Penoza

The first two seasons of Penoza are definitely worth the while. Good story, good cast and they kept everything somehow realistic. However, the decision to give the kids of the main character Carmen a more prominent role from season 3 on really killed the show for me. They are such poor actors (especially the girl) that I found myself not able to watch the show anymore. Twice I have tried to finish season 3 but everytime I just find myself so annoyed about these actors performances that I have just given up. Too bad because I held the show in such high regards the first two seasons.

This is a pretty average Dutch TV series that uses a well worn theme of a woman who takes over her husband's drug trafficking network. It's reminiscent of the Italian series where the daughter took over the Father's mafia network, and also the Mexican series, "Reina del Sur". The story is spotty in areas, and the overuse of flashbacks at the start, and during each new episode, becomes extremely annoying after a while. They lend very little to the continuing story, and one has to resist the urge to constantly "fast forward" through those scenes. Character development is good for the lead character, as it shows how the business can seduce anyone to become totally changed as a person. In other instances, more development could have been done with some of the other characters e.g. the detective Leeflang. The acting is average. While there are 4 seasons listed, I was only able to view two of those but if the other reviews on this site are right, the series seems to go downhill after season two so I may not have missed much.

'The Godfather' explored the problems of an essentially good man trying to escape from his criminal family; 'The Sopranos' explored how such a family might live amongst the ordinary upper-middle classes. Dutch drama 'Black Widow' blends both these themes, as its protagonist is a mafia widow who finds herself lumbered by her murdered husband's criminal debts. It's strength is in displaying the ambiguous relationship that such this person (and the other non-combatants in the family) might have with their bread-winning relatives. But it lacks the operatic quality of the Italian drama 'Gomorrah' (my favourite mafia story of the year), and it's also lacks that drama's rich portrait of how organised crime permeates civil society. Overall, it feels mostly plausible, and well-plotted, but I found it a little hard to care about Carmen, our semi-innocent heroine who merely wants to continue her good life without having to pay for it.

... really a series to have been watched week to week when first aired, for streaming makes it increasingly-repetitive, tending towards very boring when viewing more than a couple episodes at a time... and there is no 'crime-family'-story, just the female lead character continually saying she-wants-out but never leaving her life of crime-death-suffering

... what the show does do to some degree is to showcase the absurdity of wars-on-drugs, as they are futile beyond any-all measure... as with any class of drugs billions of dollars are involved, and whenever a small, unscrupulous-element seizes control, there will always be unending numbers of others wanting to take over... bodies piling up very quickly

... there are several very strong as well as weak performances, the weaker ones don't really sink the couple early seasons, but eventually the entire production suffers under their negative weight... so watch the early years, enjoy them for what they are, then quit or you'll-get-what's-coming-(to-you)

This series goes from good (series 1), OK (series 2) to bad and boring (series 3). And now there's talk about a series 4. Please don't.

The series is about a woman (Carmen) whose family is in the drug business. As her husband is killed her happy family life is overand she becomes very much involved in the business.

We all know these kind of stories, but being set in Amsterdam and with good acting the first series was very good.

Series 2 brought in some new characters and was pretty much OK, although it didn't have the good story lines.

Series 3 was completely unbelievable (Carnen takes on the Russian as well as the Mexican Maffia).

So if you wanna see some decent dutch acting, watch series 1 and leave it at that.