Pauline

Network: Disney+, Hulu
Genre: Teen, Dark, Coming-of-Age, Drama
Premiere Date: Apr 22, 2024
Showtime: On demand

Production Companies: Disney+, Bildundtonfabrik

Producers: Philipp Kässbohrer, Matthias Murmann

Creators: Elena Lyubarskaya

Developed for Disney+ and from the creators of Netflix's "How to Sell Drugs Online (Fast)," “Pauline” is a live-action series about a high school-aged girl who has a one night stand with the devil’s son and becomes pregnant with the antichrist.

The premise of “Pauline,” disturbing as it is, could still have been used in service of a traditional tale about good triumphing over evil, but the problem with “Pauline” is that it conflates and confuses traditional notions about good and evil, so that in the end, viewers are left wondering whose side they should be on.

Lilith’s son, Lukas, is a sensitive modern man. He wasn’t looking for just a one-night-stand, he wants to pursue a relationship with Pauline, but she’s the one who puts up barriers because she has school to worry about and she’s applying for a competitive fellowship program in England and, well, she just doesn’t want a relationship. She just wanted sex. When Pauline learns she is pregnant, Lukas becomes fiercely protective of her and fully supportive of her decision to get an abortion. But when the demonic baby in her womb stops the abortion attempts by killing the doctors and nurses, Pauline must look for supernatural means to terminate her pregnancy.

She turns for help to Eira, the head of a creepy organization of community “do-gooders” who turn out to be angels. The angels promise to help her abort her baby, but are secretly planning to kill Pauline as well. Lilith, who for the purposes of this series is a stand-in for satan, convinces Pauline to keep the baby and give it to her.