The Billion Dollar Code ~ A Bite-Sized Review

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🇩🇪 The Billion Dollar Code 🇩🇪

The Billion Dollar Code (2021) is a German Netflix Original miniseries that is based on a true story. 4 episodes of 58 min-1 hr 7min. In German with British English close captioning and dubbing is also available. Cert 15 U.K. Some nudity and strong language.

Premise:

“In 1990s Berlin, an artist and a hacker invented a new way to see the world. Years later, they reunite to sue Google for patent infringement on it.” IMDb

Cast:

Mark Waschke as Carsten Schlhüter

Mišel Matičević as Juri Müller

Leonard Scheicher as Carsten Schlüter (young)

Marius Ahrendt as Juri Müller (young)

Lavinia Wilson as Lea Hauswirth

Seumas F. Sargent as Eric Spears

Lukas Loughran as Brian Anderson

Bite-Sized Review:

The Billion Dollar Code is in essence the story of what happens when and why a global entity such as Google is taken to court for patent infringement. This is a David and Goliath tale that I had absolutely no idea about before I watched it. And I do think this is the best way to watch, with no idea of what this is about or its outcome.

The cast in this are all excellent from Mark Wasche (Noah in Dark, 8 Days) to Mišel Matičević (Curt Plank in Oktoberfest: Beer & Blood, Babylon Berlin), the younger actors involved and the two bilingual actors who do an epic job here. I will confess that I did not recognise Mišel Matičevič for the first 2 episodes! I guarantee you will feel for these men despite their faults and weaknesses.

The dialogue in this is punchy and effective, the sets and costumes are perfect from just after the fall of the Berlin Wall to the very recent past. The use of music is great and the cinematography excellent. This is a quality production throughout.

I am far from a technology buff but even I understood any explanations of how things worked in this. If you are thinking this might be a dry, technology-heavy story you could not be more wrong. This is very much a character-driven story, not just the two main characters (although they are integral and very important) but also their relationships with those that fall within their orbit. As you can see from the premise, these two men were very different people from very different worlds.

I can, without reservation, highly recommended this TV show. My only warning is that, if you are like me, you may get exceedingly angry in parts of it. If you have ever used Google Earth this is also a must-watch.

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Trailer: