Dit zijn wij

I'm a huge fan of This Is Us, which gripped me from the first episode and hasn't let me go. The American series is amongst my all time favorite tv shows. Not in the least because the story line really does reflect a part of American culture that I recognize from my three years there. Which is probably why "Dit zijn wij" doesn't work as well as the title for the Dutch series.

Given the difference in US and Dutch cultures, I was actually surprised by how well the story lines translated. And the story of This Is Us is great. But despite the commendable effort, the Dutch language script still sounds unnatural in many places.

I watched the Dutch series through episode 4 and would rate it 7/10 when considered as a stand-alone series. I found the acting pretty good for Dutch standards and I was actually moved in some places. But here, again, This Is Us is in a league of its own. The hospital gynecologist in the Dutch series was ok, whereas in the US he was amazing. The same goes for Edgar's birth father: the Dutch actors are pretty good, but the American actors blew it out of the park.

The Netherlands is a tiny country. A character moving away to Antwerp simply isn't the same as moving between the West and East coasts in the US. And daily life in the Netherlands isn't as photogenic. The different decades weren't as easily recognizable to me (even though I lived in the Netherlands until 2013). I also didn't like the music score as much as I did the original one.

I guess as a stand-alone series I can recommend this to a Dutch audience but only to those who haven't been in the US. For everyone else, the US series is way better.