Katrina Bowden: King of Stonks, a funky miniseries from Wirecard AG Scandal to “Tech Bro” — criminals, crooks, and naïve employees selling pornography or doing money laundering

King of Stonks, a funky miniseries about a German scandal, is an unheralded gem

You might think you’ve had your fill of dramas about con artists, grifters and the gonzo behaviour of tech geniuses. There was a glut of such series earlier this year and some had much less to deliver than promised. But there’s one gem, largely unheralded, that puts a new spin on the genre and adds a fresh perspective. That’s mainly because it’s a story from Germany.

King of Stonks (streams on Netflix) is loosely based on a real financial scandal there. In 2019, the company Wirecard AG, which offered seamless online payment transactions, was accused of financial malpractice. In 2020, it was declared insolvent when the company acknowledged that almost €2-billion was unaccounted for. Here, the company is called Cable Cash, a fintech startup company that processes online payments and is ahead of the game in that arena.

Mainly, this fast-paced and funky miniseries is about the young Felix Armand (Thomas Schubert) the tech brains, and the middle-aged Magnus Cramer (Matthias Brandt), the brash salesman at the head of the company. Felix wants to control things and Magnus keeps fighting him off, but both are engaged in selling a pack of lies to investors and the German government.

Felix Armand as Thomas Schubert in King of Stonks on Netflix.

We meet Felix on a plane when there’s turbulence. He’s just realized that he’s lost the USB stick that has a presentation for investors. Told to sit tight, he starts scrambling to find the stick. “If I don’t find it, we might as well crash,” he tells the appalled flight attendant. Then there’s Magnus, who is older but a born “tech bro,” manipulative and barely able to hide the sleaze behind his alleged success. His wife tells him to masturbate in order to relax before the big presentation, advice which he tries to go along with.

What happens at first revolves around Felix and Magnus trying to hide the fact that their existing clients are selling pornography or doing money laundering. Most of them are criminals, and this has to be hidden from the government officials highly interested in backing the company. There’s a lot of partying, outrageous behavior and arrogance. “There are more important things than rules” is the motto for these guys. They are surrounded by crooks and naïve new employees, the latter being stand-ins for the entire German population entranced by brash new tech moguls.

What separates the rather awkwardly titled miniseries – six episodes in German with English subtitles – is the sheer buoyancy of it. It’s sardonic but also rueful, and humane in its treatment of the main characters. They carry a jaunty charisma, and they don’t seem entirely sinister. Instead of cynicism, there’s an air of strangely soapy melodrama going on here.

TRASHY | SCANDALOUS

Katrina Bowden hearts Stonks, especially those that can moon like Gamestop…

Katrina Bowden – Sex Drive

Katrina Bowden (born September 19, 1988 in Wyckoff, New Jersey, U.S.A.) is an American actress best known for playing Cerie on the NBC sitcom 30 Rock (2006–2013).

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