here
Expect sex, drugs, techno -- and murder.
You might not be allowed to take photos at the Berghain, but nothing’s stopping you from making a TV show set around a fictional version of Berlin’s “most famous techno club” — enter Beat, a gritty German thriller that dives into the scene’s hedonistic world.
While Amazon Prime announced the show back in February, the first episode just dropped last Friday. Created by Marco Kreuzpainter, Beat is based upon his own knowledge of Berlin’s club scene, having lived there for 12 years.
The show centres on Robert ‘Beat’ Schlag (Jannis Niewöhner), a drug-fuelled, sex-addicted club promoter. Well connected, he’s soon recruited by police to investigate a potential human-organ trafficking system underway in the shadowy sinews of Berlin’s nightlife. Judging by the intense, moody trailer, Beat uncovers a wide-sprung network of corruption that underpins the liberating freedom he found in clubs.
Assumedly it’s mostly the latter part that Kreuzpainter paints with personal experience, though Beat seems to meld two of his interests. In 2007, he released the acclaimed Trade, a drama about human trafficking based off an explosive NYT exposé.
Talking to People Magazine, Kreuzpainter promises that the show won’t be all murder — it’ll capture the sexual freedom found within those spaces, too. In short, expect sex, violence and techno.
Beat will be dropping weekly on Amazon Prime: its first episode is available now. Watch the trailer below.