Could be quite weird hearing this but actually I'm an italian that moved to Belgium for personal reasons and so it's only a little time that I'm in fact exposed to flemish television.
In the absolutely mostly family friendly tv programmation that is rather aimed to show countless hours of boring, repetitive sports or in fact sitcoms from the age when cellphones where still big as phone booths or yet to be invented in fact, "F.C. De Kampionen" is the perfect show to see for its simple mindlesness that cheers up the watcher with that tongue-in-cheek humour that once permeated also the kitchens with cheap wooden furniture, filled with the greasy air given by the fryer always on ,that were so familiar in the late 70s, early 80s.
It seems that a lot of shows that are aired (or re-aired) in Belgium tend to be very harmless, pretty childish in order to avoid to hurt anyone's feelings, except of course the poorly made ethnic sterotypes that are oh sooo (not) funny and pretty outdated, especially when portrayed by actors of not the above said ethnicity.
At least, some research wouldn't be a bad thing.
Going back to "F.C. De Kampionen", when first aired seemed that was a huge hit scorer (early 90s), praised by tv critics and the target audiences.
Nowadays the sitcom is the ultimate off season filler, with constant re-runs and spinoff movies every summer, with sporadic appareances even during winter.
Actually the spinoff movies are being made as this review is written, in fact.
It's cheap and quick fun,even if a bit stale.
It's like the exact moment after a lunch at your grandma's, when you're feeling bloated and because you're momentarily impaired for anything intelligible, fart jokes seems the most comedic thing on Earth.
The show doesn't contain any of the above as I said before, as is hand-confectioned for all ages and very prone to be the ultimate companion for senior viewers in retirement castles.
The network that airs "F.C. De Kampionen" has been milking the brand with any sort of possible merchandising, from stickers, comic books to sausages and wurstels, avalaible in the unmissable "frituren" that can be spotted in the whole country, where your liver and pancreas will fight against your personal satisfaction for eating the ultimate, so savory kind of fast food.
In the end, this show, even for its crescent curve of rotting away or sellout politics, it's perfect for entertaining the whole family with its bland script and harmless jokes.
It's a neverending recurring portrait of the Belgium that once was, so it's interesting also in anthropological manner, for knowing and understanding better the society around.
