Netflix’s Parfume TV Series Review: A Scent of Psychopaths

Parfume TV Series 2018 (Season 1 | Netflix)

Cast: Friederike Becht, Natalia Belitski, Ken Duken, August Diehl, Christian Friedel, Trystan Putter

Director: Philipp Kadelbach

What do you think, when the classic book you read has turned into a mainstream cinema? Disappointment, perhaps. But not this time, the Netflix German Original Perfume is a not an adaption of the Classic novel “Perfume: The Story of a Murderer” by German writer Patrick Suskind but it’s rather loosely inspired by the idea of Perfume itself. The Six episodes narration of reimagined and modernized Perfume, is, indeed a spectacular TV.

The series unfolds with a gruesome murder of women; Katharina Laufer, which makes five of her former classmates reunite at her funeral. The murder is further investigated by troubled detective Nadja Simon played by Friederike Becht, who’s good in her job but equally disturbed with her secret relationship. All the characters are troubled and are dealing with situations in their own way while the series juggles through their childhood flashbacks. As the series goes further, everyone’s sinister secrets are revealed making all friends countable for the murder of not just Katharina but two other women, who have also been murdered in an identical style. The more flashback the more secrets are revealed and ultimately connecting the dots of the creation of the final perfume ‘A Perfume that makes everyone love you’, Now, that is something that I wanted from a series inspired by Suskind character Grenouille.

This is a series for people, who like dark gritty dramas and have an appetite for twists and unsettling characters. Cinematography and production design have done a striking job that does justice to the theme. How strong and week a character is, every character has an earth-shattering moment, which makes you question their honesty and cruelty simultaneously.

There are not many series that can deliver this much of thrill in an equally disturbed tone, there is this certain gore nature in this series that makes it stand sundry. Director Philipp Kadelbach and writer Eva Kranenburg have played with the Perfume the Story of Murderer so well that this series has its own ominous trail that makes it a finest inspired version of the original story.

I think this is probably the second German series that I watched and liked after Dark. As I said, Perfume has its own trail, a kind of trail that lingers you and stick with you like your own odour. I’ll go with 4.5 stars out of 5 for this series, the disturbing scent of the ultimate Perfume will definitely leave you awestruck.