As the streaming wars continue to heat up, each of the major competitors are virtually obligated to start taking bigger and bigger swings to try and increase the size of their respective audience, but German-language original Pauline heading for Disney Plus still comes as a shock given the concept.
While plenty of R-rated and adult-orientated content is available on the platform to international subscribers via the Star expansion that’s packed to the brim with Hulu originals and gems from the 20th Century Fox vault, an original episodic offering with such a risque premise is well outside of the company’s family-friendly wheelhouse.
The story follows the titular 18 year-old, who finds herself pregnant after a one-night stand. Adding another layer of exacerbation onto the trials and tribulations of high school life, ending up with child following a one-night stand is perilous enough on its own, never mind the fact Pauline soon discovers that the father of her unborn spawn also happens to be the devil himself.
Executive produced by Philipp Käßbohrer and Matthias Murmann – best known among on-demand aficionados for Netflix’s propulsive How to Sell Drugs Online (Fast) – Pauline doesn’t sound like anything the Mouse House’s streaming service has ever lent its name to before, which is hopefully a good thing.
Of course, there’s bound to be at least a modicum of backlash from some quarters given the blasphemous conceit, but a Disney-packed tale of demonic impregnation sounds so fascinating that we can’t wait to see how it turns out when it finally hits the library.
Published: Apr 5, 2023 11:41 am