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Reviews
U klincu (2022)
All over the place
I just wrapped up watching all 30 episodes of the show's first (and thus far only) season. Like the other review of this show, the start of the series is all over the place, with no real focus. You're led to believe this all about Aljosa (played by the popular rapper, Voyage) and his struggles of juggling his father's dreams of him being a successful boxer with his own dreams of making it big in music. While that plays a part in the beginning, Aljosa ends up being just another character in an ensemble cast of young Serbs in the Belgrade-suburb of Zemun.
The young cast isn't that bad. At first I found Aljosa's sister Milica to be kind of one-dimension but she got better as the show progressed. At the same time, I found the actress that plays Vanja (Ivana Zecevic) to be the stand out of the group. I think she does a good job juggling her drunk (and eventually absent) father's cafe, her own various love interests, and the antics of her brother Filip.
As for the adult characters in the series, they all kind of just "disappear" at different points in the series. Vanja's father plays a key role in the season's first arc, then disappears to "sober himself". Then you have Aljosa and Milica's parents go on vacation around episode 22 and not return. The only "established" actor who stays throughout the series (not including Simke's grandmother who I would consider a side character) is Sergej Trifunovic, who plays Aljosa and Milica's free-spirited uncle. Considering how small the Ex-Yu actor pool is, I suspect Branka Katic, Nikola Kojo, and Nebojsa Dugalic all had other committments and couldn't stick around for 30 episodes.
Story arcs go all over the place. In addition to the adult characters disappearing, Simke's grandmother's dementia/alzheimer is briefly addressed then forgotten about. We get a new character introduced with three episodes remaining, with that storyline not really seeing a proper conclusion. Then the season ends with a cliffhanger as an early character makes a 'surprise' return.
It does sound like a second season is expected. If that's the case, I do hope they address all the storylines from the first season, tidy up all the loose ends then try to keep things more focused.
Seolganghwa (2021)
Why is every episode over an hour long?
To be clear, my review is only after four episodes (only five are available on Disney+ at the moment for me). I'm struggling to keep watching it at this point. Like a lot of the others who are sour on the show, it's just so poorly paced, even for a "soapy drama" . Each of the first five episodes ranges between 79-90 minutes. Yes, I am aware that these longer-run times are common for K-Dramas, it still feels unnecessary and only done out of necessity.
I hope that there is someone out there willing to trim the fat and condense this into something that is easier to consume.
So Not Worth It (2021)
Not sure what I was watching sometimes but I couldn't stop
Yes, the laugh track is annoying and unnecessary. Some plotlines go nowhere, and some of the main cast don't get enough focus (and some get too much). But after watching all 12 episodes, I was invested in these students. I was most impressed with the multicultural cast that actually doesn't go out of its way to highlight this fact. You don't have Carson speaking with an American accent. Thankfully Hans doesn't do anything too Swedish. I get that these actors have lived in Korea for years, but I'm curious just how easy it is for a foreign student to move to Korea and pick up the language?
Additionally, I wish they hired a Korean-American for the role of Jamie. The actor is good but he was the one character I would have expected to be one who sounded like a Western person, who was returning to their homeland for the first time in a long time. It doesn't ruin the role (I'm pretty certain they hired a Russian actress to play his American mom in the one episode she appears in), but there must have been a capable young Korean-American actor who could play the role.
I also wish the season was a bit longer. 12 episodes seemed too short. They don't go through an entire school year and I don't think they highlighted enough of the main cast. From the early reception, I could see Netflix pushing for a second season, and hopefully, that's the case. There is a lot of areas to improve and I'd like to see how things progress for most of the cast.
Dave (2020)
People missing the point of Season 2
How often do we hear stories of people who have huge success right off the bat but then aren't able to follow it up on the second effort. The sophomore slump happens to so many people and the whole point of Season 2 is to highlight that. Dave was on top of the world at the end of Season 1 but now he's hit that point where he can't do anything right. He's got an opportunity to work with one of Korea's biggest artists, messes that up. Has a chance to date the beautiful Doja Cat, mess that up too. He can't find the right beat, he can't find the right flow. He's struggling because he and those around him have put him in such a high spot that the expectations to meet or surpass it are impossible. People are unhappy with Season 2 because the expectations set in Season 1.
The fact that they are subtly showing his friends also dealing with their own changes is a nice touch. Elz going through his own breakout phase, Mike struggling to breakout of just being Dave's manager, even Emma knowing she needs to grow up and stand out. If you're in the your late 20s or 30s, chances are you're going through a similar phase in your life. Have you really accomplished what you thought you'd be doing? Do the people in your life put expectations on you that you're not meeting?
Also, the recurring references to the ants in the house have to have a bigger meaning and not just the fact that when you leave a mess it attracts ants.
I'm writing this with a few episodes still remaining in Season 2 but I strongly believe there is a meaning to all this. It will make sense in the end.
Jedini izlaz (2021)
Maybe the movies better
I stuck through the series but it honestly feels like it drags on at times. Maybe the film's condensed run time helps with the pacing, but spreading out through 10 episodes just made getting to the finale unnecessarily longer.
Crno-bijeli svijet (2015)
Great on-going series that definitely needs better marketing
*This post doesn't contain any specific spoilers but does make references to certain character developments that could be viewed as such*
I'm not Croatian (but I am an Ex-Yu), so I came across this series thanks to a random post on Reddit. In about two weeks I binged through all the available episodes (at the time of this post, we're four episodes into season 4) and I absolutely love the series. This is an interesting and pretty detailed look into one part of then Yugoslavia just as Tito is dying and the country begins to really see the changes that his death will cause.
