One of Netflix’s newest international titles presents a salacious mix of drugs, the unassailable notion that sex always sells, and the liberalization inherent in the final years of the Cold War. It’s Dirty Lines, a 6-episode Dutch series set in Amsterdam in the 1980s.
Wondery, the podcast giant behind a few hit series that later got turned into TV shows (Dr. Death, The Shrink Next Door), plowed similar thematic ground here with Operator. Whereas that title is a podcast set in the 90s, and delves into corporate backstabbing and other excesses around the 1-900 boom of the era, this TV show coming to the streamer is set against the backdrop of a much more universal motif.
Basically, a few hustlers come up with an idea for how to make it big.
Dirty Lines Netflix
“The story of Dirty Lines starts in 1987’s Amsterdam,” Netflix’s official summary explains, “at a time when Dutch society was changing rapidly. Psychology student Marly Salomon takes on a side job working for a brand new firm: Teledutch — a company started by two brothers, Frank and Ramon Stigter, who established Europe’s first erotic telephone lines.
“Frank and Ramon become rich overnight and Marly finds herself immersed in this wild and rapid transformation.”
The final years of the Cold War, the description continues, gave rise to a sense of hope. And inspired a new generation to celebrate life to its fullest. Amsterdam, to be sure, became the center of it all. The “it,” specifically, including cultural revolution set to the throbbing beat of house music (where the new love drug XTC was also in abundance).
“The erotic phone lines offer the opportunity to experience anonymous sex in a new way, changing the morality of its consumers, but also very much the people creating it,” Netflix adds about the new series, which debuts in the US on Friday, April 8.
Most-watched shows on Netflix
Dirty Lines is the latest addition to what’s already a robust library of international content in the streamer. Which is distinct from the US-made content that goes on to blow up around the world, across Netflix’s global streaming base of subscribers.
In terms of what’s most popular in the US at the moment, meanwhile, we’ve included the list of Netflix’s Top 10 TV shows for the US to start off the week. Below, you’ll find a rundown of the most-watched Netflix TV show titles in the US for Monday, April 4. Several hits are on the list below, ranging from Bridgerton to The Last Kingdom and Pieces of her.
- Bridgerton
- Is it Cake?
- Heartland
- Get Organized with The Home Edit
- Inventing Anna
- CoComelon
- Good Girls
- The Last Kingdom
- Pieces of her
- Super Pupz
More Netflix coverage: For more Netflix news, check out our coverage of the latest new Netflix movies and series to watch.
