Agries melisses

I am excited by this series. Great performances, suspense, cliffhanger episode endings, secrets and mystery. It includes everything a demanding viewer wants. It is also set in the Greek postwar era, so it appeals more to people obsessed with the past as myself... All characters even the minor ones are interesting and the protagonists have a back story that gradually unravels and adds more depth and dimension to each of them... Everyone has a reason for his actions. But those actions inevitably have consequences.... As time goes by, the viewer is very difficult to choose side. Even the more unlikeable characters become sometimes likeable. There are no ,good, and ,bad guys, as in real life. That gives more believability to the series. I would like to praise all the cast and crew but that would take several pages... I will focus on Eleni, performed by Mrs Kitsou. Eleni is the symbol of the eternal greek woman, a woman with strong character, dynamism, and initiative. Her appearance, reminds us of an ancient Caryatid. Her main antagonist, Doukas Sevastos, performed by Mr Kakouris, the land lord that covets her land for an upcoming industrial zone, is an imposing figure with a deep voice, an iconic character that reminds us gangster movies. He is an enforcer of murders performed by his henchman Meletis and his late son Sergios. He keeps secrets even from his sons and his adulterous wife Myrsini. The greatest secret of all, is the forgery of his father will, a secret with devastating consequences if ever revealed.... I will stop my review here. The characters are many, the story long, the plot twists endless... I could write a whole new book with that amazing series as a springboard. For me is something unprecedented, since I am a cinema lover and never before have I watched a series with so many episodes. That is the most important thing about the series. It can captivate assorted audience.... I want to congratulate the creators of the series for the gift they offered us.....

We've waited so long for such an amazing series production, with lots of young talents having long theatre experience! Worth watching !

It's an incredible TV series with so many talented actors and actresses. The writing is good. Indeed the best Greek TV series of 2019.

This show is actually really really good. The writing is strong, the actors are wonderful, and the budget is a lot higher than most Greek shows I've watched (don't get me started!).

My only issue is the telenovela genre which consists of a LOT of episodes. Four days a week with an average run time of 50 minutes leaves room for filler and repetition.

That small aside, this is a drama series worth getting addicted to and I'm so thrilled I discovered it on ANT1 in the US. The actors are seriously so talented (most are theatre-trained and it shows) and they get really meaty material to work with from the writers. You can see them luxuriate over each word like they own it and they certainly do. And then the direction, cinematography, sets, and music all work together to create a really beautiful piece of television. Is this the start of a new age for Greek television and cinema in Greece? I certainly hope so.

This period drama series, set in the plain of Thessaly in the 1950s and 1960s, falls neatly within the genre of "telenovela" (i.e. a type of soap opera with a finite structure and a full narrative arc, as opposed to the more common open-ended type of daily soap). It is the first of its kind (daily period drama) to be made in Greece, but it is reminiscent of similar international hits like "Seis Hermanas" (Spain, 2015-2017). As such, it is full of the familiar tropes and clichés of the genre, so you *have* to be prepared for them going into the series and you have to learn to accept them and love them for what they are, otherwise there is no point watching.

As a project, this series is blessed with an extraordinary amount of talent, from writing and (more so) directing, to acting:

1. The acting. The cast of this series mostly consists of stage actors; highly acclaimed actors with multiple theatrical accolades. This elevates the overall quality and the quality of some scenes in particular to remarkable highs.

2. The atmosphere: sets, costumes, photography - everything is done to a high standard. There may not be a great variety of shooting locations but everything looks and feels how it should. The eras depicted (late 1950s in the 1st season, mid-1960s in the 2nd) feel accurate enough to allow full immersion in the story. There's next to no anachronisms, my only accuracy qualm being the use of local dialect, or to be precise, the lack thereof.

3. Characters and storylines: not all characters nor all story arcs are great, but the world of the story is so rich that there's something for everyone. There's plenty of three-dimensional characters with complex stories, conflicts, and existential dilemmas; there's comic relief characters who still feel fully fleshed-out. There is a great deal of sensibility in the way the stories are built: despite the heavy use of tropes, none of them remains generic, they often get embellished with details and literary-level observations. Thematically, there is a huge range, which also covers hard and little-discussed social and ethnographic themes, under a very welcome and refreshing female gaze by showrunner Melina Tsampani.

4. Original music: also unlike other products of this genre there is loads of original scoring, both in terms of recurring themes and within individual episodes/scenes. The soundtrack by Alex Sid (Alexandros Sidiropoulos) is in itself a beautiful collection of songs which transport the listener to the world of the series (check it out on youtube - all songs are released there by PanikRecords).

In all, I don't feel guilty at all watching what, based on genre, ought to be a guilty pleasure. There's so many beautiful and well-executed elements in it and it makes me feel..."all the feels", which is the whole point for a piece of television drama. Truly a blessing in the difficult times of the 2020 pandemic.