Series / Intimate

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Intimate is a 2023 German comedy series about five guy friends from Hamburg in their early twenties: Bruno, Max, Leo, and identical twins Emil and Oskar, who all constantly get into uncomfortable situations and tend to dig themselves even deeper trying to get out of them.

Intimate is also a show made by five guy friends from Hamburg in their early twenties, as Bruno Alexander, Max Mattis, Leo Fuchs, and identical twins Emil and Oskar Belton star as fictionalized versions of themselves. You know how Curb Your Enthusiasm is this semi-improvised Cringe Comedy show about a rich old showbiz guy constantly making a fool out of himself? Well, imagine Larry David was five German guys at the start of their careers instead, the show featured copious amounts of sex and nudity, and the second episode featured Larry, desperate to not be cancelled, performing oral sex on his identical twin brother… Yeah.

The show started out as a series of YouTube videos the boys began filming while they were still in school, attempting to emulate similar comedy shows. After becoming professional filmmakers they were able to sell the concept to German streaming service Joyn, which picked it up as a series. All episodes are directed by Alexander, the Beltons, and Fuchs, with Mattis serving as executive producer. The guys also write all story outlines, while the actual dialogue is improvised. The show is currently available (in Germany) for free and with no subscription on the Joyn website; the second season debuted in April 2025.

This show provides examples of:

• Aborted Arc: Max no longer pursues his clothing label in the second season. He states that he put it on hold in favor of managing Emil's music "career".
• Accidental Pervert: When Emil needs a place to stay, Nyla, a teenage girl, takes pity on him and invites him to stay over. Naturally, her father is alarmed, but Emil and Nyla manage to convince him nothing will happen. Unfortunately, Emil's habit of sleepwalking and urinating against the wall creeps up again. Nyla wakes up and screams in terror, and Emil is thrown out.
• Accidental Public Confession: Emil scores a role in part (so he thinks) due to having claimed to be non-binary and calls Bruno to gloat, not realizing his phone is still connected to the music player on the nearby table and everyone at the audition can hear him.
• Acquaintance Denial: Used twice. When Leo and his boyfriend Florian meet Florian's prospective new roommate, he turns out to be Jonas, who Leo just had a one-night stand with. Jonas, unaware that Leo and Florian are a couple, greets them; Leo, trying to cover up his affair, then claims he must be confusing him for someone else, despite Jonas already having mentioned Leo's name. The gag gets repeated in the first season finale when Bruno meets the young daughter of the woman he's having an affair with; when she walks past him to greet Oskar instead, Oskar tells her they don't know each other, but by that point Bruno has already realized he's clearly not the only one being intimate with the girl's mother.
• Adam Westing:
  • The boys play versions of themselves, albeit much less successful (and presumably much more obnoxious) than in real life. Only Bruno and Oskar are established to be working actors from the beginning, and they aspire to move on from public broadcast channel shows to a big streaming service.
  • Danish actor Roland Møller plays an extremely volatile version of himself with Hair-Trigger Temper.
  • German actor Jonas Nay as a pretentious colleague/rival of Bruno and Oskar who's into drugs and casual sex.
  • Christian Ulmen appears as himself, that is, the obnoxious, fictionalized version of himself from the series Jerks in a Crossover.
  • Comedian Chris Tall as a hack who only functions when high on cocaine, and freezes in front of any audience otherwise.
• Age-Gap Romance: Just after telling Oskar that he's not getting anything out of dating girls his age, Bruno, who's 22, meets middle-aged Alice and falls for her. Luckily for him, she's eager to get a distraction from her boring marriage (to the director of the show Bruno stars in).
• Alternate Continuity: The end of episode thirteen features a montage of moments from the show's earlier web series incarnation, implying that some of its events are canon and the TV show is meant to be a continuation at least in some way. There are some notable incongruities between the two versions, however; for example, web show Emil was shown to be a professional actor and Leo was not portrayed as gay. The web show also had a metafictional element as Intimate was portrayed as a show the boys were making within the show, with plots even revolving around attempts to shoot an episode or get guest stars to appear. This is completely absent from the later series. As the web series was more directly based on the guys' real lives, the TV show essentially functions as an alternate continuity to reality as well.
• Always Identical Twins: Emil and Oskar meet another pair of identical twins while shopping. It's implied that they share the same dynamic, with Oskar being the older and more confident and Emil being the younger and more awkward one, and Oskar outright states that one twin is always more attractive than the other (describing one of the other pair but obviously referring to himself as well).
• Answer Cut: Bruno, Leo and Max are invited to join a boat party celebrating the birthday of one of their wealthy former classmates. Although Bruno and Leo were talking about how much they couldn’t stand them beforehand, they briefly look at each other and a Smash Cut later the three of them are shown locking arms and singing "Happy Birthday To You" to her.
• Anti-Interference Lock Up: Leo and Emil attend a play at their old school because Leo figures he will meet Florian there, as his little brother Tobias is part of the theatre club. When they find out Tobias is just the understudy for the teacher's son, Leo lures the latter into a classroom and ties him to the radiator with Emil's belt. Tobias gets to play the role, and Leo and Florian reconnect. When they sneak into the classroom to have sex, they are interrupted by the teacher's kid, Leo having completely forgotten about him.
• Ascended Fanboy: Oskar, already in a sour mood after being told his show is only watched by boomers, has to film a sex scene with Ruby, a former extra, instead of the well-known actress who was originally supposed to play the part. The shoot goes badly until Ruby reveals she is actually a big fan of the show and was dreaming of filming a scene with Oskar, which sufficiently strokes Oskar's ego, making him able to perform with enthusiasm.
• As Himself: In addition to the Adam Westing examples, several producers, casting directors and public figures appear as themselves. Also, the roles of the make-up artist and the assistant director of the Show Within a Show are played by the actual show's make-up artist and assistant director.
• Aspect Montage: Done several times; for example, in Leo's first scene, several quick cuts of his complete mess of a room already establish him as a slob before he appears in the frame.
• As You Know: Played straight once in the first episode when Max refers to "my clothing brand" when talking to Isabella instead of just calling it by its name, but also weirdly averted when Leo asks Florian to move in with "us" without specifying that he lives with Bruno and Max; no doubt Florian wouldn't need to be told that, but as it's never established in dialogue nor shown outright until well into the season, it becomes slightly confusing.
• Atrocious Alias: Emil chooses "Ketapan" as his Stage Name for his music career, a portmanteau of ketamine and Peter Pan ("Peter" and "Keta" rhyme in German pronunciation). The problem is that he's never done ketamine, which he has to sheepishly admit to everyone who asks.
• Baldness Mockery: After Bruno suggests to his agent Stefanie that he'd be willing to take a job in advertising, she points to his heavily receding hairline and asks, "For what, shampoo?", causing Oskar to nearly crack up.
• Bathroom Stall Graffiti: When visiting their old school, Leo and Emil can't resist scribbling on the bathroom walls. They're caught by the English teacher's son, who admonishes them for it; Leo responds that he used to beat up kids like him.
• Bedroom Adultery Scene: The first season ends on Felix, Oskar and Bruno's director, walking in on them about to indulge in a threesome with Felix's wife Alice.
• Bigger Is Better in Bed: When Max very reluctantly agrees to let his girlfriend Isabella peg him, they meet up with Leo and Florian for advice. Flo recommends them a sex shop to buy a dildo, and tells them it's nice that they can experiment with sizes, while Leo and him "have to work with what we have"; it's meant to be a lighthearted comment, but Leo (who tops) clearly doesn't find it so funny. When Max and Isabella visit the shop, Max insists on the smallest size… until the clerk tells him it's considered "fair" for the dildo to be the size of the partner's penis, upon which he immediately changes his tune.
  Max: Right, then that would be 'large'.
  Clerk: [cheerily] Alright, you wouldn't be the first guy to overestimate himself here.
• Big "SHUT UP!": When the boys are chilling on the roof of the building Emil and Oskar live in, a man yells at them to come down. Leo responds with "Halt die Fresse!"^note  a very aggressive way of saying "shut your mouth", not knowing the guy is the twins' Cranky Landlord.
• Birthday Party Goes Wrong: When the twins want to celebrate their birthday, Oskar convinces their landlord to let them throw a party by promising to invite his teenage son Keno, a geeky shut-in. Oskar, Emil and Bruno then spend the whole day trying in vain to get anyone else to attend, so in the end the "party" just consists of the main five plus Keno silently sitting on the couch until midnight.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Oskar's new girlfriend Charlotte orders him to throw Emil out of the apartment. When he reluctantly does so, she pretends to be surprised and acts like she actually wanted Emil to stay. On another occasion she makes Oskar tell the others that there will be no alcohol served at their dinner party, upon which she acts like he's the buzzkill. It's implied that that she is quite insecure and desperate to be liked instead of actively malicious.
• Blunt "No":
  • Two instances where the boys are Not Even Bothering with an Excuse:
    Florian: [speaking over the intercom] Hey babe. Can I come up? I really need to use your bathroom.
    Leo: [who currently has an affair in his apartment] No. [hangs up]
    
    Keno: [approaches dressed in a medieval warrior costume] Oskar?
    Oskar: Oh God.
    Keno: Do you want to come to the LARP festival with me?
    Oskar: What's LARP?
    Keno: Live Action Role Play.
    Oskar: No. Sorry, I won't. Fuck off.
