Ljubav, navika, panika

A modern Belgrade family in all its glory, living la vida loca. The life is fast in today's modern Serbia, and so is the pace of the episodes- quick, bright remarks and exaggerated reactions with farcical elements almost worth of The Fawlty Towers. Hence, the length of an episode is only about 12 minutes, which is interrupted like 3 times with hideous commercial breaks of Rtv Pink's broadcasting,and that kinda kills much of the fun. It has just been introduced to the world top 11 sitcoms by the Golden Rose of Montreux festival 2006 featuring sitcoms from BBC, C 4, NBC, FIVE UK, TV Slovenija etc... And last, but not the least, pay special attention to Mirka Vasiljevic (We Are Not Angels 2), the stunning 15-year-old wonder-child with her second big TV role, and her scintillating performance which is bound to lift her up to the new heights of the world cinematography.

Serbian television shows used to dominate the 22-million-viewer market of the Former Yugoslavia. However, when Socialist Yugoslavia collapsed the 10-million Serbia failed to maintain the level of television entertainment.

Even Serbia's highest-priced writer Sinisa Pavic who dominated the Yugoslav box-office and TV ratings, with movies like TESNA KOZA and TV shows VRUC VETAR and BOLJI ZIVOT, failed to deliver in the Roaring Nineties.

Serbia's strongest private network Pink managed to rebound from this crisis with LJUBAV, NAVIKA, PANIKA conceded by director Slobodan Suljagic and writer Nebojsa Romcevic. Suljagic is an experienced Serbian television professional while Romcevic is a famous Serbian stage writer, whose previous attempt at sitcom named KAZNENI PROSTOR failed miserably.

However, in LJUBAV, NAVIKA, PANIKA he hit the spot with acidic and witty treatment of family life. His main characters are Vera and Mica, an elderly married couple who decide to divorce but then continue to live together since they cannot afford to live separately. They stay with two slutty teenage daughters Maja and Janja.

The chemistry between main players is great, Nikola Simic and Jelisaveta Sablic are experienced comedians who deliver their husband and wife routines with ease. Marija Karan and Mirka Vasiljevic on the other hand are young actresses, both sexy and funny at the same time and they are favs among the younger audiences.

Romcevic eventually delivered edgy humor and strong social attitude to the proceedings thus replicating the feel of Pavic's finest and most potent successes from the Eighties.

LJUBAV, NAVIKA, PANIKA is a huge success for Pink in terms of quality. I sure hope ratings will follow this achievement.