The story focuses on an extended family now split into two. On one side, you have Jura and his second-wife Jagoda (who is also Serbian), who has a daughter from her first marriage (Una). On the other side, it's Jura's first-wife Ksenija and her new husband Dominik. Connecting the two Jura and Ksenija's children, Kipo the elder, a student reporter in the middle of his mandatory military service and younger Zac, who's in secondary school.
Rounding out the core cast are Zungul, an aspiring photographer and Kipo's best-friend, and Dunja, Ksenija's best friend and neighbour, and who is also the sister of Dominik. Later in the series, Nenad, Zac's best friend, and Marina, Kipo's long-sought after love interest, get more involved with the storyline.
Each season thus far focuses on different years of the 80s. Season one starts just as we are entering the 1980s, while season four begins in mid-1985. The show does a great job of connecting the characters to events that happened in the country during this time frame. We see them cope with major events such as Tito's death, the Albanian riots in Kosovo, the Sarajevo winter games, major Yugoslavian sporting events (eg. Yugoslavia winning Gold in Basketball in the 1980 Summer Games, Dinamo Zagreb's first league title in over 20 years, Cibona's success in Basketball), and of course the music of the 1980s.
The music is probably the biggest standout of this series. I never followed much Yugoslavian-rock in the 80s (however, I'm one of those kids that did watch all those Lepa Brena films of the era), but after watching the show, I was constantly on Spotify and/or YouTube trying to find the songs and learning more about the bands.
The show also features famous people from the time being portrayed by young Balkan actors. It's funny seeing Zac talking to Goran Bregovic in a restaurant washroom, or Zungul trying to snap a photo of Katarina Witt while she prepares to win Gold. At the same time, many current and well-known Balkan actors make appearances throughout the series, which is nice but evident of the small pool of available talent in the region.
For the most part, the acting is good and it definitely gets better as they series progresses. In season two, there is a scene with Nenad where he's clearly unable to play someone meant to be unconscious. Also, I don't think Dunja's character is that interesting, and of the family, I think Jura isn't implemented enough while I could use less Ksenija. It's clear that the focus should be on Kipo, Zac, and Una and I'm hopeful we get more of the trio and their lives which will definitely be greatly impacted by the fall of country.
*This part is a spoiler*
Season three features two weird flash-forwards. The first highlights some key moments from the end of the season but it also includes a section showing the families as they deal with the events that lead into the dissolution of Yugoslavia and the eventual civil war in Croatia. I suspect the series will eventually end as Croatia gains independence, they don't come back to this at any point in season three (and so far in season four, there is no reference to it either). It's an odd choice considering they have Zac trying to pull off being in his late twenties (I'm not sure his actual age at the time of filming but he just has a very youthful look that can't really pull off being more mature looking). It's definitely a tease of how the 90s will greatly affect our characters, it's odd that it's never referenced again.
*End of spoiler*
I don't know how this show is faring in Ex-Yuga but from what I've read it's pretty popular. I just wish HRT (Croatia's national tv network) did a better job marketing the show. They don't update either of their Facebook or Twitter pages, so I'm not sure how people outside of the hardcore are following this series.
Also, I wish the series had subtitles. While I understand about 85% of the dialog, this is a show I would love to share with non-Yugos, but that's just not possible. I'd love for a western streaming service to pick this up and show this off. HRT has the first two season available to stream for free, but unless you understand the language, you won't be able to follow the storylines just by guessing. I suspect the music licensing rights is what is holding back the series from going global, but I'm hopeful that is something they can overcome.
In all, I'm really invested in this series and can't wait to watch more as season four progresses. Again, I hope HRT can figure a way to get this to more people. If Serbian series like Senke nad Balkanom (called Black Sun on Amazon Prime) and Ubice mog oca (called Legacy on Amazon Prime) are available to wider audiences, there is no reason Crno-bijeli svijet can't be either.
Moja Generacija Z (2019)
Could be better, but also could be much worse
Trying to brush up on my Serbian and found this show on RTS Planeta. Like other review here, the show is all over the place.
The show focuses on two different classes that sometimes co-mingle but it would have made more sense to focus just on one class (or limit the number of primary characters to 6-8 instead of 12+). This makes it hard to track story lines, and in some cases, those plots don't really go anywhere. Also, the start of the series makes it seem like Bojana is the main focus of the series but that isn't really the case as the series plays out.
The episode structures are so out of whack. One episode focuses on one event, then following episode follows a different plot with a third episode returning to the plot of the first episode (some episodes play out over multiple days). Not sure why they structured it like this. I thought there was a problem with the way the episodes were uploaded but that's not the case.
Yes, the acting isn't the best, especially with a lot of the minor characters. It makes me feel like I have potential career as a background actor in Serbia if I really wanted it. I am hopeful this leads to some of the main cast getting bigger and better roles in Serbia/The Balkans.
I want to support more Serbian shows like this. It's disappointing that this series doesn't properly end (the series stops at about the half-way point of the school year, and ends with most of the plots unresolved). You'd think the series would go for the duration of the school year, ending at graduation, but nope. It just stops before the students go on their final class trip.