  • A long-winded monologue of Bruno's where he wonders if his art has made him a different man is met with a simple response from Leo.
    Bruno: After Da Vinci finished painted the Mona Lisa, of course he was a different man, you know? And my Mona Lisas are the miniseries I've done, the films, the stuff I'm doing with Oskar. And now I've finished my painting and I'm asking you as a friend: Has it changed me?
    Leo: [without looking away from the game they're playing] Nope. You're the same as always.
    Bruno: ...I don't think so, man.
• Bondage Is Bad: Discussed when Bruno finds a bag full of BDSM toys during the group's afternoon at the lake; to impress his date Paulita, he goes into a rant decrying them as a tool of oppression, only for Paulita to reveal that they are in fact hers. Averted when they have rough sex later on, which is shown to be awkward (due to Bruno's lack of experience) but loving.
• Brick Joke: When Charlotte tells Oskar that Emil has to leave the apartment, one of the reasons she gives is his tendency to sleepwalk and urinate against the walls. Emil finds a place to crash for the night, but then does just that and is thrown out. After Bruno and Leo let him into their apartment on the condition that he won't sleepwalk, it happens again at the end of a completely unrelated scene one episode later.
• But Liquor Is Quicker: Jonas states his wish to top Leo, who is pretty reluctant. Jonas then suggests taking drug-laced drinks to get in the mood.
• Butt-Monkey:
  • Max usually gets dragged into the others' schemes instead of instigating them and suffers. Best seen in episode four, where he twists his ankle climbing over a fence and is caught by the police while graffitiing a train, while Emil, whose idea the whole thing was, gets off scot-free. He also tends to attract women with fetishes when he's the most vanilla guy possible himself.
  • Keno, the twins' landlord's son, is belittled by his father, patronized by the LARP leader, and bullied by Oskar. But he does get the girl in the end.
• Calling Shotgun: When the guys spontaneously decide to take a vacation, Max points out his car is a four-seater, so one of them won't be able to come along. The others instantly start playing games to determine the loser: calling shotgun, touching the ground, and "the floor is lava". Leo is able to keep up with the first two games, but as he's the only one not directly standing next to a couch (and even Max steps on the chair behind him just to be safe faster than Leo can react), he loses out in the end.
• Camping Episode: Overlapping with Sick Episode: The boys have the scabies and are forced to quarantine, but decide they might as well go camping, as long as they don't interact with anyone (inevitably, they do).
• Cannot Tell a Joke: Max's inability to properly tell an anecdote is brought up in episode twelve. He tends to include too many unimportant details and doesn't enunciate the punchline properly, so that the others don't even immediately realize when he's done talking.
• Casting Gag: At the swimming pool, Emil meets Lucas, a member of a TikTok influencer group called Eldorado Boys. He is played by Bene Schulz, a member of a real-life TikTok influencer group called Elevator Boys.
• Celebrity Casualty: Season 2 ends with Florian telling Leo that Jonas Nay has died.
• Celebrity Paradox:
  • Roland Møller appeared with Emil and Oskar Belton in the 2016 film Land of Mine in real life, but here, he and Oskar apparently haven't previously met. Given the fact that Emil doesn't appear to be an actor at the start of the show, the implication may be that the film never happened in this alternate reality.
  • Merlin, the actor in the art film Bruno co-stars in, is the real Bruno's actual co-star in another sitcom produced by the guys. Here, not only does that show obviously not exist, Merlin has no idea who Bruno is.
• Censor Box: Occasionally used to obscure people's faces in the b-roll footage. Also happens at least once in a main scene, when the guys load up the car and drive off to the campsite in episode six; the scene uses a handheld camera and was apparently shot without closing down the street for the shoot, so a passerby's face gets obscured.
• Chaos Architecture: In the second season, both Oskar and Emil's and Isabella's apartments completely change appearance without any form of acknowledgment or explanation (the show is shot on location instead of sets; presumably the previous apartments were no longer available after the two-year hiatus between seasons). Curiously, while Bruno, Max and Leo's apartment remains the same, the exterior shots are now different. More curiously, it is the actual house's exterior in the second season, which wasn't the case in the first.
• Childhood Friends: The twins, Bruno and Leo went to high school together (in the show as well as in real life).
• Comically Missing the Point: When Leo worries that he has been doing nothing but sleeping and gaming since Florian left him (triggered by Paulus' casual suggestion he should see a therapist), Bruno dismisses the idea that Leo might be depressed since if he was, he wouldn't have gotten that good at the game they’re playing.
• Cigarette of Anxiety: Leo smokes all the time anyway, but also uses it as a coping mechanism when he's in an uncomfortable situation. After he overhears Florian and Jonas talking about him on the bus, he struggles with lighting the cigarette due to his hands shaking.
• Comedic Sociopathy: All over the place, particularly when Bruno or the twins are involved. The tone is set in the first episode when Emil reacts with glee to watching Marie breaking down after hearing the fake news of his death, with him thinking she'll want to get back together immediately once he "returns".
• Contrived Coincidence: Because it's a Cringe Comedy, creating awkward situations takes precedence over realism:
  • After having a one-night stand with Jonas, Leo leaves as he has to help his boyfriend Florian move. When they are at Florian's new apartment, his roommate arrives… guess who it is? A particularly uncomfortable example of Introduction by Hookup.
  • Bruno and Oskar have told everyone on set, including their angry co-star Roland Møller, that Oskar's brother Emil has died to explain why they keep screwing up their takes. Later that day, the boys decide to take a dive from a bridge into the Alster (a river flowing through Hamburg) just when Møller happens to canoe there, seeing both twins very much alive.
  • Bruno becomes interested in a woman he meets completely by chance, and far from his workplace. She turns out to be his boss's wife.
  • The most contrived instance is Max's doctor in Hamburg also overseeing a group of hospice patients in a hostel on the island of Sylt just when Max goes there with Bruno, Emil and Oskar, so they can be exposed for breaking their quarantine at the end of the episode.
• Costume-Test Montage: Bruno and Emil prepare to go to a climate protest, but since they really just want to pick up girls there, they put more effort into trying out outfits than preparing signs.
  [Emil comes out wearing a mesh shirt]
  Bruno: Are you Harry Styles, dude?
• Cover Identity Anomaly: Oskar pretends to be Keno to bed the latter's online girlfriend when she shows up in person, but he doesn't know the first thing about gaming.
  Giovanka: Have you been to the maze?
  Oskar: Yeah, I've been to the maze. But it was very difficult to get out.
  Giovanka: How do you mean, out?
  Oskar: Well, you have to get out of a maze, don’t you?
  Giovanka: …That's where you grind.
  Oskar: …That's what I meant.
• Cranky Landlord: Stefan, the twins' landlord, is just looking for an excuse to kick them out.
• Crash-Into Hello: Bruno first meets Alice when he accidentally backs his scooter into her bike.
• Cringe Comedy: Very much. The whole show revolves around the characters getting themselves into extremely uncomfortable situations. (In German it's called Fremdschämen.)
• Depraved Homosexual: Leo tries to paint Jonas as this to prevent Florian from moving in with him (as Leo slept with Jonas and is afraid he'll tell Florian).
  Leo: I’ve got a very, very bad feeling about that guy. He’s one hundred percent gay!
  Flo: Yeah? So are we?
  Leo: Yeah, so are we, exactly! That guy's like two heads bigger than you, he could rape you in your sleep!
• Damned by Faint Praise: When Emil tries to deny Leo's assertion that they've achieved nothing since graduating high school, the only thing he can come up with for Leo is that he's "relatively good at playing video games".
• Deleted Role: In-Universe, Oskar and Bruno's roles in the film they're in are cut down to their bodies barely appearing in the frame with someone else's voice-over. They find out at the premiere, after having gone in front of the audience with the lead actor and crew and announced a big party in their hotel room later, and sneak out embarrassed after their on-screen "appearance".
• Description Cut: After Florian moves in with Leo, a visiting Isabella asks whether they're gonna furnish the living room. A puzzled Leo responds that it is furnished; cut to a wide shot of the room showing that it consists of the bare minimum furniture-wise (aside from the old, shabby couches they're sitting on, there's only a table, dressers, and a lamp) while the walls are scribbled on up to the ceiling and trash is scattered around everywhere. Florian awkwardly replies they'll be doing something to make the room more colorful, which Leo just grimaces at.
• Diegetic Soundtrack Usage: Season 2 ends with the group on the ride home from their aborted weekend getaway. Bruno starts whistling the show's Theme Tune, "Going Up The Country" by Canned Heat. The actual song then plays over the "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue, and afterwards the scene cuts back to the guys singing it in the car.
• Digging Yourself Deeper: Pressured to explain themselves after they spent the entire night with others while knowingly having the scabies, Bruno tells the crowd to not think of the disease as little animals burrowing beneath one's skin, which of course leads to Thought-Aversion Failure. Oskar just begs him to stop.
• Dine and Dash: When Leo starts working at a café, the guys assume they all can eat there for free, only for the annoyed owner to tell them Leo himself can have a discount and that's it. Emil and Max then leave separately, both telling Leo (who's sitting outside talking to his recent hookup Jonas instead of working) the other has paid. Leo half-heartedly yells at Max to come back, but when Jonas invites him to his place, he decides to just leave as well.
