The Portal

I enjoyed this bulgarian tv series a lot. Brought the vibe from the past, interesting story, authentic quality music and moments of love presented in a very well manner. Thank you guys for creating it, real people will value it.

One of the few quality TV shows in Bulgaria. Unique plot, great acting and sense of humour.

Except for the huge nostalgia hit I took by this series, it could not move me much. Dialogues are unnecessarily long and sometimes dull. Sitting in the same room for 10 minutes, after witnessing time travel, with no emotion is bad acting and quite boring for the viewer. Velislav Pavlov's acting improves a bit in the second episode, but not by much. Slow, emotionless, "slick", talking lazy, with boredom in his voice. When I mentioned voice, I have to also mention the infamous bad sound of the Bulgarian cinema. Most younger actors were just spitting out their lines without acting. Voice sound was pretty quiet and hard to hear. Luckily it improved in episode 2. The beginning credits are too long, but this maybe intentional. There are several seconds in almost each shot which can be cut without harming the story. It would speed up the otherwise slow pace. Now the good part - excellent nostalgia trip throughout the 1979 communist Bulgaria: cars, props, communist slogans, clothes, toys, places.. A lot of small details to remind/picture the social and political situation at the time. Excellent use of the 2019 protests and the blend of old video footage and today's video shots. I hope next episodes to become better.

Seeing it mostly as a comedy, I'm actually pretty happy with this miniseries! It looks really well and although it's not exactly accurate to the past, it definitely brings the feel of it. The story is flawed, but it's told in a fun and effective way. With small exceptions, the acting feels natural and there are even some iconic performances. My personal favorite characters are the secretary and the partisan, craftfully depicted by Dessi Morales and Radena Valkanova. The two male leads are also doing a pretty good job, the mock James Bond image suiting Velislav Pavlov perfectly. The cast of Maria Ilieva as Yordanka Hristova is brilliant. Chicho and the loser husband should be mentioned as well. And let's not forget the seemingly small but crucial roles (in the series and in life) of the bartender, the receptionist, and the cashier. The product placement could have been less obvious and I would have liked an even stronger Bulgarian presence in the soundtrack. Also, stealing objects of author's rights is the same as stealing objects of cultural heritage, so if you want to have a hero and a villain, better give them opposing occupations. My biggest complaint though is why wasn't the series better promoted and I had to discover it only now?!

The plot isn't unique, and has been used multiple times throughout the years, but it hits home for sure. I have some critique about the acting, because it doesn't seem appropriate in some of the scenes, and even forced at times. But generally speaking, it's good. Dialogues are okay, directing is fine. And as far as I know, it's the first Bulgarian time travel type of series/movie. I enjoyed it, and hope to encourage it by this 10, because realistically - it's around 7.5-8.