German TV programmes suitable for teen learners of German?

[RustyFig]

DS is coming to the end of y8 and has been learning German for 2 years. I think it would be really good for him to see some German in context but am struggling to find anything that's both suitable and subtitled (he's a long way from understanding without English subtitles!)

Can anyone recommend anything? We've got Netflix and Amazon if that helps. Also- it's been a while since I last watched Goodbye Lenin. Would you say it's suitable for a just-13 year old?

Thanks in advance!

I just checked my netflics menu, if you keep going down the themed categories there is one for foreign tv programmes/films.
They may not be to his taste (I watched them some time ago) but all these are age 12 rated: Holiday Secrets (soundtrack is German with subs), Charite and Charite at War.
There are other options with age 15 ratings so that depends on your DS's maturity.
Worth looking on Prime Video as well for other options. I think it's a great way to expand passive understanding of a foreign language.
I recently watched the whole of Borgen in Danish with English subs and now understand rather a lot of Danish as a result!

"I recently watched the whole of Borgen in Danish with English subs and now understand rather a lot of Danish as a result!"

Wow. I watched it and The Killing and The Bridge and can remember about 5 to 10 words in total.

Set up a Netflix profile in German with German subtitles

Dark in Netflix is good and I think suitable for a 13 year old- we’ve been trying to get ours to watch it for the same reasons as you.

Dark is good it is on Netflix with English subtitles. I was so upset when it ended 😢

But the Sex scenes might make you both cringe if you watch Dark together!

I know I couldn't watch it with my 13 year old . She'd curl up and die.

We have German Netflix. How to Sell Drugs Online Fast is good.
Biohackers is also good
There's also stuff like Pedal the World.

Not sure if it works but you could just put in German TV
Also check here, maybe accessible from UK, for German TV.

www.ardmediathek.de

Oh and here you can get the news in 'light Language' so for learners of German and it's just generally a good resource:

m.dw.com/en/top-stories/s-9097

On YouTube look up Extr@ German . It was a channel 4 series for KS3 learners . It is loosely based on friends and an American guy learning German . The whole thing is in German , without subtitles , but the language is used that is high frequency and easy to follow , but without it seeming slow and patronising . There are about 14 episodes and there are lots of jokes . I am a teacher and the kids love it .

What about watching things he knows well, that you have on DVD, with the German language switched on? My DD watches films and TV series she knows well and she finds it hilarious hearing the different actors they've used for the German version

French and German teacher here. If the aim is to improve his language (rather than cultural input), it might be better to get him to watch German dubbed versions of English language films he already knows well, possibly with the subtitles on in German.

Although it's great culturally to watch stuff from the target language country, in reality it's pretty hard for a GCSE or even many A Level students to understand much of the dialogue. A year 8 is likely to just read the English subtitles and barely recognise a single word of German.

I'm learning Spanish myself, and although I am approaching A Level standard and have a huge advantage as I'm used to watching foreign language content and am already fluent in French (with all its similarities to Spanish), I watched a bit of a Spanish tv series the other day and found it really really hard!

The thing Candyapple49 recommended sounds great though.

P.s. I used to often show the dubbed versions of Harry Potter to classes of that age. They knew the stories so well that they could concentrate on the language a bit more. I've listened to the Audiobook versions in Spanish, which was also fab.

Oh this is amazing, thanks so much to all of you! Never occurred to me to switch a Netflix profile to German. Thanks also for your teacher input,
@lazylinguist. I watch a lot of subtitled foreign programmes (am also a professional linguist although not a teacher) and it hadn't occurred to me that he might find that tricky.

Lots for us to try here, thanks again!

Would anyone be interested in hosting my cousin's friendly german son from 1 to 5 October? He's 14 and could have accommodation organized by his exchange programme. So I'm only asking if it's of benefit/enjoyment for your family. Send me a message if that's the case. South of England, I can do the driving.

What about stuff specially made for learners? Is that too uncool? The Deutsch Welle tv channel website has video courses. Nico's Weg is the beginner-low intermediate level story. Its also on youtube as 3 separate films, one for each level A1, A2, B1. There are a couple of other video courses at intermediate level . And lots of other high quality free stuff.

Walter Presents on All4 might be good, lots of foreign language series there. He might enjoy the Deutschland 83 series (although you may want to watch it first just in case!).

Deutsche Welle is probably best

Nico's Weg
learngerman.dw.com/en/beginners/c-36519789

Jojo sucht das Gluck

learngerman.dw.com/de/jojo-sucht-das-glück/c-53437698

Learn German with Anja on YouTube is good

Goodbye Lenin is probably too grown up.

Films you can get on DVD which would be suitable

Miracle of Bern
Funf Freunde
VorstadtKrokodile
Die Wilden Kerle
Balloon

Just check any films have German audio & English subtitles

Logo daily children's news is amazing.
www.zdf.de/kinder/logo/

Not subtitled though.