• Dinner and a Show: In the second season finale, Oskar and Charlotte invite their friends to a murder mystery dinner party at Charlotte's father's mansion which descends into chaos. In the climactic dinner table scene, Florian humiliates Leo by loudly proclaiming that he wets himself when drinking too much alcohol, and Leo retaliates by saying that Florian has no friends. Afterwards, the truth about Emil's date Nyla comes out: that she's only fourteen and Emil asked her to play his fake girlfriend so he would be invited.
• Discreet Drink Disposal: Before hitting the gym, Max's girlfriend's father prepares a pre-workout shake by adding a comically large amount of powder to a giant bottle, and instantly becomes agitated after drinking from it. He then makes Max also take a sip from it, but then turns his back on him, upon which Max immediately spits it out.
• Distracted by the Sexy: Bruno's last-minute attempt to run through his and Oskar's dialogue before the shoot of their show gets torpedoed by the latter when he eyes a pretty extra and decides he'd rather flirt with her instead. Not one to sit back and watch, Bruno joins him, leading to both of them being completely unprepared when cameras roll.
• Doing It for the Art: In-Universe, Bruno takes this attitude upon meeting Paulita, the director of his low-budget film. While his main motivation is impressing her, he’s also trying to convince himself of his own sophistication as well.
• Dream Intro: Episode five begins with Roland Møller finally snapping and delivering a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown to Bruno and Oskar, which is then revealed to be a nightmare of the latter.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: After Jonas tells them how many perks his new job on a streaming show comes with, Bruno and Oskar arrive on set demanding special treatment only to be blown off by everyone, and when they phone their agent, she claims to be busy and hangs up on them. On top of that, Oskar finds out the actress he was supposed to be shooting a sex scene with has pulled out and is being replaced with a former extra, much to his annoyance.
• Ensemble Cast: There's no sole lead, and four of the five characters have a roughly equal amount of screentime. Despite Leo's role being not as prominent as the others' in every episode, he's still on equal footing with them when it comes to posters, promo shots and the like.
• Escape Call: When Isabella does coke with Paulus, whom they met at the club earlier, and invites him into their relationship, Max gets extremely uncomfortable. He secretly calls Leo, begging him for a fake emergency call in front of the other two so that he has a reason to leave. (It's made clear that this kind of call is a regular occurrence between the boys.) Leo and the others initially decline, still being mad at Max for him calling them out on their poor behavior and getting them thrown out of the aforementioned club earlier. However, a couple of minutes later they come through for him after all, with Leo telling Max that he must come because Bruno fell on the train tracks.
• Establishing Character Moment: Over the course of the first few scenes of the pilot, we get good impressions of the five protagonists:
  • Bruno, a low-level TV actor, argues with his director about the plot of his show and his character's appearance, then tells him that he has only a vague idea of the script and is planning to improvise, establishing his Small Name, Big Ego tendencies.
  • Max has awkward sex with his girlfriend and becomes uneasy when he discovers she has watched porn on her tablet, showing him to be uptight and an Insecure Love Interest. Afterwards he gets dragged into a Zany Scheme by Emil.
  • Emil's Dogged Nice Guy and Know-Nothing Know-It-All persona is established with said scheme, as he is trying to win his girlfriend back and convinced a Faking the Dead stunt will do the trick, despite Max and the audience realizing how obviously stupid it is.
  • After having sex, Leo shrugs off his lover's complaint that he paid no attention to him; then it's revealed that he just cheated, as he has a boyfriend; when they meet up, he gets annoyed after a passerby dares to smile at him. All of this goes to show that he is inconsiderate, has unresolved issues regarding his masculinity and sexuality and problems with his temper to boot.
  • Oskar, Bruno's co-star, is shown to be even less serious about learning his lines, approaches a girl in a very brazen way (taking coffee out of her hand, claiming it's terrible, and throwing it away) and tells her his character is a lead and Bruno's is supporting despite them having equal roles, making it clear he stands out for being cynical and shameless even among this bunch of guys.
• Everybody Smokes: All five main characters smoke, and alongside lots of Random Smoking Scenes it's also sometimes used as a plot point, gag, or for characterization — Jonas and Leo smoke together after sex, Emil is able to break the ice with his potential co-star at an audition over a cigarette, Leo has several Cigarettes of Anxiety and physically attacks a player at the LARP game who chides him for breaking the immersion, the owner of the campsite Bruno, Oskar, Emil and Max travel to gets on their case when they immediately break the no-smoking rule, etc. While showing casual smoking isn't as frowned upon in a German series as it would be elsewhere, it's still unusual for it to be so prevalent. As the guys are starring As Themselves and all smoke in real life, they do so on screen as well.
• Everyone Has Standards: Turns out even the guys have some:
  • When Bruno tries to find out who the mystery woman he ran into is, he follows her to a sauna, where he meets a guy who's secretly filming everyone. Bruno is happy to use his intel to identify the woman, but when the man offers him videos of children as well, he calls the police on him.
  • Oskar pretends to be Keno in an attempt to bed his online girlfriend… but at least he asks her if she's eighteen beforehand. And when he later subs in for Emil at the latter's delivery job and Emil's ex Marie comes onto him, he decides to give in… but this time at least he makes sure she's aware he's actually Oskar (which she is).
  • When Bruno, Leo and Max party with a bunch of rich kids, the discussion turns to racism. The rich kids claim that minorities are too sensitive nowadays, and one girl says that she is from Austria, but doesn't feel othered when asked about it. Whereas Max says nothing and Bruno just wants to Change the Uncomfortable Subject, it's the usually not very thoughtful or caring Leo who pushes back against that false equivalency and calls them out on it.
• Faking the Dead: Emil thinks Marie hearing he died will make her realize she still has feelings for him, so he has Max call Isabella to tell her the "sad news" while they are hiding out in the park near the girls. (Unsurprisingly, when Marie finds out he's alive and well, she's just pissed off.) Emil's fake death also provides a convenient excuse for Bruno and Oskar to pull out of the shoot of their series for the day, as they haven't learned their lines.
• Faux Yay: The first season's last two eps have Emil, Bruno, and Oskar pretending to be non-binary, gay, and bi, respectively, as they feel cis straight guys like them are disadvantaged in showbiz. Leo plays Bruno's fake boyfriend and has to protest when Bruno's agent assumes he is also lying about his sexuality.
  Stefanie: Let's mingle. And a bit gayer, please. [makes a limp wrist gesture]
  Leo: I am gay! I'm actually gay!
• "Fawlty Towers" Plot: In the first episode, Leo tells his boyfriend Blatant Lie after lie to prevent the fact that he's cheating from coming out: After Florian finds a condom in his pocket, Leo says it's to prevent himself from coming early when they have sex; he pulls an Acquaintance Denial when his affair turns out to be Florian's new roommate; then he claims he has realized that he wants Florian to move in with him instead, to which Florian enthusiastically agrees. The trope is downplayed in the episode as Leo does get away with his lies, but they still lead to a result that he never wanted (and three episodes later, he cheats again and everything comes out anyway).
• First-Name Ultimatum: The only time Leo is addressed by his full name, Leonard, is when Max yells at him during their disagreement how to film Emil's music video.
• First Period Panic: Emil brings Nyla along to Oskar and Charlotte's murder mystery dinner party, during which she gets her first period. After the tampon she receives from Paulita turns out to be too large for her, Emil dissuades Nyla from asking Paulita for advice, as revealing she has never had a period would make it clear that she isn't really eighteen as they have claimed. He then covers her in plastic wrap to stop the bleeding, but Nyla isn't able to make it through the entire dinner without revealing her condition.
• Forced from Their Home: After Charlotte forces Oskar to throw Emil out, the other guys let him stay in their living room.
• Foreign Language Title: It's a German series with an English title.
• Formula-Breaking Episode: The Camping Episode, aside from change in location, is a bit of a departure from the rest of the first season in several ways: it takes place over a longer timespan than other episodes (which play in near-real time or cover a few hours) and is a bit more of an ensemble piece than usual (while most of the episode follows Bruno/Emil and Max/Oskar separately, the storylines converge in the end). Also, while it resolves two plot points from the previous episode (Leo's mystery condition, revealed to be scabies, and the mass order for Max's sweaters, revealed to be from Oskar and Bruno), the episode is Filler otherwise, as none of the major storylines progress.
• Four Lines, All Waiting: Except for Oskar, each guy has a recurring storyline with his respective love interest in the first season: Emil tries to win back Marie, Bruno pursues a married older woman, Leo asks Florian to move in with him (then gets dumped over his cheating), Max deals with Isabella trying to spice up their love life. The episodes themselves usually feature three to four subplots (for example, episode one has one plot with Bruno/Oskar, one with Max/Emil, and one with Leo).
• Friendlessness Insult: Leo brings Florian along to Oskar and Charlotte's dinner party, but is surprised both by his unusually confident attitude and the realization that Flo has no intention to get back together with him. After getting embarrassed by him at the dinner table (Florian tells Leo not to drink too much or he'll wet himself again), Leo throws Florian's Friendless Background in his face, causing him to leave the room in tears.
  Leo: Everyone you know is someone I've either fucked or is sitting at this table! Just like back in school. You don't know anybody!
