How German Miniseries ‘Dear Child’ Became Netflix’s Second Biggest Series Of Second Half Of 2023
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Dear Child (Liebes Kind) is a German miniseries that is about to become even more high-profile outside of its local territory.
The limited series became the second most-watched title for Netflix over the second half of 2023 as it published its latest tranche of viewing data.
The series clocked up 253M hours viewed since its launch in September with 52.5M views, coming in just behind One Piece, Netflix’s high-profile anime remake.
In Netflix’s first tranche of data, released in December, Korean thriller The Glory was its most-watched international title with 623M hours viewed.
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But what is Dear Child?
Based on a book, the series is about a mystery woman, who is discovered after a hit-and-run — and a long unsolved missing persons case is reopened.
A 13-year-old missing persons case is reopened with stunning and dramatic turns. When an unknown woman is struck by a car in a German forest at night, doctors and nurses at the ER have plenty of questions. And then, once they start talking to the precocious and strange little girl who accompanies her in the ambulance, the mystery grows deeper — and more urgent.
The six-part series is described as Gone Girl-esque.
It stars Kim Riedle, Hans Löw, Naila Schuberth, Sammy Schrein, Justus von Dohnányi, Julika Jenkins and Haley Louise Jones.
Dear Child (Netflix)
Based on the Romy Hausmann’s book, it comes from director and head writer Isabel Kleefeld, co-writer and co-director Julian Pörksen.
“Dear Child is different in that the story is told from the victim’s perspective, never from the perpetrator’s perspective,” Kleefeld told Netflix. “That was also something special about the novel, which had a great attraction for us.”
“I read the book in one night and saw the whole story very vividly in my mind. The material fascinated me immediately. Dear Child is told from the point of view of each of the participants, and the perspective changes again and again. The result is an exciting game with reality, a puzzle that the audience can always add to and reassemble. It is the story of a crime that has many victims, directly or indirectly,” she added.
Julian Pörksen added, “These are all damaged characters: people who are severely scarred by a crime and deal with it very differently. The perpetrator is often the focus of such series and is glorified as a mysterious, dark force. That’s not the case with us. And there is a main character who is extraordinary in every way. A girl who has a special view of the world, a special way of speaking, thinking and experiencing.”