King of Stonks is a crime-comedy TV series created by Philipp Kässbohrer, Matthias Murmann and Jan Bonny and stars Thomas Schubert, Matthias Brandt, and Larissa Sirah Herden, alongside other cast members. The series has 6 episodes, each with a runtime of around 45 minutes.
Netflix describes the series as:
Desperate for startup stardom, an overly-ambitious finance mastermind lies, cheats and schemes his less-than-authentic company up the ladder to success.
– King of Stonks Review Does Not Contain Spoilers –
King of Stonks starts off all go-go-go from its first episodes and tries to be absolutely bonkers with the things that it tries to showcase. The series works with its shock factor quite closely, not letting it get away for even a moment in case you get bored with its overly long runtime.
I am usually left sceptical when shows declare in their first minute that they are based on true events. For King of Stonks, it’s kind of true – the series takes too long to provide some sort of point. And on its way to said point, it showcases the ambitions and greed of the people who make this show.
Felix is an employee of CableCash who is full of ambition but lacks the opportunity to fulfil them because of his eccentric boss Magnus. The latter hogs most, if not all, of the limelight when Felix puts in all the hard work and to top it off, he has almost no personal life. Sounds familiar? Because it is – we’ve seen this show in some way or other many times.
The problem isn’t that the show is similar to its big-budget predecessors – the problem is that it’s almost the same as its predecessors. A bunch of middle-aged men thinking that they can do anything that they want because of some slight clout that they have generated seems like a touch uninspired, even though it is based on a true story.
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Coming to the story, King of Stonks keeps us occupied with one nail-biting situation after another. An IPO opening, Magnus’s crazy (and selfish) antics and Felix getting taken away by the police, the mafia and much, much more – the series keeps you stimulated with the crazy stunts that the main players get into. However, you don’t see the point of it – the series doesn’t make a point until it’s too late.
For most of its runtime, the series focuses on the cause and effect of its protagonists’ actions, natural consequences and all that, and soon enough, it gets old and repetitive. I feel like 6 45-minute episodes are too much for us to sit through, and it just feels too long, even though the series talks about some really grainy stuff.
Plus, we focus on Felix and what he’s going through too much (and also on Magnus’s narcissism) for the plot to advance and become something memorable. I think watching The Wolf of Wall Street would be a better use of your time since it gets to its point and delivers the punchline quicker than 5-6 hours.
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I think the problem with King of Stonks is that it tries to deliver a similar punchline as so much before it and loses itself in the process. You don’t audible gasp as Marcus does some disgusting thing or the other because, honestly, it’s nothing new in any way. At this point, you just feel annoyed and disgusted because, frankly, I don’t understand the humour in watching a grown man pulling another man’s cheeks after peeing and not washing their hand – come on now.
Coming to the characters, considering the show is character-dependent for the most part, you don’t feel connected in any way to its leads at all – Magnus is frankly too self-involved and annoying for you to tolerate him for more than a minute, and Felix is a pushover whom you only have pity for. There are smaller characters other than them who really don’t factor into the story much. German singer Lary’s character is somewhat exciting and worthwhile, but she doesn’t come up in enough of the runtime for us to latch on to her.
Summing up: King of Stonks
King of Stonks, at 6 episodes, is too long and takes too much time to get to the point. Before it reaches said point, it showcases the same things that we have seen so many times before, expecting different results which, unfortunately, are not there. It’s not a bad show, it’s just too annoying for its own good.
King of Stonks is streaming on Netflix.
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