Grenslanders

Grenslanders is a very thrilling show. It is that thrilling and intriguing , that waiting for the next episode is a challenge. Beautiful shots of characteristic areas in Zeeland, its landscape and unique sea vieuws, Good acting and a terrific Sceenplay. Strong characters and roles, outstanding screenplay, humour, irony, professional camera operating and directing.

I wanted to give it a 6,5. But a 6 would be too low.

It's an interesting serie. I am dutch, but sometimes i didn't even understand the dutch language. I think it's the switch between belgian and dutch.

I loved to see Jasmin Sendar but she lookes like someone from Shaft. ( the clothing, the car). It doesn't look like a series from the 80tees, so i don't understand the clothing etc. The character she plays is a harsh woman with a history. It becomes annoying, she tries too hard. The commissioner played by Fedja Huet is also overacted with a different accent than his own. The dutch policestation is a joke. I don't know what the makers were thinking. The woman behind the desk lookes like a character from Toren C. The comedy should have been left out. I cannot take it serious. A stripping show, come on!

If this serie represents the dutch and belgian police working together, it's a joke.

But still as a fan of these sorts of series, i will watch it further. Even so, even if it gets better in another episode, The start left me with a mixed feeling if i enjoy this or not. So much grumpy characters, too much. It's a little depressing.

Summary

The series belongs to what already constitutes a subgenre, the police in the border area (such as The Bridge or Sorjonen), in this case the border area between Belgium and the Netherlands. Precisely, its locations in the marshes of the Scheldt estuary are one of its main protagonists, it adds an interesting twist to the issue of human trafficking, it shows off scenes of achieved squalor and violence, it combines the sinister with the grotesque well, but it lengthens unnecessarily the conflicts on the side of the "bad guys", spoiling a heterogeneity in them that was a success.

Review

In the wide estuary of the Scheldt, in the border area between Belgium and the Netherlands, a boat with numerous gunshot wounds and bloodstains and a young African woman (Afi, in charge of Adanna Unnigwe) appear, wandering around in a daze and dehydration. This will lead to a joint investigation by the Dutch and Belgian police and customs.

The theme of this series, raised almost from the beginning, is human smuggling and trafficking. The investigator of the case will be an Afro-descendant detective from Rotterdam, Tara Dessel (a charismatic Jasmine Sendar) to whom is added Bert, the designated therapist of the young African (Koen de Bouw), from Antwerp, who by the way assigns himself tasks that exceed psychological assistance, in one of the first failures of the script.

From then on, Tara (who, as befits a modern police officer, carries a traumatic episode that occurred in Rotterdam that affects her behavior), will have to face the misgivings of the locals, police corruption, a conspiratorial environment, mafias, dark family stories and two fearsome villains, one of them the kind of aristocrat Cornella Dingemanse (a tremendous Monic Hendrickx). The picture is complicated by the quarrels and rearrangements of the bad guys in the story, who are far from configuring a homogeneous block (a success that later turns against the development of the series).

By the way, the series belongs to what already constitutes a subgenre, the police in the border zone (such as The Bridge or Sorjonen). The original title, Grenslanders, means frontiers in Dutch. And it is another example of a very well presented story, with a development that is declining and a rebound towards the end.

Among the successes and strengths of this police series, we find in the first place the locations in the estuary of the Scheldt (a river that rises in France, crosses Belgium and empties into the Dutch coast), with its marshes over the North Sea and large movements of tides, desolate terrain from where, however, port facilities can be seen in the distance. This scenario is, without a doubt, a protagonist, because of its beauty and because it is essential for the development of the plot. Another success is that the crime of human trafficking is overlaid by history with a layer related to local traditions, which it is preferable not to reveal, giving rise to the presence of situations and characters that deliberately combine the sinister with the grotesque. Certain moments of the series reach an accomplished raw and soulless violence.

Perhaps the main drawback of the series is that once we meet the "culprits", the story is unnecessarily extended with the squabbles between them, looking stretched.

Grenslanders is a complicated story (packed in a flick movie) literally placed in a swamp of mixed cultures, mixed systems and justice isn't welcome. Because at the end of the day all story lines come together, that seems no excuse to tell the story in a calm way. Grenslanders episodes 1 and 2 were broadcasted as one (1h50m) and I was exited about the idea, the topic, the details. The next week the broadcasting of Grenslanders 3 and 4 I was completely confused. I decided the next day to watch it again, because I could not remember anything I should to follow this story, which on such is quit interesting, but the way it is brought doesn't stay in your mind. So a good reason to start watching these episodes over again. Now I can understand some plot lines. But also see some horrific blur in the production. There are too many characters who are not made familiar with. The scenario doesn't help you to identify suddenly appearing key roles. Maybe the series is too short for the compelling story? Fast editing and a lot of car movements doesn't explain me as a viewer why stories develop, The dirty landscape neither. The stories developing in this "flick" are a bit too much together. And the storytellers swallow it all at once. All introduced characters in episode 1 (and 2) are collapsed in affairs in episodes 3 and 4. We have 4 more episodes to go I am afraid we will have a lot of dead corpses to make this a succesfull serie. Untill now, there were only a few corpses carried around with, and somebody buried alive. So I will keep watching, but again, next week when part 5 and 6 are shown, I would like to know the next day what I was watching at and what I had learned from it. Not this lousy experience, that you completely are desorientated because of the flashy filming and editing without recognizing your audience. Story telling begins with patience. And timing...

This series by Int title Floodland is an epic series. It deals - in an abstract way - with actual themes like migration, racism and xenophobia, guilt, revenge, criminal rituals, # Metoo and loneliness. The series is set up in a cinematic way, the landscapes are interestingly spooky and desolate. The cast is excellent, we liked Wim Willaert as Carlos Tierneteyn a lot. Also newcomers like Adana Unigwe ( only 16 years old), Robin Boissevain and Anne Laure Vandeputte are acting very well. The serie lifts off even more from episode 4. Has an interesting soundtrack also.