Freud: A review

::SPOILERS:::

I just finished watching the first and only season of the German/Austrian Netflix Orignal 'Freud'. A reimaging of the early life of Sigmund Freud, before he became famous for his work in psychoanalysis.
The show starts off as an autobiography. It shows a young Freud who has just encountered hypnosis and is trying to convince his peer of its powers. The show gives the impression that Freud was a big believer in hypnosis early on and among his peers was the only one who believed that neurosis was due to 'thoughts and beliefs' rather than physiology. This is not entirely accurate, but the show does a good job of portraying him as a genius waiting to be discovered.
The show quickly turns into a crime thriller with Freud coming into contact with a group of Hungarian rebels. These Hungarian rebels at first glance seem like trickers playing around with the feelings of people and letting them talk to their dead loved ones through Fleur, the medium. However, we quickly realize that they are infiltrating Vienna's elite with a plan to eventually reach the Kaiser.
Fleur is the main female lead of the show and the object of intense obsession and attraction for Freud. The character's name suggests that she is loosely based on an actual female psychologist of the time. From here on the program quickly turns into a crime thriller, with joint detective work undertaken by the honorable Inspector Kiss and the ever-curious Dr Freud. The many twists and turns of the show begin here. The season ends with spectacular visual metaphors and the beginning of Freud's private practice and private family life.
Throughout the show, Freud is shown struggling with paying rent, as well as constant antisemitic attacks, some subtle, some not so much. The production values are full-on Hollywood period set level. The costume design is perfect and some of the performances are perhaps too dramatic, while others are unbelievably good. Without a doubt, the cast is very very talented and the whole production team has done a brilliant job. The show is written cleverly, with each episode having a name taken from one of Frue'd concepts such as 'suppression' or 'regression'. The writers do a magnificent job of imaging how Freud may have come up with his ideas through his experience as he can be seen discussing and analyzing each patient and event, as it is unraveling.
The layers of story, from the personal lives of Freud and kiss, to the rebellion against the Kaiser, create a rich show, however, the supernatural element was not something that left a good taste with me. I am certainly not looking for a second season as it felt like a very complete show and a tight end, but I would be curious to see what they can come up with next.

Umair Usman is a Rapid Transformational Therapy Practitioner, a businessperson, and a blogger. You can know more about him at www.thecognitiveconsultants.com. To book a free consultancy session, please fill the form https://tinyurl.com/y6n2vv8wx