Women of the Night

Read the review by clsi-19102 and had to chime in. Plot? Nope. Cast acting? Nope. I gave it a 7 solely due to Karina Smulders. From fully in control of situations in an understated subtle manner to lost emotionally, I thought she was spot on. The series only worked when she was on screen. As I said: ViewPoints !

This is a very mediocre crime series from Holland. The acting is not good (especially Thijs Römer, who is from an acting family but cannot act at all) and the storytelling is sloppy. But the biggest problem of this series is, is that none of the characters is likeable.

The way this series plummeted from being good to being bad truly hurt. It started out as an interesting and enjoyable character study about a madame and the girls in her escort service (with some tedious side stories regarding organized crime, political corruption, and a dysfunctional relationship with her teenage daughter). Unfortunately, it morphed into a "crime drama" and it was all downhill from there.

***Below might be considered spoilers for some***

It ended up being chocked full of unlikable characters who I wanted to see walk off a cliff; chief among them being: 1. Lulu, the teenage daughter - almost every scene with her mad me cringe. 2. Said daughter's grandmother, Sylvia - evil through and through, but good for a few laughs. 3. Ralph, a crime boss - Your stereotypical mafioso. 4. The police inspector (I can't even remember his name) - The crusading "crime fighter" who wanted to win no matter the cost.

Hard to believe in the characters which detracts from the plot which is as much about collusion as the oldest profession. Not helped by some wooden acting. Given all that happens the director fails to generate any tension. This is left to the soundtrack guy. An odd piece of viewing.

A series about a woman who for various reasons decides to step in a role of madame. And gets tangled in organized crime, organized crime wars, police, powerful people, corruption..... sprinkled with some family drama and various (supposedly) interesting characters. The departure from usual US or UK setting is also nice.

It's not a bad series, but the background, how her agency fits in crime network and how it all connects to political corruption is done very superficially and vaguely. No real explanation, just a few lines here and there and we are expected to fill in the blanks ourselves with what we (think we) know about organized crime.

Watch once then forget about it.