Goede tijden, slechte tijden

The oldest Dutch soap on television. Like its genre demands, it is a mix of cheap sets, worthless actors, plot lines that don't make any sense and dialog's that seems to be written by a 5-year old schoolboy. You can safely conclude that it's a burning pile of crap. But hey, who cares about that, it's a soap and therefore its viewers just don't ask for some quality in it.

I personally have a hate/love affair with this show. I can't watch it without complaining about everything that is bad. But at the other hand, growing up with my mother and sister, I watched it almost everyday from my 12th till my 16th. When I started to live on my own I noticed that fore some nostalgic reason I kept watching it. Just because it came after the news of half past seven and just before movies start at half past eight.

Nowadays I just see 1 or 2 episodes a month with my mother and that is enough to stay up to date on the ''exciting'' story lines that this show has to offer.

Yes, I watch 'Goede Tijden, Slechte' ('Good Times, Bad Times'), aka 'GTST', and to add more to it: I love the soap.

My mother started to watch it when I was about three years old. However I started to really understand it after a couple of years, I followed it every day. It has now a very high sentimental value for me, and I have seen several characters come and go in this soap series.

Of course, it is mindless entertainment: you turn off your brains (if you do not, you will not be able to watch it) and you watch the misadventures of Ludo, Laura, Janine, Jeff, Bing, Sjors, Noud, Nina, Wiet, Lorena, Jack, and many, many others. How long this series will stand, I do not know. But I do know this: I hope it will continue for a very long time.

And my apologies for eventual crappy writing: my English grammar is kind of very bad.

Very bad. Don't watch this awful show. It's cringe and the annoying cliffhangers are bad. There are way to many episodes so its just useless to really understand what the show is about. Avoid this at all costs.

Goede tijden slechte tijden, once a staple of Dutch soap operas, has slowly become more of a frustrating watch over the years. It had its moments of genuine drama and engaging storylines in the past, but it has dragged on with the same recycled plots for too long. Lately, the show feels like it's more about ticking off boxes to be politically correct than actually delivering good entertainment. There's a noticeable shift towards representing diverse communities, which is great in theory, but it often feels forced and not natural to the storyline.

Overall, goede tijden slechte tijden has lost its original charm, and now it just feels like a soap that's run its course. I give it a 3/10 for its few redeeming moments, but it's not something I'd recommend anyone start watching now.