• "Friends" Rent Control: The guys live in decently sized apartments in gentrified areas of Hamburg. Oskar and Bruno make a good amount of money with their show, and it's explicitly stated that it's Oskar who actually pays the rent for his and Emil's apartment; the same might be true of Bruno and the apartment he shares with Leo and Max (as it's not really clear what they contribute). The trope really comes into play in the second season after Bruno and Oskar get fired from their jobs. Bruno tells his agent he'd be willing to take less dignified jobs as he doesn't know how to pay his next rent, and he and Oskar end up joining a no budget student film just to not fade into irrelevancy. In the same episode Leo and Emil attempt to sell their belongings at a flea market because, as Leo states, money is tight (Emil is working on his music career with Max, which doesn't make any money at this point, and Leo doesn't do anything aside from occasional waiting jobs). After this, however, the money issue is never brought up again during the season despite none of the guys having an apparent source of income. The season ends with Bruno and Oskar rejoining their show and Emil scoring a record deal, which solves their money problems.
• The Friends Who Never Hang:
  • In the first season, Leo only has very limited interactions with any of the other guys, mostly appearing in his own subplots, in the few group scenes, or not at all. This is particularly blatant in episode six, where he misses out on a car seat for the camping trip and gets left behind, as well as the season finale, where Bruno brings Leo along to the coming out event as his "boyfriend"; the scene that sets this up is the only instance of them interacting the entire season, but afterwards they immediately end up in separate subplots. This is not the case in season two, where he has a good amount of screentime with Bruno, Max, and especially Emil. Leo/Oskar remains a mostly unused pairing, however.
  • Bruno and Max interact sometimes and share a subplot with Leo in episode fifteen, but they don't have any one-on-one scenes together.
  • After being the most common pairing for subplots in season one (and by far the most common one in the web series as well), in season two Bruno and Emil only appear in two scenes together without any other characters, both in the finale.
• Glory Days: Emil and Leo reminisce about their school days, with Leo saying that he was a leader back then (Emil states that his behavior was close to bullying, which Leo denies) and Emil recalling how much he used to party and date.
  Leo: It's a bit sad, isn't it?
  Emil: What?
  Leo: Back then we thought we'd go on to something big.
  Emil: But we did! I'm making music, and you... you're pretty good at gaming.
• Grand Romantic Gesture: Emil attempts this in episode four to make up for his earlier Faking the Dead stunt by spraying Marie's name on a train. He actually convinces Marie to meet him and stand in a spot where the train passes… from the side he didn't spray on.
• Granola Girl: Max's girlfriend Isabella is a free spirit who wants to broaden her horizons both intellectually and sexually. She casually tells Max to his great discomfort that she and her fellow students will spend orientation day finger-painting their naked bodies.
• Grew a Spine: After two seasons of caving to all of Isabella's demands, Max puts his foot down when she wants to join Paulus and him in the bathtub, saying there's no room for her. This makes Isabella realize her idea of a polyamorous relationship where she calls all the shots is not going to work out.
• The Grunting Orgasm: The first thing we see of Leo is him doing this while having sex with Jonas, who appears less than satisfied, as Leo pays no attention to him.
• Happy Ending Override: At the end of episode five, Max is down in the dumps, having been unable to sell a single product from his clothing line (and Isabella telling him they need to open up their relationship) when he suddenly receives a large order for his sweaters. Three minutes into the next episode, he finds the entire stash of clothes in the closet of the guys' apartment; it turns out that Bruno and Oskar ordered them out of pity, and Max was still unable to actually gain a single customer. The storyline is then dropped for the rest of the season.
• Hellistics: The Camping Episode splits into two storylines when the guys flee from a thunderstorm in the night and seek shelter with people they'd met during the day, and dovetail in the end through a series of events: Chris, the comedian whose party Max and Oskar crash, happens to be booked for a set at the hostel where Bruno and Emil spent the night. Because Oskar stole Chris's cocaine, he's unable to perform and runs off the stage, so Emil and Bruno decide to deliver an impromptu comedy show. The doctor who oversees the group of hospice patients at the hostel is, by incredibly Contrived Coincidence, Max's doctor who diagnosed him with scabies at the beginning of the episode. When he recognizes Max and Oskar (who took a cab to the show along with Chris) in the audience, he connects the dots and realizes that the guys are a group who have broken their quarantine and spread the disease around. He orders Max and Oskar on stage with Emil and Bruno and gives them a dressing down in front of the shocked and angry crowd.
• High-Five Left Hanging: Max does this to Emil when the latter tries to get a high five after they've sprayed a train with a love message to Emil's ex; considering Max twisted his ankle climbing over a fence to get to the tracks and Emil accidentally covered his back with spray seconds before, it's no wonder that he doesn't share Emil's enthusiasm.
• Historical Character's Fictional Relative: Nyla, the teenage girl Emil meets, turns out to be the daughter of famous German hip-hop artist Sido.
• Hitler Ate Sugar: Emil gets upset when he sees Marie talking to one of her fellow students. Commenting on his mullet, he says that guys with that kind of hairstyle are just going along with a trend and are thus also the kind of people who would have voted for the Nazis.
• Home-Early Surprise: As part of his affair with his boss's wife, Bruno decides to surprise her naked in her bedroom. Naturally, she's late and it's his boss who actually discovers him. Bruno gets into a sticky situation, but not in the way he expected: His boss believes he was actually trying to surprise him, and what's more, he turns out to be very interested.
• Hope Spot: After having tried to win her back all season, Emil is ecstatic when Marie asks him to meet her at the local outdoor swimming pool. There, however, Emil realizes Marie is just using him for an Operation: Jealousy ploy, as she is actually trying to win a different ex-boyfriend of hers back.
• Idiosyncratic Wipes: The scene transitions feature rapid-fire editing, still photographs, the camera "running up" staircases, behind-the-scenes footage in black and white or sepia tones and various other visual quirks.
• Immediate Self-Contradiction: Infected with scabies, Bruno and Emil wrestle with their conscience whether to accept the girls' invitation inside during a thunderstorm. They try to convince each other and themselves that their infection has already receded, and question whether they had it first place… while Bruno wildly scratches his leg.

• Improv: The show's scripts are outlines and descriptions of what is to happen in a given scene, the dialogue is improvised.
• Incredibly Lame Fun: Isabella asks Max to come up with three wishes to spice up their sex life, and she does so likewise; while hers are actually risqué (a threesome, pegging, visiting a sex club), his suggestions are "sex in the living room" and doing it blindfolded.
  Isabella: We have sex in the dark anyway. Why cover the eyes?
• Indignant Slap: Oskar receives one from Giovanka, who plays the Damsel in Distress during the LARP game, after she meets the real Keno there and realizes Oskar had previously attempted to deceive her by posing as him.
• Instantly Proven Wrong:
  • On a train ride from Munich to Hamburg after an audition, Bruno overhears two girls talking about the climate crisis and tries to charm his way into the conversation by saying domestic flights should be forbidden, claiming that he insisted on taking a train when the production company organized him a flight. Right afterwards, the train conductor shows up and tells him that he's eligible for the first-class compartment due to his flight being cancelled.
  • Right after Bruno and Oskar try to convince themselves their show has lots of young fans, they are recognized by two middle-aged ladies.
• Interplay of Sex and Violence: It doesn't quite get violent, but while high on drugs, Leo and Jonas' cuddling turns into a sort of wrestling match determining who gets to top the other, ending when Jonas manages to pin Leo down.
• Introductory Opening Credits: The opening credits only feature the characters being identified by their first names. Although this would still apply otherwise, considering all leads star as themselves, it plays out more like the common example of this trope.
• Irony: When they audition for a role, Bruno tells Emil they have no shot since they aren't diverse enough, so Emil claims to be non-binary. The audition goes well, but the casting directors can't decide between him and another guy, so they leave the decision to the leading lady after a conversation with both. After some initial awkwardness, Emil is able to win her over with his natural charm and confidence (whereas his competitor is a bit of a dork), but then accidentally reveals that he isn't actually non-binary. Before getting thrown out, the casting directors tell him that his identity never mattered to them, so had Emil just been himself, he would've landed the role.
• It Came from the Fridge: Florian asks Leo to open the fridge for him, which is harder than it sounds. When he manages to open it, they are greeted with the remains of obviously long expired stuff; Leo pulls Florian away from the fridge as if he's scared of something being poisonous on touch. After a baffled Florian asks what the roommates live off, Leo opens the freezer only to find it empty.
  Leo: But usually we got fishsticks in there! And sometimes chicken nuggets as well. But... mostly just fishsticks.
• Jerkass Ball: Max is usually one of the more reasonable members of the group, but in the second season premiere, he (as Emil's manager) becomes annoyed with Emil hiring Leo as the director for his first music video. He attempts to convince Emil that all of Leo's good-faith efforts to direct the video, including a suggestion to appear on-camera as a fan, are nothing but a secret ploy to hog the spotlight.
• Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Oskar's an ass in general and a particular one to Keno, the nerdy son of his landlord who looks up to him. In both episodes with Keno, Oskar, despite barely hiding his annoyance, does something semi-nice at first (giving Keno advice on how to approach his online girlfriend after inviting her over; giving him the shield he finds during the LARP game, which enables the player to challenge in a duel) only to screw him over later (when the girl shows up, Oskar claims to be Keno; when he discovers there's a pretty maiden to be "won" in the LARP game, he destroys the shield while Keno's not looking).
• Jump Scare: Charlotte and Isabella, suspicious of Emil’s claim that Nyla, who he has introduced as his girlfriend, is really eighteen, attempt to listen in on a conversation they have outside — only for Oskar to suddenly appear at the window going Boo!, scaring them both.
