What I'm watching on tv this winter

For months already I had a draft post on some Netflix series I had enjoyed. But somehow I never completed that post and now it seems less relevant as I have hardly watched Netflex over the last 3-4 months...because I'm watching tv more again.  In winter there is a really great offer on tv, I find.

And since I truly can't watch everything in real-time at all...I use the "Netflix" time to catch up in delayed viewing on my iPad on other moments.  That's sometimes late in the evening when nothing else is on, but also while I am getting ready in the morning when Jan is travelling and I'm alone or when I'm cooking or folding laundry.

So what did I follow so far in 2019?


Over Water
There was a lot of buzz beforehand for this series and I had high expectations because Tom Lenaerts was one of the scenarists. I'm a fan of Tom Lenaerts since he came on tv with Onvoorziene Omstandigheden and the hyped Schalkse Ruiters  (aaaah my tv nostalgia, what a classic). His fiction series de Parelvissers was really well written  so I got ready to watch this each Sunday evening as of mid December.

But it never met my expectations.  Visually everything was strong, the atmosphere was modern but there wasn't sufficient in the story for me. No big plot twists.  And more seriously to me: no character that I could sympathise with. Seriously...they were all irritating and making wrong decision after wrong decision and not taking up the consequences.

But yet I watched it until the end because..well sometimes you do want to know how it ends, if it improves and because you just want to stare at the tv a bit on a Sunday evening. Yet it was a relief somehow that the last episode was on air (and weird to see the announcement of the 2nd year coming in the future, as I had the feeling there were a lot of negative comments in the media )


De Dag
A year ago, twitter was all buzzing about "De Dag". I couldn't watch it because we don't have a Telenet Play subscription but clearly this would have been the best to watch available in 2018. 
At the start of this year, in a conversation about the deception of "Over Water" at work, another colleague announced that De Dag was soon going to air on tv and that would surely meet my expectations as it was the best series.

So I recorded the series with high anticipation... and it was entirely fullfilled. The script about a bank robbery / hostage taking had a lot of thrilling plot twists that kept me captive. The concept of airing one episode from the point of view of the police (who did not know what was going on inside)   and next the same episode and timelapse from point of view of the hostages/hostage takers (who do not know what the police is up to) worked brilliantly. 

It's one of those series that you could watch for a 2nd time to check all the details and even be more amazed how the puzzle fits well.


Studio Tarara
I only caught up with this when the series almost stopped airing on tv recently. Somehow I've never seen it live but only picked up some good comments afterwards that made me curious. So I looked it up in the VTM app and started watching it delayed 2 weekends ago in absence of Jan. I binge watched a few episodes when I was home alone and now I'm in the middle of the story.

The mix of tragic, nostalgia, showbizz and excellent actors work well so I'm enjoying this as well. Can't tell the end yet as I still have 2 episodes to go.

The series was also selected for CannesSeries 2019 but didn't win an award.


Undercover
Undercover is something I wanted to see since I saw the publicity at Cannes Series one year ago outside our hotel. It is the current Sunday evening fiction on tv. It didn't win an award though last year even though it was in the shortlist.

My very first impression was confusion.  Maybe because of Cannes, but I had anticipated glamour and action and the beginning was much more down to earth and "Flemish".  It even seems to be about marginal camping live.  ha, but that's just a first impression and rather quickly the story pickes up and it does become very thrilling.  I really like the discovery of some new excellent actors.
3 more Sunday evening episodes to go.

This is a Netflix production so do go and search it to add it to your list!

De Mol

I have been a huge fan of the original series back in 1998-2003 and was so delighted to hear that it this award winning concept was launched again on the Belgian tv in 2016.  So of course I always want to watch.

It's tactically positioned on the scheme of Sunday evening, overlapping with Undercover.

Somehow it isn't the same anymore as back in the good old days. I find myself not so much into it anymore. I guess the many years of experience have taught me that I will not discover the Mol anyway. Especially with social media currently available and everybody detecting and analysing and spreading complot theories I'm sure the film editing cuts influences carefully what we see and don't see to ensure everyone is guilty and suspecious and that we don't see the things that would make it obvious.  Maybe it's also the era of time where I find it hard to truly watch concentratedly to a tv program and therefore I don't catch the clues because I'm never paying 100% attention.

Anyway, it remains good entertainment and it's what people talk about afterwards so somehow you want to be up to date.   But I'm not as much into it. So currently I tend to watch it delayed (and watch Undercover in real-time) and I still need to catch up an episode. Just the last episodes, I try to watch directly since media would otherwise give away too much result and screw up the experience if you watch it afterwards.

Blind Getrouwd
A little bit of curiosity, feel-good, love stories   reality tv on Monday evening is perfect to end an evening without too much thought.

Too bad the story's over again this year  and too bad it didn't end well for most participants.

Eviva Espana

Not quite a hyped program on the contrary. And I'm not a fan of Annemie Struyf's voice at all. 
And yet this program was often still on when I got back downstairs after putting the children in bed and cleaning up and I watched it without much attention.  And i thought some people were a bit weird.

But over the different weeks I started to be curious how these people were doing, how their stories evolved and I started to sympathise with them. So the last weeks I was watching more actively and I was sometimes moved a bit.

Rond de Noordzee
This is also a program that I watch with half an eye when I get back downstairs. And that's a pity because Arnaud Houben is a brilliant tv maker with a great human eye, authentic interactions and a thirst for history.

Thuis

This soap is my guilty pleasure since more than 20 years I suppose.  With recent technology and wifi connections I can even keep up when travelling and being on vacation. If there is anything I keep watching (sometimes with almost a week delay... or now and then with a missed episode or 2...you can always keep up with a soap, right), it's thuis.

It's usually on during the children's bedtime, so I try to remember to put the tv on the right channel before I go upstairs  and when coming back down  (and maybe watching other programs on that channel such as both mentioned above), I rewind and watch it before I go to bed.



What I didn't follow but heard so much good about is Down the Road.  But hey, you can't watch it all.

Comments

Leen said…
Ik heb mij ZO hard geërgerd aan Over Water dat ik halverwege gestopt ben met kijken. En hoezo een tweede seizoen? Bespaar het mij :-D

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