BuZa (2021-2025)

Kees Prins makes up for it because without him this series would have been a big flop. The meaningless supporting role of Werner Kolf is much too big. Why is he so often in the picture? You saw the end coming from miles away. Why do the Scandinavians succeed in producing one top series after another and we don't?

Translated from Dutch · View original

I admit it immediately; I am ambivalent towards Dutch and Flemish series. Too often the drama is predictable and substandard, or the acting is mediocre. Or all three. Not so in the case of BuZa (Foreign Affairs), the political drama series by director and writer Frank Ketelaar (Red Light, Klem, Overspel). Ketelaar has done a lot of research, and has informed himself well with former Minister of Foreign Affairs Ben Bot, among others. You notice that. The events feel realistic and the dialogues run smoothly.

While the De Fractie series was very disappointing at the time and Morten only slightly better, BuZa quickly gets to the point. In just four episodes, the new BuZa minister Maarten Meinema (Kees Prins) is put to the test with sensitive files and corpses from his own closet. Prins is in place and carries BuZa. surly, clumsy, curt; this role shows similarities with his role as Huub Couwenberg in Overspel. The other roles are reasonably occupied, but snowballed slightly due to Prince's powerplay. Werner Kolf as Meinema's assistant suffers the most, and is lost. As if he himself does not know why he was cast for BuZa.

In short, BuZa is not perfect. But a hopeful prologue to a series that should have had four more episodes.

Translated from Dutch · View original