• "Just Joking" Justification: When talking to his potential co-star during an audition, Emil thinks it's a good idea to recount his Twincest experience with Oskar as funny anecdote, but quickly backtracks when the girl turns out to be disturbed rather than amused.
• Language Barrier: Roland Møller only speaks broken German mixed with English, which makes conversation difficult and explains why he has no patience for Bruno and Oskar's improv attempts. He repeatedly tells them to "stick to the Linien", a literal (and wrong) translation of the English word "lines".
• LARP: In episode seven, Keno invites Oskar to a LARP session in the local park, which he agrees to, bringing along Max and Leo, to prevent being thrown out of his and Emil's apartment by Keno's dad. Leo punches one player who criticizes him for smoking and gets banned, while Max meets a girl that is seemingly more "normal" than Isabella but turns out to be even kinkier. The initially highly irritated Oskar becomes interested in the game when he starts to believe that whoever "rescues" the Damsel in Distress genuinely gets to spend a night with her as a reward. When he wins the final duel and tries to take her home, her, the other players and the game leader are appalled since they've been fighting against the Nerds Are Pervs stereotype.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Leo's poor treatment of Florian (cheating on and constantly lying to him, insisting on their fixed roles in the bedroom despite Flo expressing interest in topping) eventually catches up with him when Jonas, his affair, gets him to bottom for the first time while high on drugs, which turns out to be a very painful experience. When Florian walks in on him cooling his butt in the shower afterwards, Leo covers by claiming he wants Florian to top him for once and is preparing for that. However, he subsequently can't handle Flo trying to enter him and finally cops to the affair. Not only does he get immediately dumped, he later also finds out Florian and Jonas are now a couple.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Bruno's first scene has him arguing with his director about his tendency to improvise. Of course, the dialogue in the scene as well as the show as a whole is improvised.
• Le Film Artistique: Bruno and Oskar join a student film that consists of black-and-white footage of animals copulating, lead actor Merlin Sandmeyer delivering a melodramatic monologue about his character deciding to commit suicide and Oskar playing the personification of the patriarchy (though he's cut from the finished product).
• Limited Social Circle: Except for their respective partners, the guys only hang out with each other; Oskar and Emil aren't able to get anyone but their three friends and their landlord's son to attend their birthday party. Brought up several times in season two. In episode twelve, the boys point out that they used to have a bigger social circle, but over time it shrank down to only them. The same episode reveals that Max actually has a different set of friends at a techno club he regularly visits with Isabella. When the others make a scene there, Max angrily states that it's no wonder nobody else wants to have anything to do with them. And in the finale, Emil is so desperate to spend the couples' weekend at the countryhouse with the others (since he doesn't know anyone else) that he asks teenage Nyla to pose as his girlfriend.
• Long List: When Bruno and Oskar chat up an extra on set, Bruno rattles off a list of TV shows he's already been in to impress her. Oskar dismissively refers to them as a bunch of crap.
• Lost in Character: Bruno claims that he suffers from PTSD due to him identifying with his roles too much, though it's just a ploy to impress Paulita with how intensely method he supposedly is.
• Lousy Lovers Are Losers: Max and Leo are both introduced via sex scenes. Their performances are representative of their major character flaws: Uptight Max can barely bring himself to look at his girlfriend and pulls out before climaxing, while insensitive Leo only cares about his own gratification and just shrugs when Jonas points out he didn't even get to come.
• Love Dodecahedron: Comes into play mostly through Oskar, who throughout the show sleeps with Emil's ex-girlfriend Marie, Bruno's love interest Alice, and Max's girlfriend Isabella; Max and Isabella attempt a polyamorous relationship with Paulus, who Leo had previously slept with; Leo's ex-boyfriend Florian and his ex-lover Jonas become a couple.
• Love at First Sight: Bruno instantly falls for both of his season-long love interests, Alice in season 1 and Paulita in season 2.
• Love Triangle: Several:
  • After having cheated on Florian with Jonas and gotten dumped over it, Leo finds out Florian and Jonas have gotten together.
  • Emil is trying to get back together with Marie, who attempts to seduce Oskar. The latter refuses until finding out Emil took a role from him and decides to have sex with Marie as revenge.
  • Bruno has an affair with Alice, the wife of his director, Felix, who believes Bruno is in love with him… and reciprocates his "feelings".
  • And then it's revealed that not only Bruno has been having sexual relations with Alice, so has Oskar.
• Mandatory Line: Whereas the others all have storylines in all eight episodes of the first season, Leo only makes brief appearances in two of them:
  • In episode three, he doesn't show up until the birthday party near the end, and only speaks once when giving the twins their present. (A subplot with Leo and Florian was cut from the episode, although the official episode description still mentions it.)
  • In episode six, he only appears during the first four minutes where the boys hang around at home with scabies, being left behind while the others go on a camping trip. He's Out of Focus during these four minutes as well, not getting an individual moment and his most prominent line being an annoyed "Bye, guys" as he watches the others leave.
• Masculine–Feminine Gay Couple: Leo and Florian. Unfortunately, Leo very much buys into all the assorted stereotypes and tells Florian to his face that the latter is the "woman" in the relationship.
  Leo: I don't mean biologically speaking, just… of course we're both men… but on a social...
  Florian: …level we're a gay couple between two men.
  Leo: …in which you're the woman.
  Florian: I'm not a woman! And I'm not gonna turn into one because, I dunno, I'm letting you pay for my coffee once in a while… or because I'm bossy? Is it that? Cause you're the top you’re the "male part"? If Isabella takes Max from behind, does that make her the man in their relationship then?
  Leo: In that moment, maybe, yeah.
  Florian: Is this the only way you can feel comfortable with being gay?
• Men Can't Keep House:
  • Bruno, Max, and Leo's apartment is a complete mess, with garbage lying around everywhere, dirty dishes being cleaned in the shower, and the only contents in the fridge looking like they're about to come alive.
  • Emil and Oskar's apartment is in much better shape and rather nicely furnished (it's said that they're subtenants), but Oskar's idea of "cleaning up" before his date arrives is spitting on a table to remove a stain and throwing several used tissues scattered around his bed out of the window.
• Method Acting: In-Universe, when Oskar's scene partner Ruby asks him for advice after they struggle to film a sex scene, he tells her that he can "feel" that she's acting, and that she needs to lose herself in the role. Inspired by this, Ruby announces that she'll take the lead on the next take; after passionately making out, she encourages Oskar to take off his modesty pouch, and they have sex for real while the cameras roll. An oblivious Felix praises them for their excellent performances.
• Mistaken for Gay: Felix believes Bruno to be gay after he finds him naked in his bed (he was trying to surprise Felix' wife instead).
• Mistaken for Pedophile: In season 2, Emil befriends Nyla, a fourteen year old. Her father and her English teacher suspect that he's her boyfriend; when he seeks validation from her and her friends that he's hotter than a classmate of hers, they ask him if he's a "pedo"; and in the finale, he convinces her to act as his eighteen year-old girlfriend so he can attend Oskar and Charlotte's couples' dinner party. When the truth comes out, a disturbed Isabella accuses Emil of trying to pressure Nyla into having sex. However, as problematic as the situation is even without the sexual aspect (as pointed out by the characters), Emil genuinely is just an immature idiot and not at all interested in Nyla that way.
• Mistaken for Related: When Max and Isabella visit clothing stores to convince them to sell Max's sweaters, one of the clerks recognizes Isabella and assumes that she and Max are siblings. When Max questions her about it, she admits she recently met the guy at a party she didn't tell Max about, making him suspect the worst (although she denies it).
• Mood Whiplash: Episode seven dials up the Cringe Comedy levels even more than usual, but also has the show's one genuinely dramatic moment when Leo breaks down crying after overhearing his ex-lovers badmouthing him on the bus.
• Montage Out: The first season as a whole ends with one, showing Bruno and Oskar about to have sex with Alice when Felix walks in on them; Leo trashing his room in frustration after finding out Florian is now dating Jonas; Max watching Isabella having sex with another couple in the sex club, unwilling to join in; and only Emil getting a happy ending: having finally given up on trying to win back Marie, he shares a kiss with his old friend Selma.
• Most Gamers Are Male: Discussed when Leo and Emil try to sell their belongings at a flea market and notice they are almost the only guys there. Leo asks Emil what he's supposed to do with the PlayStation and video games he brought along and scoffs at the suggestion that women can be gamers as well, stating that no girl has ever managed to beat him at one.
• Movie-Making Mess: Emil asks Leo to direct his first music video, but Max, as Emil's manager, is against all of Leo's ideas and accuses him of trying to hog the spotlight. When the tension between them is about to escalate, Emil notices that the rapper T-Low is nearby. The guys attempt to convince him to feature in Emil's video, but it only results in him stealing their camera and sending the footage to "Arschrap" (ass rap), an account dedicated to making fun of Dreadful Musicians.
• Mrs. Robinson: Alice, the wife of Felix, Bruno and Oskar's director, is a middle-aged woman who's bored with her marriage and derives pleasure from younger guys serving her. Her affair with Bruno goes strictly by her rules, as she only lets him perform oral sex on her.
• Must Have Nicotine: When a player tells Leo glasses are allowed during LARP as he needs to see, Leo counters that he needs cigarettes to "come down". When the other guy doesn't relent, Leo attacks him physically and promptly gets banned from the game. Later, while riding the bus, he overhears Florian talking about how terrible their relationship was, and has to exit in a hurry for a Cigarette of Anxiety.
