Kleo Straub grunts when she is frustrated. The series sports exaggerated (or is it?) 80s attitude, oddballs left, right and centre – like the techno junkie who thinks he’s from outer space – black humour and an elusive red suitcase.

In a nutshell, Kleo is a Stasi assassin. In 1987, she crosses to West Berlin to kill a double agent only to get framed by her agency and imprisoned until after the Berlin Wall is taken down. Once free again, she plans her revenge, all the time trying to avoid loser policeman Sven who happened to witness the 1987 murder while heavily intoxicated. Even sober, he manages to make a spectacle of himself while stalking Kleo and narrowly avoiding death – more than once.

Hunting and hunted, from Germany to Chile, and going nowhere too fast in Kleo’s 1977 Wartburg, the troupe militarily stomps through personal histories, witty conversations, riveting confrontations, loyalty and betrayal, without shoving politics down the viewer’s throat.

Starring Jella Haase as Kleo and Dimitrij Schaad as Sven, both delivering excellent performances on a theatrically dramatic backdrop, it is evident from the very first episode that Kleo is an incredibly efficient assassin, manoeuvering her way through sewers with a treat in her pocket for a rat until she emerges in a west Berlin club to kill her new target with the ease of a person sipping lemonade on a hot day.

The backdrop is as interesting as the plot itself, with clashing floral wallpapers and 80s gadgets, spattered in blood a good part of the time, which are as lethal to today’s taste as the heroine to anyone who betrays her – those she can see and those she is struggling to remember after being brainwashed as a child.

This action-thriller comedy premiered on Netflix in August 2022 and the second season was released in July 2024.

The original language is German and you can watch dubbed or with subtitles.

Well worth watching. More fun with friends – at least you won’t need to convince them to watch it later so you can talk about it.