Most of you know my love of Germany, so I most certainly wasn’t going to ignore AppleTV+’s first original German-language series, which just dropped last month. I’m happy to report that Where’s Wanda? is a delightfully genre-bending puzzle of a series in the style and tone of Bad Sisters and Bodkin, but with all the charming German eccentricities I was hoping for—and not a Nazi or World War II reference anywhere in sight.
Where’s Wanda? is a dark comedy thriller about Wanda, played by Lea Drinda, a teenager who goes missing in a small town on 
the day of the town’s biggest holiday. Wanda’s parents, Carlotta and Dedo, played by Heike Makatsch and Axel Stein, are frustrated by the lack of leads the police are finding, so they take it upon themselves to investigate all their neighbors on their own by planting cameras and bugs in each house, because they absolutely believe Wanda is still alive and being held captive somewhere in their town.
What’s most interesting about the way the show is done is the way it’s structured, in a puzzle-like format, with timelines played out in pieces, all coming together only at the very end, cleverly teasing you, yet still managing to answer enough questions along the way to not leave you utterly frustrated. The story is king here, but there is enough of a focus on characters to truly engage with, especially the family at the center of the story.
The flexible tone is the biggest selling point in this show. Much like Bad Sisters or Murders in the Building or Bodkin, Where’s Wanda? plays with genre and tone, easily shifting from silly to perverse, from goofy to dark, sometimes within the same scene. It never is too dark or too perverse though, and it certainly veers from being overly violent, at least on screen, favoring its offbeat, eccentric tone. But there is a weirdness to it, highlighting its essential German-ness, which I love, basking in the folklore of its fictional small town, which celebrates a mythical beast that lives in the forest who preys on a beautiful girl once a year with a parade and a festival (which is so German).
The town is full of colorful characters, whom we get to meet through Carlotta and Dedo’s illegal surveillance scheme, and the underlying themes of do you really know who your neighbors are and we all have secrets also add to the rich tapestry of the show and its many textures.
Overall, if you’re looking for something a little different but familiar enough, a show with a great story that will keep you engaged (and guessing) and characters you will fall in love with, in a show far from ordinary, check out Where’s Wanda? on AppleTV+. You’ll dank me later.
p.s. If you swear you recognize Heike Makatsch, you do. She played Mia, the temptress secretary who flirted with Alan Rickman’s character in Love, Actually. Yes, she’s German. And you’ll be far less mad at her in this role.