Sebastian Fitzek's Therapy

When 13-year-old Josy Larenz vanishes without a trace, her father Viktor, a prominent psychiatrist, is left with questions that lead nowhere. The case has no witnesses, no body, and no clear motive, and the investigation stalls. Two years later a woman appears who seems to know more than she should, and she pushes Viktor to revisit painful memories and choices he had tried to bury. The series follows his unraveling as new clues and psychological pressure force him to rethink what he believed about his family, his patients, and his own reliability, while the search around him tightens into something obsessive and personal.

Released in 2023, the series was created by Alexander M. Rümelin, Tillman Geithe, and Sebastian Fitzek, and directed by Thor Freudenthal and Iván Sáinz-Pardo. It adapts Fitzek's suspense sensibility for television and leans on a strong German cast to carry its tense atmosphere.

To date the series hasn't collected major international awards, though critics and viewers in Germany praised several performances, especially those by Stephan Kampwirth and Helena Zengel. It earned attention at genre-focused screenings and stirred interest among fans of European psychological thrillers.

The show helped boost attention to Sebastian Fitzek's novels and to German-made mystery dramas, sparking online debate about unreliable memory and parental responsibility. Certain scenes and the show's visual mood were picked up in social media discussion, and the performances, particularly of the child actor, became a frequent topic among viewers.

Critics gave generally positive reviews, noting that the series builds a moody, claustrophobic atmosphere and leans hard on psychological tension. Viewers rated it around 7.1/10, praising the acting and central mystery while some reviewers pointed out uneven pacing and occasional reliance on genre twists. Major themes include trauma, guilt, trust, and how far someone will go to find the truth, with an emphasis on character study over procedural answers.