Learn German with Netflix’s Dark and More!

Who do you turn to when you want to know which TV show or movie to spend your free time binge-watching next? your friend who has seen everything? Rotten Tomatoes? IMDB? Well, if you ask all three of those sources for an awesome German show to watch, you will get the same recommendation: Dark.

The show’s combined rating on Rotten Tomatoes is 95% and 447,000 people on IMBD have rated Dark for an average of 8.7/10. If your friend who has seen everything didn’t like it, you need a new friend to go to for your TV and movie recommendations!

Dark is the first original German series produced for Netflix. The show is set in the fictional German town of Winden where two children go missing. The dark secrets and fractured relationships between four families within the town are exposed as they search for the missing children. It’s a dark and twisty sci-fi thriller that is impossible not to get obsessed with, which is fine because you aren’t simply watching TV, you’re learning German too.

How To Learn English with Dark on Netflix

Ok, so you’re sold on giving Dark a try. Here’s how to learn German with the show on LingQ:

1. Watch the Episode Once (optional)

Before you start you might want to watch the episode all the way through (with or without subtitles in your native language). This way you will get an idea of the plot and the characters before tackling all of the new words and phrases. This is especially helpful if you are a lower intermediate learner.

2. Create Your Lesson with the LingQ Browser Extension

You can download the LingQ browser extension for Chrome, Safari, Edge and Firefox. Once you have it, add it to your toolbar and you can click on it to make a lesson out of any page you come across with English content, not just Netflix shows. Make sure you have the English closed captions selected before you hit “import”.

3. LingQ New Words and Phrases

Next, work your way through the lesson, making LingQs with words and phrases you don’t know and earning coins as you go. LingQ on the web and on the go on (iOS and Android).

More Binge-Worthy German TV Shows on Netflix

There is a whole shelf of Netflix content on LingQ waiting for you to discover. Whether you’re into documentaries, dramas, comedies or gritty crime shows.

Here are some shows you might like if you enjoyed Dark…

Dogs of Berlin

This one-season crime drama was released in 2018 and if you, like me, swear by Rotten Tomatoes for ratings, you might be happy with its 81% average.

So what’s it about? Sorry dog lovers, this isn’t just footage of pups strutting around the German capital. Dogs of Berlin follows two police officers investigating the murder of a famous Turkish-German soccer player, but one of them has underworld connections. One reviewer on IMDB described it as the following:

Beautifully filmed gritty drama of the underbelly of Berlin. An intelligent interwoven set of stories and imperfect characters forming a dark and tense tapestry that is sure to keep you on the edge of your seat up until the very end.

Biohackers

This techno-thriller follows medical student Mia Akerlund who becomes involved in illegal genetic experimentation while completing her studies. Mia has recently lost her brother, and so she is navigating grief while trying to settle in to university life. After discovering that biohacking technology may have gotten into the wrong hands, Mia has a tough choice to make: avenge her brother’s death or save her new university friends.

There are two seasons of Biohacking and it seems that the general consensus is the first season is a lot better than the second. Why don’t you be the judge?

How to Sell Drugs Online (Fast)

High school nerds Moritz Zimmermann and Lenny Sander try their hand at, you guessed it, selling drugs online. Their ecstasy business takes off and things very quickly spiral out of control for the teens in this coming-of-age black comedy. It’s kind of like a German Breaking Bad.

Scanning the reviews on IMDB for this show and one term stands out: binge-worthy. Be sure you have some time set aside to indulge if you start this one. There are three seasons and Netflix gave the green light for a fourth, yay!

The Billion Dollar Code

This crime thriller mini-series is based on a true story and takes place in two timelines: post-reunification Berlin in the ’90s and Silicon Valley in 2014. The ’90s timeline revolves around ART+COM, a group of art students and hackers that develop a planet browser which leads to the creation of real-life 3D mapping software TerraVision. The Silicon Valley storyline then follows a patent infringement dispute against Google claiming that TerraVision was used to develop Google Earth.

The reviews on IMDB are glowing, with many stating that this show should be required viewing. I love this write up:

This is a story that everyone should see. Everyone.

“Don’t be Evil” is stated as Google’s catchphrase from their code of conduct- well, except when you are being evil and screwing people out of their intellectual property.

An eye-opening view of Google and their approach to IP.