Parallel Me centres around Toni Falk (Malaya Stern Takeda), an advertising executive who travels round so many countries, she barely remembers her own name, but slips up in Dubai when she brings a presentation about children’s toys to a company that manufacturers tobacco.
You’d think she’d be able to pull things back from that, but the powers that be, including her boss, Kai (Golo Euler), are none too pleased. But hey, it’s New Year’s Eve, and they’re playing Baltimora’s Tarzan Boy from 1985. That’s a classic!
Alas, her friends feel like they’re put upon by Toni, and are tired of feeling like she doesn’t care about anyone else but herself, even though she’s going through a tough time. Plus, since she doesn’t have her own flat due to her globetrotting, to add insult to injury, she can’t even move back into her own room at her mum’s house, because it was turned into a sauna(!)
At her lowest ebb, the mysterious Ariadne (Maria Schrader – She Said) appears to her, offering to help. Who is she? Where did she come from? Well, no time for answers to those questions, because she asks, what would it be like if her life had taken a different turn? So, a bit It’s a Wonderful Life.
First up, Toni gets dumped in the sea, with her best friend, Bea (Larissa Sirah Herden), who’s on a catamaran. As this is like an alternate universe, events took a different turn at New Year’s Eve, and she’s been running a surf shop at the beach for two years.
I don’t want to say too much about Parallel Me, because half the fun is in seeing where she’ll end up next, but as she ‘jumps’ from one point in time to another, it does feel a bit like Quantum Leap, albeit with a lot of the same people around her, but sometimes they have differing opinions of Toni, as if they’ve had a personality transplant.
As such, it can be quite daft, but is very amusing. You can get a chance to ditch one version of your life where things are going wrong, but even still, in this potential paradise of a situation, life ain’t all sunshine and rainbows, as unexpected things can go wrong, instead. No spoilers, but some situations did make me feel like Sam Beckett… “Oh boy…”
Hence, although I’ll put the trailer for Parallel Me below, DON’T watch it. Just check the programme out and let it flow naturally. I’m certainly really enjoying this!
Oh, well, apart from once scene I saw in Bangkok, involving eating bugs – a tradition over there, but I do hope that the actors were eating fake ones. Ewwwww!!!!
Thanks to our friends at Paramount+ for the screeners prior to release.
Parallel Me is not available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD, and its release date on Paramount+ has been put back from its original date of September 4th to October 2nd.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 45 minutes per episode (8 episodes)
Release date: September 4th 2025
Studio: Paramount+
Format: 2.00:1
Series Directors: Felix Binder, Vanessa Jopp, Sebastian Sorger
Writers: Jana Burbach, Dilan GeZaza, Mireya Heider de Jahnsen, Brix Vinzent Koethe, Annette Lober
Cast:
Toni Falk: Malaya Stern Takeda
Ariadne: Maria Schrader
Jonas Dunkel: David Kross
Bea Laverde: Larissa Sirah Herden
Selma Falk: Caroline Peters
Thomas Falk: Ulrich Noethen
Leon Falk: Theo Trebs
Kai Wagemund: Golo Euler
Walther: Wilson Gonzalez
Diego: David Gaviria
Ayumi: Julia Strowski
Niki: Larissa Marolt
Andi: Tommy Pedroni
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.