The bitterly angry sci-fi series Cassandra has been running on Netflix since this week. In it, a German family is tyrannized by a manipulative computer system.
A particularly large number of exciting science fiction series are being released this year. One of the first genre highlights started this week on Netflix and immediately landed on the streamer’s charts. After Dark and The Signal, the streamer is once again venturing into sci-fi territory with a German in-house production, unleashing a sociopathic smart home that makes life hell for a German family.
German sci-fi thriller on Netflix: This is what you can expect in Cassandra
The plot of Cassandra follows the Prill family, who move into a new home in the village. This house has not been occupied for 50 years and is home to a smart home system that was set up in the 1970s and was way ahead of its time – and is now reawakening after half a century.
In a friendly voice, the system introduces itself as Cassandra (Lavinia Wilson). She wants to make the lives of her new residents as pleasant as possible and relies on monitors, cameras and a mobile robot unit installed in all rooms. But as is so often the case in science fiction, this artificial intelligence has dark ulterior motives: Cassandra wants to be a full member of the family and plans to get rid of mother Samira (Mina Tander).
Watch the trailer for the Netflix series Cassandra here:
The new German miniseries from Netflix comprises a total of six episodes. Read our detailed series review of Cassandra to find out whether the sci-fi thriller is worth watching. Here’s the conclusion:
The wonderfully nasty intrigues and transgressions (kids, don’t crawl into ovens!) create a menacing presence out of the clunky robot. The thriller fun is contrasted with the tragic family drama of flashback sequences and topics such as sexism, homophobia and mental illness, which add a surprisingly emotional touch to the wild smart home chaos.
Even without the bloodlust, Cassandra is an insanely entertaining psychological thriller with intriguing characters, a charming retro aesthetic, clever science fiction concepts and some wild twists.
How robots brought Cassandra to life for the Netflix series
The team around series creator and director Benjamin Gutsche relied mostly on practical effects for the smart home thriller. So the household help that jets through the house was not created with computer effects, but is an 80-kilogram, 1.62-meter-tall robot that had to be controlled by at least 5 people on set.
In addition, the series team used a special technical trick to make the interaction between human actors and the robot Cassandra as authentic as possible. The interactions and dialogues were captured in real time.
To do this, actress Lavinia Wilson was transmitted live into the scenery from a shielded studio cabin. She was able to see and hear everything that Cassandra’s smart home screens captured around the house on monitors. Her reactions to her colleagues’ play on set were simultaneously transmitted directly to Cassandra’s screens in digitized and alienated form using facial tracking.
As Netflix itself explains, this filming technique was used for the first time in Germany for the Cassandra production. You can see the result for yourself now. All six episodes have been streaming on Netflix since February 6, 2025.