• My Girl Is Not a Slut: Max is rather irritated by the fact that Isabella has a porn site opened on her tablet and plans to attend orientation day in skimpy clothing. It's more due to his own prudishness than his belief in a Double Standard, though.
• Nerds Are Virgins: Oskar watches Keno gaming and then needles him with questions, clearly expecting all three answers.
  Oskar: Ever fucked?
  Keno: [beat] Nuh-uh.
  Oskar: Ever kissed a girl?
  Keno: [annoyed] Also no.
  Oskar: Ever jacked off?
  Keno: [sheepishly] ...Yes.
• New Friend Envy: After discussing how they never hang out with anyone else, the others discover Max regularly goes to a night club where ping pong is being played and has a different set of friends there. They don't take it well, especially considering Max is usually the Butt-Monkey among them. When he gives a speech on the greatness of "techno table tennis", Leo interrupts him to nastily point out what a poor storyteller he is, causing Bruno, Emil and Oskar to laugh. Max blows up at them with a "The Reason You Suck" Speech and is consoled by the other clubgoers.
• No Ending: In a similar fashion to other Cringe Comedies, several plotlines just finish on a particularly uncomfortable beat with no real resolution and sometimes a mild form of Snap Back. Episode one, for instance, ends with Isabella being angry at Max for going along with Emil's Faking the Dead scheme and trying to guilt-trip her for watching porn, but despite the next episode taking place the day after, none of it is brought up again. That episode in turn ends with Florian finding out about Leo's attempt to drive him out of the apartment, which we also see no fallout from (Leo just mentions how bad things have been between them recently two episodes later).
• No Full Name Given: With a few exceptions, only those who appear as themselves have known surnames. Most of the supporting cast (Florian, Isabella, Charlotte and others) are only given first names.
• No Such Thing as Bad Publicity: In-Universe, when Oskar and Bruno wonder if they're irrelevant after their apology for their fake coming out makes no waves whatsoever, their co-star Fahri suggests they need to deliberately court controversy to get into the spotlight. They go on a talk show to do so, but have to contend with Fynn Kliemann, a previously cancelled celebrity who advocates for spanking children on air. As a backup plan, Oskar and Bruno decide to get naked on the spot, but are escorted from the studio before they can fully go through with it.
• Not-So-Fake Prop Weapon: invoked Before filming a scene where he is supposed to throw a bottle to the ground, Bruno switches out the prop, made of fake glass, with a real bottle to hit himself over the head with so he can impress everyone (and especially Paulita, the director) with his Method Acting. Unfortunately, his scene partner Merlin improvises and hits himself with the bottle. He manages to finish the scene while bleeding profusely from the head, earning the entire crew's admiration. Annoyed, Bruno reveals what he did and demands credit for his "creative achievement", but all he gets is a slap from Merlin.
• Oblivious to Hints: When Oskar, Charlotte, Isabella and Max discuss polyamory, Oskar and Isabella make it clear that they're very intrigued by the idea and set their sights on each other. They excuse themselves to have sex in the kitchen, expecting Charlotte and Max to do so likewise only to be surprised to find them still awkwardly sitting across each other upon their return, not having understood at all what Oskar and Isabella had been hinting at.
• Obnoxious In-Laws: Max is intimidated by Isabella's dad, who in turn is obviously unimpressed by the meek Max.
• Obstructive Bureaucrat: Episode five has Leo trying to see a doctor for a strange itch on his hand, but having lost both his insurance card (which he needs to see the doctor) and passport (which he needs to report his missing insurance card), he gets sent back and forth between a clinic, the government bureau, and the police, and everybody involved is as unhelpful as possible. The subplot is never actually resolved in that episode. By the next one, the problem has spread to Max, who visits a doctor and gets diagnosed (with scabies, as it turns out).
• Older Than They Look: When Isabella and Charlotte wonder why Emil's supposedly eighteen-year-old date Nyla looks so young, he claims that she suffers from Kallmann Syndrome, which has stunted her growth.
• One-Hour Work Week: Emil, Oskar, and Bruno are seen working (or auditioning) regularly, but also have seemingly all the time in the world for various hijinks (Bruno and Oskar's show seems to have an unrealistically loose schedule, shooting the same episode for weeks). Leo is implied to work odd jobs. Then there's Max, whose storyline involves trying to get his clothing line going, which he appears to have invested quite a bit of money in; presumably this requires a regular job, but we never get to see what he actually does for a living.
• Open Relationship Failure: Isabella declares she wants an open relationship after Max is unable to satisfy her in bed. Max goes along with it to please her, but initially does not want to pursue anyone else. Their visit to a sex club ends with Isabella having a threesome and Max unwilling to join in. In season two, Isabella decides that she outright wants a polyamorous relationship.
• Opposites Attract: The show starts out with two of the guys being in long-term relationships with partners who are very different from them, inhibited Max with the outgoing Isabella and emotionally distant Leo with the chirpy, chatty Florian. It quickly becomes clear that both relationships are fundamentally dysfunctional, and both fall apart over the course of the season. While Florian initially seems very happy with Leo, after their break-up he vents to Jonas that "nothing ever worked" between them, which Leo overhears.
• Out of Focus: Of the five guys, Leo has by far the least screen time: In two episodes, he only shows up briefly (in episode three, he only appears at the birthday party near the end, and in episode six, he is not part of the camping trip), and his subplots in the latter half of the first season are relatively brief as well. In season 2, he generally has more screentime, but on the other hand he's also completely absent from episode fourteen.
• Out with a Bang: When they visit their grandma in the retirement home, Emil becomes frustrated when all the love goes to TV star Oskar. Only one elderly lady does not care about getting Oskar's autograph or watching an episode of his show, for which the attention- and affection-starved Emil is so grateful that that he has sex with her. Unfortunately, this ends up causing her a fatal heart attack.
• Quarantine Failure: When the guys have to isolate themselves, being infected with the scabies, they decide to spend the time camping at the beach. But in the night a thunderstorm drives them out of their tents, causing them to give up on their "quarantine". Oskar and Max crash a house party, while Bruno and Emil seek refuge with some girls they met earlier in the day and then find out that they're a group of terminally ill youths in hospice care.
• Parental Favoritism: The twins' grandma very blatantly favors Oskar for being a TV star and dismisses Emil's thoughtful birthday present for her. Emil doesn't help his case when he has sex with one of the residents at the retirement home, which accidentally kills her.
  Grandma Iris: I wish Oskar would've eaten you in the womb.
• Passive-Aggressive Kombat: When Bruno and Jonas meet at an audition, they get into an Argument of Contradictions about whether the roles they applied for are both leads.
• The Peeping Tom: In the local gym, Bruno shares the sauna with a guy, Uwe, who sings the praises of his new camera, stating that it remained in perfect condition even after his wife broke both her arms while biking with it. After a couple of women enter, Bruno realizes that Uwe uses said camera to secretly film people, and when he forgets it afterwards, he enlists Bruno to get it back while he sounds the fire alarm. Bruno cooperates since he wants to find out the name and phone number of one of the women, but when Uwe afterwards boasts about having countless videos of sauna visitors including children, Bruno decides to call the police.
• Plagiarism in Fiction: Emil books a recording session thanks to his mother giving him money, but can't come up with a song. Max then swipes a lyrics sheet from Booz, the rapper recording in the neighboring studio, and pretends to think of the song on the spot towards Emil, who, despite the lyrics being about losing one's parents, decides to use them. Trouble arises when Emil manages to convince Booz to open for him, with Max neither being able to tell Emil that he stole the lyrics beforehand nor to prevent Booz from listening to the performance, which falls flat anyway to Emil's mother unexpectedly being in attendance.
• Picked Last: When Leo, Emil and Florian play dodgeball with Nyla and her friends, Emil embarrasses himself by stepping forward early during the team choosing process only for the captains to prefer everyone else over him. Florian, who has bad memories from gym class and fully expected to be picked last, is especially delighted.
• Playing Hard to Get: Oskar advises Leo against calling Florian to talk things over, saying that acting aloof instead of actively trying to win him back will make Florian more interested. Max disagrees, saying that playing games like that might work while newly in love, but not in established relationships. Oskar is seemingly vindicated when Florian ends Leo's phone call after a few seconds; what none of them know is that by this time, Florian is already about to enter a new relationship with Jonas.
• Politically Incorrect Hero: Played with. The boys are, in many ways, essentially progressive zoomers who are non-judgmental and would not go out of their way to be offensive, but keep doing very stupid things due to their self-centeredness. The one time it's played more or less straight is when Bruno blows an audition and declares that he only failed because he doesn't hit any diversity points.
• Polyamory: In season 2, Isabella moves on from wanting an open relationship with Max to a polyamorous one. As usual, Max goes along for the ride without really being into the idea. Isabella chooses Paulus to be their partner and starts having sex with him without Max's knowledge. Unexpectedly, however, Max and Paulus actually begin to bond to the point that it's Isabella who feels left out.
• Pooping Where You Shouldn't: Oskar has a hang-up about using the bathroom when a woman is potentially nearby (including his girlfriend Charlotte). On set, he refuses to use the unisex toilet, instead going into a storage room to poop in a bucket. Unfortunately, Charlotte visits the set right then, and Bruno decides to troll Oskar by directing her to the storage room, where she catches him in the act.
