Unfamiliar: a tense family spy-story

Simon and Meret Schäfer are celebrating their daughter Nina's sixteenth birthday in their Berlin apartment, like any seemingly ordinary couple. But the protagonists of Unfamiliar are not like all other bourgeois families: the spouses have always kept their true identity hidden from the girl. They are not just anxious parents, but rather former BND agents - that is, the Bundesnachrichtendienst, Germany's foreign intelligence service based in the capital.

Precisely during that festive occasion, they receive a request for help from an injured man, and their illusion of normality risks crumbling in a few moments, changing everything forever. After taking the injured man to the safe house for defectors, a place where they hide informants and endangered assets who need to temporarily disappear from radar, they realize they have fallen into a trap. An old enemy, whom they thought they had buried in the distant past, has in fact arrived in the city, ready to make them pay for a wrong committed sixteen years prior...

Family Story in Intelligence

Unfamiliar, a new German miniseries that arrived on Netflix on February 5, was produced by Gaumont Germany, a production company that had already convinced critics and audiences in 2020 with Barbarians, a period series set during the Roman occupation of Germany. From a qualitative point of view, we are facing an equally convincing operation, which has fortunately won over the subscriber audience who will now be wondering when the renewal for a second season will be announced, given the very open ending at the conclusion of the six episodes that make up this first arc of the story.

A story that, all things considered, is a more mature spy-thriller than usual, resting on a narrative that prioritizes the emotional consequences of action over the action itself. The growing tension that envelops the characters in a claustrophobic embrace after just a few minutes goes hand in hand with the psychological exploration of the characters, creeping into the cracks of an already troubled marriage, further compromised by those plot twists linked to a past of lies and secrets, now ready to resurface in all its inevitability.

Many have noted some similarities with The Americans, which redefined expectations for spy dramas centered on undercover couples. Unfamiliar, however, starts from the premise that the worst is now behind them, and therefore the situation in which the protagonists find themselves appears partially unexpected. His illness, suffering from an aneurysm he refuses to treat, and the return of a colleague / old flame for her, ignites further dynamics, in addition to what the audience will discover to be the main storyline, made amply clear from the first episode due to coincidences and timing.

The Sky Over Berlin

All this under the banner of dark atmospheres, with an oppressive climax that ideally reflects the aesthetics of contemporary Berlin, a city that on several occasions becomes a true co-star of the story. A story that in other hands could have risked becoming complicated in its various subplots, between moles, betrayals, and blackmail, but which here finds perfect linearity, capable of making the whole extremely clear even in the potentially most thorny passages.

The chemistry between the two protagonists, played by the excellent Susanne Wolff and Felix Kramer, is palpable and full of unspoken words, suppressed resentments, of a feeling that must decide which path to take, whether the future will see them together or not. But even before saving a love that may be over, they will have to think about protecting the person who matters most to them in the world and come to terms with a lie they have been carrying on for too long. In this regard, the management of flashbacks showing us the couple sixteen years earlier during the mission in Belarus, which then forms the basis of current events, is very effective: for once, the journeys back in time are not inserted gratuitously, but in a way that is cohesive with the rest of the narrative, rationing revelations and thus giving them due weight.

The plot twists are few and precise, some even surprising, and allow the season finale to be reached with constant curiosity, even when almost everything seemed to have been said or clarified. But it is precisely in its dryness, at times pleasantly old-school, and in the awareness of what it wants to tell without too many circumlocutions or flights of fancy that makes Unfamiliar a precious and compelling series, among the best seen in recent months in the streaming landscape and beyond.