Wir kinder vom bahnhof zoo television show

Summary

We Children from Bahnhof Zoo is not character development; it’s character dissection.

This review of Amazon’s We Children from Bahnhof Zoo season 1 contains no spoilers.

Read the recap of episode 1.

If this Amazon series is anywhere close to Christiane F.’s memoirs, then it is truly horrifying. The entirety of this series is dealing with children; it’s easy to forget when the cast is played by actors in their 20s, and it’s a sobering experience every time the series slides in a gentle reminder. The adapted memoir follows Christiane and her friends as they navigate a world of heroin addiction and sexual abuse. This series feels light at the start, but it is not for the soft hearts — it’s truly a hallowing experience.

And that’s not to say it’s not worth the watch, but there’s plenty of uncomfortable moments that make you grimace. The series highlights heroin and sexual abuse to a cyclical and sickly level, but at the cost of minors in Berlin. Each character has their own dark world — they are a product of their own demise, whether that be family dysfunctionality or their own environment. Each character’s personalities are laid out on a table and exposed — We Children from Bahnhof Zoo is not character development; it’s character dissection.

The adapted memoir is not merely through the lens of Christiane F, although it’s abundantly clear that this is her story; the series does well to honour the conflicts of each young character without compromising the author. The main strength is the start; where the teenagers highlight their burdens but, on the other hand, emanate their innocence — the first chapter sees the young kids attend a nightclub named SOUND, and the music overawes them — this is probably the most innocent you’ll see them all series — from here on in, there are many betrayals of their own wellbeing.

At 8 chapters, We Children from Bahnhof Zoo season 1 does more than enough to get its point across, meaning it also gets quite repetitive; there’s only so many times we can observe the pitfalls of heroin abuse and its link to prostitution; the series well and truly hones in that message, and how easy minors can be placed in the system due to an undesirable environment; perhaps the Amazon series could have been six chapters.

As far as coming-of-age stories come, this is dark, but it’s well worth adding to your watch list.