Television series
Bad Banks
A slick European thriller about an ambitious investment banker whose fresh start at a prestigious Frankfurt firm becomes a trap orchestrated by her vindictive former boss. Bad Banks is tense, morally murky, and genuinely difficult to look away from—it's for anyone who loved the ruthlessness of Succession but wanted it leaner, meaner, and set in the financial sector's continental underbelly.
Should you watch it?
Watch it if you like corporate power games where the menace is patient and quiet, with a lead whose ambition is both the engine and the trap.
Skip it if you want the glossy thrills of a finance caper; this is slow-burning, dialogue-heavy, and its banking jargon and meetings can feel like homework for long stretches.
What it asks of you: Twelve episodes of about fifty-one minutes, spread over two seasons; tension builds through talk and cold calculation rather than action, so attention is required throughout.
Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.
If you liked this
Succession2018
A masterclass in depicting ambitious people destroying themselves and each other through ambition. Like Bad Banks, it finds genuine tragedy in the pursuit of power and wealth, with dialogue that cuts like glass.
But It's four long seasons—a serious time commitment. And the bleakness can feel suffocating if you're not in the mood for watching no one win.
The Firm1993
A younger protagonist caught in institutional corruption with only his wits to survive. Tom Cruise's character, like Jana, must navigate between loyalty and self-preservation while powerful people play chess with his life.
But It's a 1990s thriller, which means the pacing and some technical details feel dated. The legal jargon can also overwhelm if you're not paying close attention.
Billions2016
Matching Bad Banks' energy exactly—financial power players in constant moral freefall, with schemes built on schemes. The cat-and-mouse dynamic between Jana and Leblanc echoes the central tension here perfectly.
But It runs five seasons and gets increasingly baroque. By the end, the plot mechanics matter more than character, and not everyone finds that satisfying.
Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Bad Banks
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Network1976
Both understand that individuals don't corrupt systems; systems corrupt individuals. Network is the philosophical ancestor of everything Bad Banks is trying to say about ambition, power, and institutional capture.
Paddy Chayefsky's masterpiece about a system that swallows integrity whole. Like Bad Banks, it sees institutional power as fundamentally amoral, with individuals as chess pieces. But it's darker, funnier, more urgent.
But It's 1976—the pace is deliberate and the TV satire is dated. The ending is downbeat in ways that feel nihilistic rather than cathartic.
More like this (6)
The Wolf of Wall Street2013
Scorsese's vision of finance as a moral sewer where ambition corrodes everyone it touches. The energy is anarchic where Bad Banks is clinical, but the underlying portrait of systemic rot is the same.
But It's three hours of excess and cocaine. The shamelessness can read as celebration rather than critique, depending on your patience for watching terrible people have fun.
The Wire2002
A show about systems that corrupt everyone inside them. Like Bad Banks, it understands that individuals aren't the problem—institutions are. Jana's struggle is smaller in scale but structurally identical.
But The first season takes time to breathe; some find it slow. And there are five seasons of Baltimore to get through before you reach mastery.
Damages2007
Glen Close as a brilliant, ruthless mentor who destroys anyone in her orbit. The dynamic between her and her protégé mirrors Jana and Leblanc's relationship with precision and genuine menace.
But The out-of-sequence storytelling is intentional but confusing. Some arcs stretch too thin across the season's five episodes.
Margin Call2011
Set during the 2008 financial crisis, it captures the exact moment when ambition meets moral collapse at a major bank. The claustrophobia and speed match Bad Banks' intensity perfectly.
But It's mostly people in suits talking in rooms. If you need action or visual spectacle, this will feel static and talky.
The Recruit2003
A young person enters a prestigious institution only to discover it's built on lies and uses people as disposable assets. The paranoia and manipulation echo Jana's experience with eerie precision.
But It's a CIA thriller, which means plot twists sometimes prioritize surprise over sense. The dated visual style doesn't help.
A Prophet2009
Both are character studies of talented people learning to survive in systems that demand moral compromise. Bad Banks is finance; A Prophet is prison. Same psychology, different cages.
A young man enters a system (prison) and uses intelligence, ruthlessness, and manipulation to survive and rise. Like Jana, he's gifted and ambitious in an environment that rewards cruelty. But it's brutal, unsentimental, and stunningly acted.
But It's gritty and at times graphically violent. The pace is slow-burn European cinema, not thriller mechanics. And it's French with subtitles, which always loses half the room.
People
Cast
Writing
- Oliver KienleCreator