Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Oktoberfest: Beer and Blood’ on Netflix, a Big German Stein of Sex and Violence

Netflix’s Oktoberfest: Beer and Blood officially kicks off the month of (FIRST WORD OF TITLE, BUT SPELLED DIFFERENTLY) with (SECOND WORD OF TITLE) and (FOURTH WORD OF TITLE). The six-episode drama begins with the subtitle “based on a true story,” which is fine as long as you realize that a quick Google search reveals that the names of the characters are fictional, as are most of the things they do. It is true that an ambitious fellow moved to Munich from Nuremberg in 1900 and used a bit of subterfuge to acquire five primo pieces of land in order to build a 6,000-capacity beer hall, the biggest Oktoberfest had ever seen. It didn’t require killing anyone, notably. But how likely would you be to watch a series titled simply Oktoberfest: Beer?

OKTOBERFEST: BEER AND BLOOD: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A tribal warrior plucks a severed head out of a river; the camera pulls back, and we realize the scene occurs just outside Munich.

The Gist: Subtitle: THREE MONTHS EARLIER, so before the head scene. Curt Prank (Misel Maticevic) arrives in Munich with a dream of rendering the annual Oktoberfest celebration into a manifestation of his ego: He’ll build the most giganticest beer hall that Germany has ever seen. It won’t be easy, but he’s willing to play dirty pool to do it, as he promptly blackmails the fairgrounds commissioner, a fine gent who’s apparently been doin’ it with someone who isn’t his wife. Thus begins the bombenhagel, and before you know it — read: three months go by — Prank has acquired four out of five key fairground plots to build his soon-to-be-world-famous drunkatorium.

It’s the fifth plot that’s a bugger. Ignatz Hoflinger (Francis Fulton-Smith) is a proud brewer of ales who’d rather cling to his mountain of debt than sell out to some grossly rich interloper. Threats don’t work, not even from the Prank-employed thug slinking around with a vicious rottweiler on a chain. Hoflinger’s son Roman (Klaus Steinbacher) wants to brew different styles, bottle the beer and expand into the export business, but the old man don’t wanna budge on that either. He’s stubborn, proud and broke as heck, and he’s gonna stay that way — unless this plot ends up dovetailing with the head-in-the-river thing.

As the ever-loving Prank evicts current tenants of his newly acquired properties, his daughter Clara (Mercedes Muller) arrives, ripe and ready for fun, because the first thing she does is squat down and stare at a dead bird lying in the thoroughfare and being devoured by ants. She’s fresh-faced and maybe a little naive to Daddy’s nastiness. When the high-society bruncheaters reject his offer to host a gathering in his mansion in an attempt to get Clara a suitor, the head brunchsnob soon finds her beloved cat in a significantly less-than-alive state.

But Clara doesn’t seem too interested in the rich dinks of Munich. She and her dad’s mansion manager Colina (Brigitte Hobmeier) sneak out to a party with all the lowly maids and beertappers, and Clara catches the eye of none other than Roman Hoflinger. They totally end up playing hide-the-knockwurst, at the same time Old Man Hoflinger wanders into the dark street and sees Prank’s enforcer and his dog on the street. This will not end well.

Our Take: BIER IST KRIEG! Nothing will stop Prank from owning this town, so what we have here is a sexy, violent period piece of a Peaky Blinders vintage. The production values are meticulous and convincing, with enough vintage facial hair, vests, watch chains and fascie haircuts to inspire the envy of dozens of Brooklyn hipsters. You can just smell the mustache wax.

For your information, as Oktoberfest COLON Beer and Blood goes, an old-timey beer-barrel tap can be pretty damn sharp, so handle with care. Whether this is at all accurate is beside the point, because the point is to drop mobster tactics into the pot with the barley and hops and stir until body parts come to the surface, preferably not attached to their bodies of origin. Truth be told, there’s more talk of beer than instances of blood, hence its second billing. The drama is fine, totally passable, and we can see how Prank’s about to find a wrench in the gears of his master plan thanks to his daughter’s genital amalgamation with his chief rival’s offspring.

On one hand, the idea of someone upsetting the stodgy traditions of cat-stroking richies is admirable. On the other, lots of little peoples’ lives are getting caught in the tank treads of an arrogant capitalist’s ego-schemes. So there’s the requisite complicated morality that any TV series needs to parade around, lest it be considered less-than-prestige. It’s a moderately interesting setting with some of the usual dramatic maneuvers; peer into the train tunnel, and you’ll see the Clara-Roman affair barreling at us, and it sure seems as it the series will preach to us that the most crucial ingredient of the best beer is… love.

Sex and Skin: Plenty: Full frontal female; male rear end during a medium-steamy scene of commingling.

Parting Shot: A bookend shot of the head being fished from the water.

Sleeper Star: Hobmeier’s character sure seems like the wild card here. The first episode hasn’t quite sussed out the character dynamic — one of her duties is to hire a housemaid who’s willing to fully drop her drawers during the interview, all the better to determine if she’s willing to meet the widower housemaster’s needs.

Most Pilot-y Line: Ignatz Hoflinger may be the first-ever hipster craft beer snob: “A bottled beer isn’t a beer. Good beer comes from barrels.”

Our Call: SKIP IT. As violent period dramas go, Oktoberfest: Beer and Blood is just fine; there’s nothing in the first episode to make us turn it off, although other series seem to do this kind of thing a shade or three better.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com or follow him on Twitter: @johnserba.

Stream Oktoberfest: Beer and Blood on Netflix