Pod prikritie

/refers to all 5 seasons successively/

I had kept tab on this Series for some time, but was unable to find the seasons with subtitles in a language I know... Finally it was possible and a some months ago I began my journey in a post-Socialist country with several big issues, like corruption, gangs, money laundering, etc., and having read articles about Bulgaria, those issues remain still, although their extent is now smaller...

Thus, I could delve into harsh realism with less hopes and more hopelessness, together with authentic environment and performances of actors and actresses I was totally unaware of. The latter usually does not enable me to promptly enjoy the events, but Pod Prikritie was a different matter - in spite of cruelty and prevailing negativity, it was catchy to follow how very deep antipodes (love-hate, loyalty-betrayal, violence-serenity, etc.) we depicted and how they changed even in a course of a season.

As it tends to be in such series, the bad seem more colourful and the females less visible and less versatile, but there are several pleasant exceptions here. True, my favourites are Zahary Baharov as Ivo Andonov, Mihail Bilalov as Petar Tudzharov / Dzharo and Marian Valev as Rosen Gatzov / The Hook -- all generally negative heroes, but, as typical to good and versatile series, there was no plain approach totally good vs. Totally bad. Well, a certain death in Season 4 and a shift in title meaning in Season 5 was apparently not to everybody´s liking, but I still watched the Series to the very end without wtf! Feelings and did not ponder too much on the potential alternatives for the "closure".

All in all, a really good Series, and 1 additional point for the country of origin.

I've read the other user reviews and I must disagree with those who say that these TV series are bad in any way! The actors are very well suited for their parts and you can see the characters' development along with the evolution of the cast's acting skills. The plot is edgy and well written, with minor flaws, but which movie doesn't have flaws? There are a few actors/actresses who fail to depict a proper character and whose language skills while being a part of their dialogues, are purely awful (Irena Miliankova "Sunny" and Milena Nikolova "Adriana"), but the rest are doing a great job.

The screenplay is extremely close to the world of modern Bulgaria- the political games, the judicial system problems, the corruption, the underground mob hiding behind the dirty world of business, the drug markets... Whoever says this is far away from our reality, is someone who lives in a pink soap bubble and has no real idea about the contemporary world in our country! Even some of the scenes are based on actual events and scandals, involving famous political figures and mob bosses.

I give it a 9/10 because I know it's not perfect, but it still is the best from Bulgarian cinema I've seen since the mid 1990's.

Under cover (Pod prikritie) are a real top world class TV series. The only real problem for it to become hit in other countries is that it's in Bulgarian language. That's not actually something that I consider as "bad".

The plot of the movie is quite classical - there is a mafia organization and there is a cop which is undercover. What makes it really different than other "hollywood" movies is: 1. There is no "absolute" (good or bad) characters. Everybody has his own good and bad characteristics. You can see corrupted cops and corrupted judges on the side of the "good guys" and you can see good sides of people in the mafia side.

2. The connections between the different groups is at a very deep level. The series have a good plot.

3. There is always a surprise! The scenarists are definitely feeling what the audience thinks and they are taking well-balanced notes. They definitely know when one character is exhausted and they know when to take it off (killed).

As a summary - the first season is awesome. Very realistic. The second season is not worse, despite the little moving away from the realism. The third season focused more on the action (shootings, chases, etc). It's definitely for a little bit different audience taste, but again - it's not worse than others. What could make a little bad impression in the third season are the "hidden" advertisements. They are not too "hidden" at all...

It's surprising how the producers managed to keep the top level of the series for such a long time with such a low budget. That's a production which deserves to be watched!

There is a scene in the sixth episode of the first season where the character 'Ivo' is explaining to his boss, the seasoned mafia don 'Djaro', the step-by-step procedures of the preparation for a daring heist that is worth millions. The scene is set in a gymnasium hall with large mat in the middle used for martial arts practice. As 'Ivo' is sitting down on a chair just by the mat, 'Djaro' disapprovingly looks at his shoes which are partly resting on it. 'Ivo' duly takes his feet off the mat. Why is this significant, you may ask? Well, it doesn't contribute much to the plot, but what it is, is a nod from the director: 'I know what I'm doing'. The beauty is in the detail and in nearly every scene in Pod Prikritie, there is something which functions to make it memorable, whether it be the camera angle/positioning, the lighting, the set, or a simple gesture by one of the actors. All the while, the brilliant score provides the necessary emotional backdrop against which the characters' sentiments can be played out.

A few of the reviews here take a highly critical approach towards this series, without providing much evidence to justify it. Pod Prikritie deserves so much more than this intellectual myopia. For starters, the acting, with perhaps one single exception, is marvellous. For me personally, the jewel in the crown is Mihail Bilalov who is simply magnificent in the role of 'Djaro' - Pod Prikritie's primary antagonist. Think of him as a more menacing, less humorous version of Jack Nicholson's character 'Frank Costello' from The Departed. From his facial expressions to his body language, he is a master of his role and creates a character who is both believable as a human being and as the emblematic face of Bulgarian mafia.

Pod Prikritie's realism is undisputed, and as much as that is a compliment, it is also ironically the point of contention for most Bulgarians. They know this reality; they see it on a daily basis. So why watch it on TV as well? That said, many of the characters have gathered a cult following, while quite a few of their lines have entered the standard Bulgarian lingo.

Coming back to The Departed, Pod Prikritie has often been compared to Scorsese's Oscar-winning crime feature. In many ways it is better: less stylized and more convincing. It is hardly surprising that so many foreign distributors have expressed a genuine interest in showing it in other countries. No doubt, the universal appeal of the crime genre always helps, but Pod Prikritie is as good a representative of it as any production you can think of, be it on the silver screen or on television.

The series are great. The plot, the conception, everything. Except one HUGE thing.

The main character is portrayed by an actor that clearly doesn't even look like a criminal or act like one. That baby face, that ridiculously bad acting and that lack of realness in his character kills a big part of the whole idea. They should have switched him for Zdravko "Kosam" Kiselov actor (Alexander Sano). It would have been a perfect 10 !