Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Biohackers’ On Netflix, Where A Med Student Enters The World Of Underground Genetic Experiments To Avenge Her Brother’s Death

Do you know what “biohacking” is? It’s a pretty broad term; it could mean anything from monitoring your sleep and eating patterns to actually modifying DNA. Much of it is done outside formal research facilities and oversight. If you’ve heard of CRISPR, you’ve heard of biohacking. A new German thriller, aptly named, Biohackers, explores this world, couched in a good old fashioned revenge mystery.

BIOHACKERS: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A train shoots through a mountainside bridge. A woman with a necklace that says “MIA” looks out the window.

The Gist: Mia Akerlund (Luna Wedler) sits in the train with a man named Niklas (Thomas Prenn), and as they’re about to talk about something intimate, someone calls for a doctor, as a woman falls ill. As a med student, Mia is the closest thing to it. But as she’s taking care of the woman who fell ill, another woman falls unconscious. Then, one by one, everyone on that train falls to the floor, including Niklas.

Two weeks earlier, we see Mia dragging a bunch of books and files into an apartment where three other grad students at Freiburg University live. It seems like a typical move-in scene, with one of the roommates answering the door topless. But as Mia unpacks her files, we see a lot of newspaper articles and other material on one of the university’s most important professors, Dr. Tanja Lorenz (Jessica Schwarz). Then we see a flashback where a young Mia is blowing out birthday candles with her twin brother. In another flashback, Mia is seeing her brother wheeled into surgery, and Dr. Lorenz’s name is called to the OR. So Lorenz has something to do with Mia’s brother not being here anymore.

When she goes to her first lecture in Dr. Lorenz’s class, she sees one of the students asleep. She finds out that it’s Jasper (Adrian Julius Tillmann), her teaching assistant. Of course, she thinks she can get access to Lorenz via Jasper. In the library, she stalks him out, but notices his friend Niklas, as well. As the library closes, she sees a glowing mouse skittering among the stacks. It ends up being Jasper’s pet; he rescued the mouse after genetic experiments were done on it.

They meet again at the freshman party in the woods, where one of her roommates, Ole, (Sebastian Jakob Doppelbauer) gives her drops that will let her see in the dark. After puking on Jasper and Niklas, she sees him again after kicking butt in Lorenz’s lab class, despite her hangover. Interested in working with Lorenz, and a little into Jasper, she asks him out for a drink. That night, she finds out that Lorenz lets Jasper do genetic research in a secret lab in the middle of the woods.

Our Take: The first episode of Biohackers veers into so many different directions that you might be tempted to think that Christian Ditter, the show’s creator, isn’t quite sure what he wants it to be about. But, somehow, Ditter takes what feels like at least three different shows and knits them together into something cohesive, helped by his engaging cast.

The first episode was at turns lighthearted, mysterious, creepy and weird. But through it all, Wedler ties it together with a performance that shows both a curious and mischievous side and one that communicates just how serious her mission at Freiburg is. We’re assuming that in the span of the couple of weeks between the first day of school and the train incident, she’ll strengthen her relationship with Jasper, then with the quirky Niklas, as she tries to get closer to the enigmatic Lorenz.

But a show called Biohackers isn’t just about the mystery of Lorenz and Mia’s brother. It’s pretty obvious that both Jasper and Mia’s roommates, especially the chatty Chen-Lu (Jing Xiang), who has been doing the same modifications with her plants that Jasper is doing with people, are going to be into biohacking. The train incident indicates that something that either Jasper or the roommates are working on gets into the wrong hands. But what that is and why is a complete mystery at the end of the first episode.

Really, the show could tighten up in subsequent episodes and focus on what it wants to be, or it could completely fly into pieces. But after the first episode, it seems to be keeping things together, even if it’s with neon green gum and glowing pipe cleaners.

Sex and Skin: Nothing in the first episode. Even the toplessness of Mia’s roommate Lotta (Caro Cult) is cleverly obscured.

Parting Shot: On the train, people in hazmat suits get on board to investigate. Mia is the only one conscious, and she has a huge gash on her head. The investigator sees her pendant and asks if her name is Mia. “My name is Emma,” she says in a daze.

Sleeper Star: Xiang’s character of Chen-Lu seemed to be fully realized in only a couple of scenes. And she was pretty funny.

Most Pilot-y Line: Lorenz tends to speechify. When an old friend comes to interview her for an article, he asks if she regrets not having kids. “I’ve helped 8,000 childless couples have children. I think I’ve done my duty in that regard.” Oy.

Our Call: STREAM IT. We’re on the fence about Biohackers; we’re not sure if it’s a tonal mishmash or a show that will straighten itself out. We’re giving it a marginal recommendation based on the charms of the cast.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, VanityFair.com, Playboy.com, Fast Company.com, RollingStone.com, Billboard and elsewhere.

Stream Biohackers On Netflix