Biohackers

Plot & Premise

Mia Akerlund, a medical student at the University of Freiburg, stumbles into the dangerous world of illegal genetic experimentation after meeting Jasper, a gifted biology student, and his eccentric roommate Niklas. Her fascination with biohacking technology draws her deeper into a subculture of unauthorized genetic research, but the narrative is driven by a deeply personal wound: she is searching for the truth behind her brother's death. The central tension escalates when breakthrough biohacking research falls into the wrong hands, forcing Mia into an agonizing choice between safeguarding the friends who have become her closest circle and pursuing vengeance for her lost sibling. The series frames biohacking not merely as a scientific backdrop but as the engine of a revenge-driven thriller, weaving together themes of loyalty, grief, and the ethical boundaries of genetic manipulation.

Production & Funding

The series was created by Christian Ditter and shot primarily at the University of Freiburg, with additional studio work completed in Munich. Principal photography for the first season ran from May to September 2019, giving the production roughly four months of active filming.

Financially, the project received partial backing of at least 400,000 euros from the German Motion Picture Fund, alongside support from FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, a Bavarian media promotion body. Notably, that same Bavarian fund had also contributed to the financing of Netflix's acclaimed German series Dark, placing Biohackers in the same ecosystem of state-supported streaming productions. The dual-location approach—combining authentic university settings with controlled studio environments—allowed the show to balance the grounded feel of a real academic institution with the visual spectacle of complex synthetic biology experiments and bioluminescent laboratory sequences that reviewers later highlighted.

Release & Scheduling

The first season's six episodes were initially slated for a 30 April 2020 debut on Netflix. However, the streaming platform pulled the launch, citing the public's preoccupation with the rapidly spreading COVID-19 pandemic. The concern was practical: certain scenes in the series could be misread by viewers as commentary on or references to the real-world health crisis unfolding at the time. Netflix rescheduled the premiere for 20 August 2020, a decision that effectively gave the show a four-month delay.

The gamble paid off quickly. Just one week after the episodes went live, Netflix confirmed a second season, which ultimately arrived on 9 July 2021. The rapid renewal signaled strong audience engagement and positioned Biohackers as a committed ongoing series rather than a one-season experiment, a trajectory that allowed the cast—including Luna Wedler, Jessica Schwarz, and Thomas Prenn—to develop their characters across multiple installments.

Critical Reception

Reviews of Biohackers painted a nuanced picture. Elsa Sotiriadis of Singularity Hub offered a balanced assessment, acknowledging that the show's unconventional narrative elements sometimes meshed well and sometimes clashed. She praised the visually striking synthetic biology experiments and bioluminescent sequences but cautioned that viewers should not expect profound scientific depth or deeply developed character arcs, noting that biohacking ultimately serves as the setting for a revenge plot that felt somewhat rushed.

In contrast, the journal Science took a more favorable scientific lens, commending the series for its accurate depiction of complex molecular biology laboratory work, even if those scenes were necessarily compressed for pacing. The review also highlighted that the dialogue surrounding gene therapies and antidotes aligned with how RNA interference therapies actually function. Beyond technical accuracy, Science noted that the show meaningfully engaged with pressing concerns around genomic data privacy, the ethics of genetic engineering, and the motivations behind the do-it-yourself biology movement.