• Power Dynamics Kink: Isabella attempts to be the dominant partner in her throuple with Paulus and Max, but they don't really play along, making for very awkward moments.
• Precap: The pilot opens with a highlight reel of the entire season (plus some real-life photos and additional footage of the boys hanging out). It makes for a fitting introduction to the show's montage-heavy and fast-paced editing style, but was probably also done because the episode proper begins In Medias Res with almost no set-up or exposition and for much of the runtime, the only thing that links the three storylines together is that two of the characters are obviously brothers. The cast doesn't appear together until the final scene and is only established as a friend group by the opening montage before that.
• Preferable Impersonator: When filling in for his brother on set, Emil instantly does a much better (and more motivated) job than Oskar usually does.
• The Prima Donna: Oskar and Bruno try to pull off this act when they agree to act in a student film they consider beneath them. However, the film doesn't have the budget to accommodate their wishes for a driver or their own trailer. During a break, Oskar demands freshly brewed coffee expecting Bruno to join him, but Bruno, having fallen for the director, changes his tune and says that he is invoked Doing It for the Art. Oskar doesn't back down from his demand, causing a very awkward scene when Paulita, the director, decides to take care of Oskar's coffee order herself.
• Product Placement:
  • Max's clothing line exists in real life, run by the actual Max Mattis, and its existence predates the show by several years. Comes with a heavy dose of Self-Deprecation though, as it's a flop In-Universe and the fictionalized Max is portrayed as too timid and indecisive to properly run a business.
  • Many of the places seen in the show (the gym the characters frequent, the café Leo briefly works at, the club Max and Isabella visit) are real businesses appearing under their actual names. The catering service of the Show Within a Show Bruno and Oskar star in is the actual show's catering service. And Die Zeit, the newspaper that organizes the "Proudly Gay" event in the first season finale, is of course actually one of Germany's foremost newspapers, with its longtime editor-in-chief cameoing as himself. Macbooks, on the other hand, always have their logos obscured by stickers.
• Ready for Lovemaking: Bruno tries to convince Alice to finally sleep with him (they are having an affair, but she only wants oral sex performed on her) by covering her bedroom in rose petals and presenting himself nude on the bed. Too bad her husband shows up first.
• Real Award, Fictional Character: An amusing variation: Jonas is said to have beaten Bruno at the New Faces Award in 2021 (Bruno unconvincingly claims he didn't enter the competition). The real Bruno Alexander, however, did win said award, while the real Jonas Nay is also a previous winner, but his actual win dates back to 2012. The fictional 2021 award to Jonas is later seen in his apartment.
• Realistic Diction Is Unrealistic: Averted; since the dialogue is mostly ad-libbed, there's a great deal of half-formed sentences, characters talking over each other, and repetitiveness ("Diggah", the Northern German expression for "dude" or "bro", tends to come up in practically every sentence when the boys talk among themselves, with Bruno almost to the point of a Verbal Tic).
• Real Life Writes the Plot: Though a lot is fictionalized, some plot elements and biographical details are directly based on the guys' real lives, while others are twisted to fit the show’s Cringe Comedy. For example, Emil Belton really did start releasing songs between the first and second season, but without the deliberate Stylistic Suck elements of show Emil's "Ketapan" persona.
• Redundant Romance Attempt: Bruno instantly falls for Paulita, the director of the art film he gets a role in, and puts on an overly sophisticated and politically correct persona to impress her. Paulita is not very impressed by his efforts, but likes him nonetheless. She eventually gets him to admit that he is much more "chaotic" than he had wanted her to believe.
• Remember the New Guy?: In season 2, Oskar suddenly has a girlfriend named Charlotte, and they're already serious enough that she moves in with him. The show's timeline, however, is vague; everything but the resolution to the cliffhanger of Oskar and Bruno's fake coming out, which only makes sense if it takes place immediately after the end of the first season, suggests that quite some time has passed.
• Right in Front of Me: Emil talks to Lucas, another ex-boyfriend of Marie's, without mentioning his name. Lucas then brings up Emil and starts to mock him. Emil doesn't reveal who he is, but finally comes to realize he's been wasting his time trying to win Marie back.
  Lucas: That guy's a total weirdo, according to her… total creep who stalked her. Apparently he's got a disgusting third nipple [the camera pans to the band-aid Emil has covered up his extra nipple with] — she was so turned off by it that nothing ever happened between them in the bedroom, cause she found it so disgusting. So during the last two months, I "helped her out" sexually, you get me... and after we broke up, she banged his twin brother!
• Ripped from the Headlines: In 2023-24, Gigi D'Agostino's song "L'amour toujours" started being repurposed into an anti-immigrant anthem by racists in Germany who were singing the slogan "Germany to the Germans, foreigners out" to its melody at various events. This becomes a plot point in episode fifteen when Bruno, Leo and Max get invited to a boat party by a bunch of rich kids who chant the slogan to the song while the guys stand around awkwardly. The boat passes a barbecue organized by Collien, an actress and producer who had just promised Bruno a role in her new film and immediately fires him upon spotting him on the boat. The ending credits include the message "We heart Gigi – FCK NZS".
• Roommate Com: Hits most of the hallmarks: urban setting, twentysomething cast (albeit early instead of mid- or late twenties, which makes everyone's immaturity a bit more palatable), dating foibles, Slice of Life, Seinfeldian Conversation, One-Hour Work Week etc., but downplays the roommates part, as only relatively little of the action takes place within either of the apartments.
• Self-Proclaimed Love Interest: Emil is quite delusional in thinking he still has a shot with his ex, who is very obviously done with him, and uses some Insane Troll Logic to justify it. When he refers to them at being at a bad point in their relationship, Max has to remind him that they aren't in a relationship at all currently. It takes him the entire season (and finding out she slept with Oskar) to get over her.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: When Emil wonders why he can't win over girls, Leo launches into a tirade about him needing to become an "alpha male" or settle for the role of the "beta". They are overheard by Paulus, a Sensitive Artist who challenges Leo's beliefs. Although their philosophies are very different and they don't find much common ground, they still end up in bed together.
• Sequel Non-Entity: Alice doesn't reappear in season 2, with Felix only briefly mentioning having forgiven Oskar and Bruno for their tryst with her (although it contributes to his decision to fire them when they skip out on a shoot). Emil's seemingly happy ending with Selma is also not followed up upon.
• Sex Montage: Episode four, aptly titled "Sexszene", cuts between three sex scenes during its, ahem, climax (Oskar and Ruby, while filming a sex scene, start doing it for real; Alice lets Bruno go down on her; Leo attempts to let Florian fuck him, but he's still too sore from just having cheated on him).
• Shirtless Scene: The guys tend to lounge around in their underwear when by themselves, and most episodes have at least one of them shirtless or nude.
• Show Within a Show: SOKO Undercover, the "Vorabendserie" (pre-prime time program) Bruno and Oskar star in. It's a fictional spinoff of the real SOKO franchise (SOKO stands for Sonderkommission, special investigative team) that airs on ZDF, the second German public broadcasting channel. Bruno and Oskar play a pair of drug dealers, which somehow amounts to lead roles.
• The Slacker: We only see Leo working once, as a waiter. He only serves his friends and then sits down with them, complains about his boss within earshot, promises to do a better job only to immediately take a smoking break, and then abandons the whole thing when the others leave without paying and the opportunity to have sex arises. His room also consists of practically nothing but a mattress and a clothes rack and he's shown to be short on cash, suggesting he's just barely getting by.
• Small Name, Big Ego: Bruno and Oskar are actors who are convinced they don't need to learn their lines and can just wing it. When an audition goes wrong, Bruno is convinced he's just "too straight and white" instead of genuinely not good enough.
• Smooth-Talking Talent Agent: Stefanie, Bruno and Oskar’s agent, is usually either exasperated or enraged by their antics, but knows how to turn on her charm and is very forceful when it comes to putting her clients into the spotlight. Subverted when it's revealed that the boys have been almost completely cut out of their movie during the premiere, as she can only mutter "I hate you" as Bruno and Oskar leave the theatre.
• Smug Snake: Jonas Nay, while superficially friendly, gives Oskar and Bruno career advice that oozes Condescending Compassion, and badmouths Leo (although Leo never gave him a reason to) in front of Florian in an apparent (and successful) ploy to get together with him.
• Snowball Lie: Bruno pretends to be gay as a cover story to keep his affair with Felix's wife coming out. Felix then asks him to come out publicly at an event, where he realizes presenting as his "authentic" self might land him a major role. An envious Oskar decides to "come out" as bi to have a chance as well.
• Standalone Episode: The penultimate episode of season 2 is notable in that it has no ties to any of the season's storylines at all and doesn't really seem to fit into its continuity either: Oskar gets celebrated as the star of SOKO Undercover at his grandma's retirement home despite having been fired in the beginning of the season. (While it's possible his final episodes would only air at this point, the question remains why the jealous Emil wouldn't tell everyone that Oskar is no longer on the show.)
• Straight Gay: Leo, to a fault. He has no stereotypical mannerisms at all but it's also suggested he isn't all that comfortable with his sexuality. He's emotionally closed off, insists on always topping during sex and has a very heteronormative view of his relationship (i.e. he considers himself the "man"). At one point Florian flat-out asks him if presenting himself like this is the only way he can feel comfortable with being gay; Leo doesn't answer but the implication is clearly that it's true.
