'Dark' and other German TV series to watch worldwide

The first German language TV series produced by Netflix for the international market, "Dark" was released on December 1, 2017. The first season consists of 10 episodes and tells the story of four families living in a small German town. The disappearance of two young children in surrounding forest leads to investigations revealing that something shady has been happening there since the 1980s.

The series was directed by Baran bo Odar and his wife, Jantje Friese, wrote the screenplay. The Swiss director filmed a similar story with the 2010 feature film, "The Silence," another thriller that interconnects two generations of a family in a small provincial German town. As the title suggests, his latest offering is a lot darker and claustrophobic.

The most expensive non-English drama series ever produced, "Babylon Berlin" started airing in Germany last October. Netflix purchased broadcast rights for the US. Three directors, including Tom Tykwer, recreated the atmosphere of Berlin in the 1920s for this period drama.

The first German series to be produced by Amazon, "You Are Wanted" started airing in March 2017 and was also made available worldwide through the Amazon Prime streaming service. It was directed by Matthias Schweighöfer, who also plays the lead role in this series dealing with cyber crime. Despite dividing the critics, the show's second season is already in production.

Broadcast on SundanceTV, "Deutschland 83" was the first German-language series to air on a US network with English subtitles. The show obtained a number of accolades, including an International Emmy Award. The second season of this Cold War spy thriller, titled "Deutschland 86," has just been released on Amazon Prime.

"4 Blocks," directed by Marvin Kren, is set in the Berlin district of Neukölln and is centered on different organized crime family clans. The series obtained rave reviews, with some critics comparing it to the US TV hit "The Sopranos." Since October 2017, it is available in over 150 countries on Amazon Video. A second season is in the making.