By Sorenya Miller
Score: 7.5/10
In the name of science or “changing the world,” people will do all kinds of crazy and unethical things. Biohackers certainly proves that notion. The German Sci-fi thriller follows Mia, a university student on a quest to uncover the truth about her brother and parents’ death.
At the onset of the show, Mia graces the screen on a train traveling with a friend, when suddenly something aboard starts getting the passengers sick. Following the incident, Mia is the only one that survives the attack. That opening scene foreshadows what is to come in the show. After just that one scene, I was intrigued and interested in the show. The series then fast tracks to Mia meeting her new roommates as she prepares for life at university. I was a bit confused by the time jump but nevertheless tuned in. I must mention her roommates: Ole, Lotta, and Chen-Lu are very smart, but equally weird. Ole does a bunch of odd experiments, like trying to insert a chip into his stomach and creating magnet hands. He does this all in the name of growing his Internet fan base which only has 300 followers. His obsession with getting attention on the Internet is quite extreme, but I can actually see people doing crazy stuff like that in real life. Next, Chen-Lu, who is very smart, has some kind of fetish with plants and talks super fast. Lastly, Lotta is the rich, blonde girl among the bunch.
As Mia starts her first day of school, she meets Professor Lorenz, who specializes in biology and human genetics. At first it seemed like Mia was really obsessed with Lorenz and wanted to be exactly like her. However, Lorenz played a role in Mia’s family tragedy. When Mia was younger, she recalled a lady speaking with her dad before her parents’ untimely death. Therefore, Mia is determined to figure out the hand that Lorenz played in her parents’ death. Meanwhile Lorenz, who quickly establishes herself as the show’s antagonist, is on a mission to eradicate diseases so that people will never get sick again, which is a great thing… However, she crosses some ethical boundaries and doesn’t care who gets harmed in the process of her creating the perfect antibody. Honestly, Lorenz is that one character we love to hate, and I must admit she plays the role very well.
I must commend the show on its strong female roles and the brilliant women they portray in the field of science. Often you see most lead scientist roles played by men. On another note, Mia is quite tactical in her pursuit to take down Lorenz. She uses Lorenz’s research assistant Jasper by becoming a love interest. Through Jasper, she is able to work in Lorenz’s lab and even visit her home. It is rather ironic how Jasper was quickly infatuated and gave in easily to Mia’s tactics. It was also obvious that Mia was using Jasper, but he took a really long time to catch on. However, Mia makes some rookie mistakes and has to reveal her ulterior motives to Jasper’s best friend and roommate, Niklas. Soon the two pair up and Niklas helps Mia uncover the truth.
In spite of this, Lorenz starts to question Mia’s character and quickly realises that she is not who she claims to be. Despite Mia’s best efforts to expose Lorenz, the antagonist is one step ahead. The two eventually go back and forth, with Lorenz trying to protect herself and Mia trying to reveal Lorenz’s secrets to the world through the help of a journalist. In the final episode, we are taken on a roller coaster ride and could not have predicted the ending. The show backtracks to the start with Mia on the train and continues from there, leaving us with a great cliff hanger.
I really like Mia’s character, the actress does a great job bringing the character to life and her reasoning for vengeance is also relatable. The show doesn’t change scenery much and is practically set in only a few locations. The background music also moves well with younger audiences and the appropriate songs are played for the thriller portions. I always find it interesting and odd when American music is played in international films, but it is quite fitting. Plus, this time around the voice-over was not too bad, so Netflix is really getting better in that area.
Overall, Biohackers paces quite nicely and utilizes flashbacks to develop its characters. For instance, we are shown a lot about Mia’s past. Although Lorenz is still quite a mystery, hopefully more is revealed about her past in Season 2. Another good thing the show does is make the biology concepts easy to understand for the audience. I am not a huge fan of biology, but I understood what the writers were trying to convey. Biohackers is definitely binge-worthy, and it does not fail to keep your interest.