• Strange Minds Think Alike: When the news of Emil's "death" reaches Oskar and Bruno (which is just a part of a trick to win back his ex), they are confused for a second… and then immediately deduce that there's nothing to worry about because Emil is obviously just trying to win back his ex. More of a case of Jerkass minds think alike.
• Stylistic Suck: invoked SOKO Undercover is shown to be a Cliché Storm crime drama with stilted dialogue and intrusive music.
• Successful Sibling Syndrome: In comparison to his twin brother Emil, Oskar is much more confident, better at flirting, and less prone to blunders. As an actor on a show with an elderly target audience, he's also the favorite of their grandma and a superstar at her retirement home, causing Emil quite a bit of frustration.
• Sudden Soundtrack Stop: After having spent all day unsuccessfully trying to obtain a document so that he can go see a doctor, Leo pleads with the Obstructive Bureaucrat to help him. As she takes his hand, the background organ music swells up… then abruptly stops as she simply says no.
• Sure, Let's Go with That: When caught by Felix in his attempt to surprise his wife all Ready for Lovemaking, Bruno is initially relieved when Felix believes Bruno was actually trying to seduce him and plays along, but things become more complicated when Felix suggests Bruno take part in an event where closeted celebrities come out publicly and then makes a pass at him. Then Alice arrives, and Bruno hastily agrees to Felix's suggestion to get out of the situation. At the event, Bruno realizes presenting as gay might get him a breakthrough role, and becomes eager to keep up the charade.
• Swallow the Key: In episode three, Bruno and Emil join a couple of environmentalists who chain themselves to trees to stop their demolition and then swallow the keys. Emil and Bruno go along with the former but neither of them will do the latter (since they only went along with the group in first place because they were looking for people to invite to the twins' birthday party later that evening). They end up throwing away the key when nobody's looking, and are rescued by Max later.
• Take It to the Bridge: The first episode ends with the boys (except for Max) actually pulling off the stunt that supposedly claimed Emil's life earlier by jumping off a bridge into the Alster. This functions as a Series Establishing Moment as it sums up the characters' (and by extension, the show's) carefree and irreverent attitude.
• Take That!: Straight male entitlement and insecurity, such as Bruno's belief that not belonging to a minority hinders him from getting good roles, is clearly portrayed as ridiculous.
• Test Kiss: At Isabella's urging, Max goes on a test date with Paulus to find out if he could see the three of them having a polyamorous relationship. Max isn't thrilled by the idea, and they initially don't find any common ground either. Paulus surprises him by revealing he has already had sex with Isabella multiple times, something he thought Max knew about. He then suggests they do something they won't tell Isabella, kiss. Max gives him a quick peck and, to his own surprise, finds himself liking it.
• The Thing That Would Not Leave: Leo invites Florian to move in with him, but not even twenty-four hours later he is already sick of him criticizing the messy state of the apartment and declaring that things have to change. He comes up with a half-assed plan to get him to leave by having an actor pose as their landlord and tell Florian he has to move out as there's too many people in the apartment. The ruse falls apart when the actor discovers Leo isn't able to pay him in cash and refuses to play along further. Florian then stays (for the time being).
• A Threesome Is Hot: Isabella is rather keen on having a threesome with Max, never mind the gender of the third party. She even suggests "a threesome with Oskar. Or Emil. Or both". (Max points out that would make it a foursome.) She gets her wish, but it's with another couple in the sex club, with Max only getting to watch.
• Third Wheel: After pushing for a polyamorous relationship despite Max's clear lack of enthusiasm, Isabella finds herself in this position when Max and Paulus actually fall for each other.
• Threw My Bike on the Roof: After getting thrown out of the club after Max calls them out on their poor behavior, the others steal Isabella's bike out of frustration.
• Title-Only Opening: The first season's opening only consists of a title card (the show's logo on a green background, accompanied by a brief music cue) played after the cold open. The second season (and an alternate version of the first one as well) instead features an Extremely Short Intro Sequence consisting of a brief montage of clips and photos.
• Tone Shift: The first season nearly entirely consists of Cringe Comedy, with only two or three brief bits that are played more seriously. The second, despite having just as many outrageous moments, introduces a few Dramedy elements such as a more sincere depiction of the guys' friendship and relationships, with several quieter scenes that aren't primarily comedic.
• Totally Radical: Oskar and Bruno's appearance in their show as skateboarding drug dealers is this. They try to argue that "nobody [our] age has looked like this in twenty years" but are told that they only need to be believable to the show's target group of ages 60 and up. Their director Felix, a middle-aged, dull guy, also uses already kind of passé youth slang such as "lit" in an attempt to appear cool to them.
  Felix: It's Wednesday, my dudes!
• Tragic Keepsake: After hearing that Emil "died", Roland Møller gifts Oskar his late wife's necklace. (Oskar's still wearing it when Møller finds out Emil is alive and flies into a rage.)
  Møller: You can talk to the dead with it.
  Oskar: Thanks, Roland. [fake crying, to Bruno] That'll help me a lot, won't it?
  Bruno: Sure, dude!
• Trauma Button Ending: After being pressured into committing an act of Twincest by their dates, Emil and Oskar are visited by their mother, who notes that they are uncharacteristically mopey. She then recounts an incident from their childhood where Oskar peed on Emil while they were in the bathtub, and when she realizes they are not amused by the story, jokingly asks them if they just got done bathing together again, which is enough to make Emil throw up.
• Triple Nipple: Emil has a third nipple underneath his left chest. It's about the only thing that distinguishes him from Oskar, and Bruno reveals their Twin Switch in episode five by pointing out the extra nipple to the crew of SOKO Undercover. Emil is so self-conscious of it that he used to cover up the nipple with band-aid during his relationship with Marie, but later finds out she knew all along and was so turned off by it that nothing ever happened between them in the bedroom.
• True Art Is Incomprehensible: Leo is irritated by Paulus' art, which consists of abstract and minimalist paintings, and challenges him to draw a completely realistic tree instead. Paulus later attempts to make Leo see the beauty in a mundane chalk drawing left on the ground by kids and suggests they need to smell or roll around in it to truly experience it, which Leo is just confused by.
• Twincest: In episode two, Emil and Oskar's double date takes a disastrous turn when one of the girls turns out to be a former classmate of theirs they used to bully. They decide to do anything she wants in exchange for her not telling anyone about their past, which includes undressing in front of each other and eventually Oskar sucking off Emil (off-screen).
• Twin Switch: On their double date, Emil and Oskar reminisce about the time they switched places in class until a girl told on them (who turns out to be one of their dates). Episode five has them pulling it off in the present day when Oskar convinces Emil to sub in for him during filming of his show since he has a case of herpes. It's played a little more realistically than other instances of this trope in that the switching does not fool people they know: Bruno immediately figures it out and so does Marie when she meets Oskar pretending to be Emil.
• Upper-Class Twit: Invoked when a character calls the guys spoiled Bildungsbürger (lit. educated citizens) with no respect for anything; the terms refers to upper and upper middle class people with higher education and interest in the arts, but in this case is derisively meant as them having no real worries, and as such never thinking about the consequences of their actions.
• Uptight Loves Wild: The free-spirited Isabella and the rather repressed Max are a couple, but it's not going well.
• Urine Trouble: After being forced into an open relationship by Isabella, Max meets a girl at the LARP event who appears to share his distaste for anything that isn't "normal", particularly fetishes. As they are about to kiss, Max excuses himself to pee... only for her to throw herself into the direction of his stream and catch it with her mouth.
• Verbal Backspace: While sitting with Emil and Max instead of working, Leo moans about how annoying is boss is when he gets yelled at by him from behind the counter. When his friends inform him his boss overheard him and is approaching, Leo attempts to save face by loudly proclaiming how much he loves working at the café, but his boss is not fooled.
• Wag the Director: In-Universe, Felix is a bit of a pushover (and wants to be the boys' buddy), so Bruno and Oskar are able to get away with more than they should. When he asks Bruno to get a silly haircut for the sake of his character, Bruno is able to talk him out of it by promising to actually learn his lines for once (and then of course fails to do so).
• Walk of Shame: Several subplots end with one of the boys getting called out after screwing up and walking away while other characters stare at them in anger.
• With Friends Like These...: The boys have little problem screwing each other over (Bruno revealing the Twin Switch purely out of pettiness because Emil outacted him), abandoning each other when trouble arrives (Emil fleeing the scene after graffitiing a train and leaving Max to be caught by the police), or just generally being assholes to one another (Emil, Oskar, and Bruno cheering and gloating as they are about to go on a camping trip while a sour-faced Leo, having missed out on one of the available car seats, bids them goodbye). Bruno and Oskar have a nice Friendship Moment in the first season finale, but it's undercut by the revelation a few scenes later that Oskar is also having an affair with Alice.
• Writing Around Trademarks: Any direct mention of what channel SOKO Undercover airs on is avoided, only the word Öffis, which is a colloquial nickname for the German public broadcasters (Öffentlich-Rechtliche), is used (all real SOKO shows air on ZDF). There’s an In-Universe billboard for the show that only says that it airs "on TV".
• Zany Scheme: These unsurprisingly happen a lot. In particular, Emil's attempts to win back Marie don't consist of him actually trying to talk to her or make amends, but harebrained stunts that only work in romantic comedies.