A new Netflix spy thriller about Germany’s secret service has racked up over 20 million views in just a few weeks — and it’s making the real agency wish it could actually do half the things shown on screen.
Unfamiliar is a six-part German series following a married couple, both former spies, who are pulled back into the world of espionage when a Russian agent shows up in Berlin. It is the first TV show ever filmed on location at the headquarters of Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service, known as the BND.
The show portrays the BND as bumbling and boxed in by rules — while its agents hack hospital databases, break into palaces, and use facial recognition software without a second thought. In reality, most of that would be illegal under German law.
That gap between fiction and reality is the whole point. Germany’s spy agency has some of the strictest limitations of any in the western world, a legacy of the country’s Nazi past and fears about giving too much power to intelligence services.
But things are changing. Germany’s new government has increased the BND’s budget by 26% this year. New laws expected later in 2026 could give the agency powers to fight back against cyber-attacks, use facial recognition, and hold data for longer.
The BND has had some embarrassing real-world moments too. Its former chief had to be rushed out of Kyiv on the day Russia invaded Ukraine. This week, a former vice-president reportedly fell for a Russian hacking attempt on Signal.
The BND advised on the show but had no veto over its content. The show’s makers say the idea was written two and a half years before they even approached the agency — so it was never made at the government’s request.
