Jezero

When Tadej Golob wrote the crime book Jezero/The Lake, he dove into the untapped market that is crime noir on Slovenian ground. There aren't many, if any at all, detective/crime/police dramas being written about this particular part of Europe, so his first try should be commended, and hopefully there will be many more to follow.

The production is excellent - I haven't seen a Slovenian tv show of this high quality before, it is obvious that everyone involved felt confident in what they were working on. All the details, from the general bleakness and colour scheme, the intro, the scenery ... Especially the scenery. Slovenia is well known for its beautiful nature and landscape, as well as the teeny tiny villages in the middle of mountains (the word "zaplankan", its literal translation being "living behind the hills", generally means "narrow-minded, provincial"). These small villages offer both a tight-knit group of people where everybody knows everybody, narrow-mindedness and scepticism about outsiders and visitors from "the big city", as well as the very literal small physical area, making the whole experience feel very claustrophobic. In this show, tensions arise from the small space and its limitations. This show offers interesting character studies (the main detective is, fittingly with your usual crime noir protagonist, a gloomy, grim person), likeable side characters, sprinkles of true Slovenian personality characteristics that make us unique (spying neigbours, beef soup, envy anyone?), and - most importantly - lot of insanely beautiful scenery that will make every Slovenian proud of our tiny nation.