Salatut elämät

"Salatut Elämät" is a high-rated finish soap opera about a bunch of young and older people sharing house in Helsinki, Finland. Over the years the show has changed a lot. Many of the original cast members have left the series to become film stars in their country. From the critical point of view the subjects here are formulaic, but due to the lack of competitors it has gained its success over the years. In the early days of the show it dealed with such controversial issues like homo-sexuality, drugs and teen-pregnancy, but during the last couple of years it has become more of a traditional drama concentrating on human relationships.

I am really amazed because this has been on production for over 15 yrs! Probably because it is so easy to follow and people can find themselves and their acquaintance in this series.

I was taking care of their video tape recorders up to 2001 and I know that these are made really fast. They don't have time to shoot many takes but it usually is recorded as fast as possible. One take and that's it. This is why I give two stars because I admire the actors and actresses who can do this in such stressful environment.

Some of the people are professionals but there are many young persons just appearing the series and if he/she does it well enough, the magazines are telling all about these people making them familiar to those who watch this. So this series is served strongly to the ordinary Finnish people.

Some are very over acting; usually Police, doctors or authorities. These are very annoying to see because the Finnish Police etc. are very professional and do not act so arrogantly or passionate but are calm and very professional.

A desperate attempt to milk money out of stupid viewers who are slaved by TV and have never heard of anything like Netflix where they could watch some real stuff. In this show lazy writing, cliché soap opera plot twists and horribly untalented actors are too visible. Everything sucks from start to beginning, from the language characters use to cheap background music. This suffers from ultimately low budget, although no amount of money could save it, the concept is just doomed.

In conclusion, if you want to suffer half hours and throw objects to your TV screen, this is what you want to watch.

And this airs in prime time. Great job Finland, you did it again.

Hyvä sarja loppujen lopuksi, vaikkakin nykyään alkaa olla jo tylsistymässä. vanhat salkkarit on kultaa, ja on ne nykysetki ihan okei, vaikka tuntuu että salkkarit on tullu liian kauan.. annan kasin koska nykyset salkkarit on laskenu tasoo. kyllä mä silti tästä sarjasta tykkään :) / in the end, it's a good show, even though it's getting a bit boring. the old "salkkarit" is fire, and the recent is okay, but it feels like it has aired for eternity.. i'm giving it an 8 because it's not as good as before, "the good old days". but i still like this show.

Oh yes, Salkkarit rules! Finnish soap opera in Helsinki. Tries to copy the American soap operas and does it pretty well =). Some young actors have got the change of their lives by be casted in Salatut elämät. The characters have changed pretty fast, but the serial needs fresh blood all the time to be interesting.