Penoza

This woman "carmen" does nothing 'wrong', but is involved in a multitude of crimes and killings all in the name of protecting her family even thou she loses 2 husbands, a father and a sister. A bit unrealistic at times but a good drama to watch that is full on and entertaining. They probably milked it for a bit too long (5 seasons). The first 2 seasons are the best. Carmen is portrayed beautifully. She is a standout in the acting department in this series. Some of the acting for nat, luciene, and storm is a bit weak at times. Berry plays his role well. As i said they story lines goes off the rails the further the series goes which is really quite normal. Overall it was a decent watch.

This series is by far the best Dutch tv serie ever made. I've watch season one to three for at least 10 times. This series gives a good view into the Dutch crime scene. Since i'v worked as a prison guard i know this series gives a good inside view into Dutch crime. Not all the actors are that good but over all the character build up is pretty good. You really feel sorry for Carmen when she does everything to protect her family. Season one,two and three are really good. But after that it is getting real bad. And to complete the mess they cldsed it up with a really bad movie. But still i love the first seasons very much and will watch it again in the future because it still amazes me.

... really a series to have been watched week to week when first aired, for streaming makes it increasingly-repetitive, tending towards very boring when viewing more than a couple episodes at a time... and there is no 'crime-family'-story, just the female lead character continually saying she-wants-out but never leaving her life of crime-death-suffering

... what the show does do to some degree is to showcase the absurdity of wars-on-drugs, as they are futile beyond any-all measure... as with any class of drugs billions of dollars are involved, and whenever a small, unscrupulous-element seizes control, there will always be unending numbers of others wanting to take over... bodies piling up very quickly

... there are several very strong as well as weak performances, the weaker ones don't really sink the couple early seasons, but eventually the entire production suffers under their negative weight... so watch the early years, enjoy them for what they are, then quit or you'll-get-what's-coming-(to-you)

Penoza means underworld (also crime scene as in 'the criminal world', not 'the place where a crime took place'). It's a superb Dutch series with incredible acting, a great storyline and an incredible cast. At the beginning of the first season, it soon became very obvious that Penoza was not an average series but one that had much more to offer. The series gained a lot of fans and critical acclaim all over. As a result of this, a second season was produced. The second season - of course - continues where the first one stopped and takes the viewer even deeper in the world of the leading character Carmen and her family and friends and all they experience when she unwillingly becomes more and more involved in the world of crime. I have to admit that the second season is even better than the first one. I'm very happy too, that a third season is being produced right now. This is very high quality stuff. Fact: the American TV Network ABC has produced the series Red Widow, based upon Penoza. The first few episodes have been broadcast only a couple of days ago. Even though I haven't seen Red Widow yet, usually nothing beats the original (even though for some people the fact of a series being subtitled keeps them from watching it). A real pity, as there are many non-English-language series out there, that are just too good to be missed (like the Danish series The Killing, The Bridge and another fantastic Dutch series called Overspel, the Dutch word for adultery). If you get a chance to watch this, do so!

After watching season 3 of Penoza, I increase my rating from 9 to 10. This season is even better than the first two, believe it or not. Amazing!

This series goes from good (series 1), OK (series 2) to bad and boring (series 3). And now there's talk about a series 4. Please don't.

The series is about a woman (Carmen) whose family is in the drug business. As her husband is killed her happy family life is overand she becomes very much involved in the business.

We all know these kind of stories, but being set in Amsterdam and with good acting the first series was very good.

Series 2 brought in some new characters and was pretty much OK, although it didn't have the good story lines.

Series 3 was completely unbelievable (Carnen takes on the Russian as well as the Mexican Maffia).

So if you wanna see some decent dutch acting, watch series 1 and leave it at that.