Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Kitz’ On Netflix, A German Drama About A Ski Resort And A Local Teen’s Plan To Get Revenge For Her Brother’s Death

Streaming services have invested heavily in teen dramas, because, well, where else can you see drama, sex, drinking, drugs and dancing? Those things seem to characterize almost every teen show out there, from Elite to Euphoria to the new Gossip Girl. A new entry from Germany, Kitz, transfers the setting from a big city to a ski resort village that sees a crush of rich people from Munich every winter.

KITZ: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Shots of the Alps and a resort village. “My brother Joseph always said that without them, we are just some village somewhere in the mountains of Tyrol. But with them, we are Kitzbühel, the Aspen of the Alps,” says a local named Lisi (Sofie Eifertinger) in a voice over.

The Gist: Lisi’s voice over talks about her plot to get revenge on the girl who she thinks caused the death of her brother Joseph (Felix Mayr), who drove off an icy mountain road going to see her one year ago, on New Year’s Eve. But then we see her watching a large chalet burn down and she wonders if she went too far.

On New Year’s Eve, a year after Joseph’s death, Lisi, a local bar waitress, is planning on working as a cater waiter at a New Year’s party given by a wealthy influencer named Vanessa von Höhenfeldt (Valerie Huber). Her friend Antonia (Souhaila Amade), who has been in London the past year and is back in town during high season, wants to know why she wants to work this party. Lisi claims it’s just a paycheck, but she has something else on her mind. Vanessa is the one who persuaded Joseph to join her last New Year’s Eve; he was driving to see her when he ran off the icy mountain road.

During the party, she meets Vanessa’s boyfriend Dominik (Bless Amada), who seems to be with Vanessa as more of a duty than out of love. We are also introduced to Kosh (Zoran Pingel), who brings the party (i.e. drugs) with him but has been on the outs with Vanessa and Dominik in the past year. Before the party, we see him with a guy who turns out to be Hans (Ben Felipe), a close friend of Lisi and Joseph. There is also Vanessa’s best friend Pippa (Krista Tcherneva), who “fires” Lisi when she spies the local sniffing around Vanessa’s bedroom.

But Lisi is determined to set her plan in motion, starting with accidentally spilling drinks on Vanessa, so she can go to her room and change. Then, when she goes up to apologize, Lisi sees a masked man robbing Vanessa at gunpoint; she gets pulled in but somehow confronts the man and tells him she called the cops. When he runs off, Vanessa is so indebted to her she invites Lisi to party with them, and then invites her to brunch at Dominik’s place the next day. What Vanessa doesn’t know is that was Lisi’s goal the entire time. “I have to become her friend,” she tells Hans at the end of the night.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Take 13 Reasons Why and cross it with Revenge, and you have Kitz. There are also elements of class conflict, a la Elite, on the show.

Our Take: Kitz feels like a show that we’ve seen before, which is why we mentioned Elite. Yes, the setting is a ski resort that is invaded by Munich’s wealth every winter instead of a boarding school in Spain, but the vibe is more or less the same. That’s not to say that Kitz can’t be a good show. But the first episode doesn’t give us any indication that it’ll be a show that tells us anything new.

It’s the rich kids vs. the working class kids, with a revenge plot mixed in that doesn’t 100% make sense, at least during the first episode. Sure, Lisi is angry that her brother drove out on that icy night to see Vanessa, who more than likely was just using him as a booty call. He likely invested more in their relationship than she did, and that’s part of what makes Lisi want to exact revenge.

But how much of watching Lisi infiltrating this wealthy clique are we going to have to endure to get the details of this story? Lisi’s sense of loss is palpable, but it also seems that she’s enjoying the perks of knowing Vanessa and being part of her group, even though she’s “just” a “poor” local. So will this become complicated by Lisi actually coming to like Vanessa or members of her group, like Dominik? Or is this a pure revenge play? We’re not sure we care, and that’s the biggest problem with Kitz.

Sex and Skin: We see Dominik’s bare behind as he cools off in the winter air after being in the sauna. Lisi happens to arrive at Vanessa’s chalet as he’s doing that.

Parting Shot: As we see Lisi looking at the texts on Joseph’s phone, shortly after his death, she sees the texts from Vanessa that prompted him to leave Lisi, Hans and Antonia that night as they celebrated Lisi’s acceptance into an exclusive college in London (she didn’t end up going in the wake of his death). The voice over talks about the stages of mourning, including stage 2: Anger. “And stage three… fuck stage three,” she says.

Sleeper Star: Bless Amada’s character Dominik will play into Lisi’s plot at some point, as we can already see the two of them getting along quite well in the first episode. Of course, he’s the only sympathetic and sensible character among Vanessa’s group.

Most Pilot-y Line: Aren’t we a little tired of voice over in these teen shows? There had to be ways to show the time that had elapsed and explain the plot that could help the producers avoid the tired voice over device.

Our Call: SKIP IT. It’s not that Kitz is a bad show; the stars are appealing and do a good job with the material. But it just feels like something that we’ve seen a hundred times, and it doesn’t really tread any new ground.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.

Stream Kitz On Netflix