Freud is a TV series that wants to make a name for itself by dressing up a historical figure in a crime story. It fails. The show, created by Marvin Kren and Stefan Brunner, ran for eight episodes on ORF 1 starting March 15, 2020, and arrived on Netflix three days later. It follows a young Sigmund Freud in 19th-century Vienna, working with a psychic and an inspector to solve a string of violent crimes. The premise sounds promising. The execution does not deliver.
Trailer, via Netflix.
Freud’s Vienna
The setting is 1886 Vienna, and the show leans hard on period detail. Freud is a 30-year-old neurologist who has just returned from a study trip to France, where he saw the clinic of Dr. Jean-Martin Charcot, a strong believer in the psychic nature of hysteria. The city is shown as a place of narrow streets, grand houses, and a social hierarchy that separates doctors from patients and nobles from commoners. This is the show’s best asset. It knows how to dress the past.
But the world-building stops at surface detail. The show does not explain why Freud’s ideas about hypnosis and hysteria matter beyond the fact that they exist. Characters reject him because they think his methods are dangerous or unproven, but the show never makes the case for why those methods might work. The audience is left to accept that Freud is right and everyone else is wrong, without ever seeing the evidence.
The Case That Never Arrives
The plot centers on a criminal case that marks the start of a major conspiracy. Freud is asked by his friend Arthur Schnitzler to attend a party hosted by Countess Sophia von Szápáry, under the excuse of meeting people who could help his career. At the party, the countess and her husband, Viktor von Szápáry, put on a séance with the Hungarian medium Fleur Salomé. From that moment, Freud finds himself caught up in murders, schemes, revenge, and strange events that he must solve with the help of his housekeeper Leonore and the war-traumatized inspector Alfred Kiss.
This is where the show stumbles badly. The case never arrives. Episodes are spent introducing characters, showing Freud’s office, and staging elaborate dinner scenes, but the central mystery stays vague. The murders happen off-screen, the conspiracies are hinted at but never explained, and the supernatural elements feel tacked on rather than woven into the story. By the final episode, the show has built up a web of suspicion without ever tying it together.
Robert Finster’s Freud
Robert Finster plays Freud as eager and curious, which fits the character description of a young man desperate to make his name. He is surrounded by actors of note, including Merab Ninidze as Josef Breuer and Georg Friedrich as Alfred Kiss. The cast is capable, and the supporting roles are well filled, but the writing does not give them much to do.
Finster does what he can with the material, but the script limits him. Freud is supposed to be brilliant, but the show rarely shows him being brilliant. Instead, it shows him talking about his ideas and getting ignored. The tension comes from his frustration, not from his intellect.
The Missing Case File
The show’s biggest problem is its refusal to commit to its own premise. A crime series needs a central case, a victim, a suspect, and a method. Freud has none of these. The murders are mentioned, but their victims are not named. The motives are never stated. The clues are not collected. The audience is told there is a conspiracy, but the show never explains what that conspiracy is or who is behind it.
This is a structural failure. It is not a matter of style or tone. The show has built a framework for a detective story and then left the framework empty.
Leonore and Alfred Kiss
The housekeeper Leonore and the inspector Alfred Kiss are meant to be Freud’s allies, but they are underwritten. Leonore exists to manage the household and offer occasional moral support. Alfred Kiss is war-traumatized and cynical, which is a decent hook, but the show never explores his condition beyond a few brief scenes. Both characters are functional, but they are also thin.
The show’s attempt to blend crime drama with psychological horror also falls apart. The supernatural elements are introduced through the séance and the medium Fleur Salomé, played by Ella Rumpf. But the show does not commit to its own ghosts. It hints at spirits and hidden rooms, then moves on. The result is a show that promises mystery and delivers soap opera.
A Comparison of Approaches
| Approach | Focus | Strength | Weakness |
|---|---|---|---|
| Freud | Crime + supernatural | Period detail | Vague central case |
| Other Freud dramas | Pure biography | Character depth | Less accessible |
Where It Went Wrong
The show’s failure is not a matter of ambition. It is a matter of execution. A crime series needs a central case, a victim, a suspect, and a method. Freud has none of these. The murders are mentioned, but their victims are not named. The motives are never stated. The clues are not collected. The audience is told there is a conspiracy, but the show never explains what that conspiracy is or who is behind it.
The show also fails to balance its tones. It wants to be a crime drama, a psychological thriller, and a period piece all at once. None of these tones are fully developed. The result is a show that feels scattered, with each episode adding a new element without tying it to anything that came before.
The Verdict
Freud is a show that gets the look right but fails at the story. It is a period piece with a costume budget and a cast of capable actors, but it lacks the discipline to build a case file. The show is watchable in small doses, but it does not hold together over eight episodes.
The show is a curiosity, not a classic. It is worth seeing once, for the costumes and the settings, but it is not worth returning to. Its ambitions are visible, but its execution is weak.
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