Undercover (2019-2022)

Not much to add to the previous comments. 'Undercover' (2019) is a slick production and the undercover aspect is nicely worked out. Both cops and criminals have a role to play in order not to fall under each other's rigid rules. It's just such a shame that the series fires cliffhangers and plot twists at you at a killer pace, which may keep the suspense tight but at the same time often at the expense of emotional development. Take for example the moment when John Zwart against his gut has to decide to shoot Jurgen, knowing what this will mean for his own daughter. It could have been a heavy and charged moment, but now feels undeserved because it lacks a proper build-up in which you have bonded with involved characters. In fact, that Jurgen hated me so much as a caricatural crook that the fateful shot didn't stir any emotion. I'll take this as an example, but there are more times when the series builds towards catharsis but the build up to it feels undeserved. 'Undercover' looks nice but doesn't stick enough.

Translated from Dutch · View original

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Although the series doesn't really do much wrong, it doesn't excel at anything either. Let alone that any form of innovation is involved. In that respect, the much-read praise for this Dutch-language production rather indicates how much our language area lags behind foreign thrillers.

For example, the tension of being undercover never really reaches a boiling point, the attempts that lead to it are too transparent and it also doesn't help that both the criminal circuit and the police force come across as clumsy rather than ingenious. It's nice that Lammers' role remains more local in nature, but a quick-tempered peasant is just less menacing than a cunning mastermind.

Still: entertaining and captivating throughout the entire playing time and almost all actors deliver solid to good performances. Good entertainment, but no landslide innovation.

Translated from Dutch · View original

This season is a grandiose mockery. Will be widely advertised with Frank Lammers. Where is he?? The story is like 1 in thousands. Tension? Nothing there 0.0 I dropped out with a thumbs down.
Season 1 Super. Season 2 Flop! It is clear that Frank Lammers and Elise Schaap have given this series a swing and made it a mega sc6 undercover together with the 2 Belgian colleagues of course. However, the viewer is put on the wrong foot here and gets a wrong expectation. Unfortunately. A real shame. I was really looking forward to it.

Translated from Dutch · View original