I watched the first episode of 'Katarakt' without prejudice or any knowledge about it at all, so I started with a clean slate. What I saw was in one word: "ridiculous". The story is set in Haspengouw, Limburg, Belgium, yet nobody seems to speak the regional dialect, weird... The protagonist, Elizabeth, is a 38 year old department head in the university of Hasselt (again, nobody speaks the dialect), has two kids, each 18 years old; which means she was 20 (or 19) when she gave birth to two kids. We are supposed to believe, that she successfully finished her studies, and became department head in a university, with two kids at the young age of 19? Her father is a doctor, and so is her brother, and of course... they look down upon her because she's not a doctor; she's married to the son of a fruit tree pruner, whose other son (her brother in-law) is married to her best friend (or sister, it wasn't quite clear); so Elizabeth and her husband, Paul, are having some sort of relationship problems; he doesn't like it that she's trying to get a promotion in the university, because he's hardly seeing her now; think about the relationship difficulties they will face if she'd be promoted. Yet with her busy schedule, she still finds time to go out and help her father in-law with the fruit trees (She doesn't have to sleep, of course). Did I mention her father in-law is having financial problems? Ooh and she accidentally cut of her brother in-law's finger... whoops; The character's are way over the top: you have the unlikely successful young businesswoman who doesn't have time for her husband and her two adolescent children who are hardly any younger than she is, yet she still manages to work all nights at a fruit tree garden...; and we are supposed to believe that?! Oh yes, before I forget, she has a retarded brother... gee... could you be any more soap-opera?!
These things would not bother me in an afternoon soap like 'neighbors' of 'days of our lives' where it's not uncommon for an evil twin brother to pop-up on times unexpected, but this cannot do for a Sunday night line-up!
Now for the good stuff: the acting's solid, they have a pretty good cast (yet I would find it more realistic if the spoke the dialect!), and the directing is fairly decent, 'though not great.
These things would not bother me in an afternoon soap like 'neighbors' of 'days of our lives' where it's not uncommon for an evil twin brother to pop-up on times unexpected, but this cannot do for a Sunday night line-up!
Now for the good stuff: the acting's solid, they have a pretty good cast (yet I would find it more realistic if the spoke the dialect!), and the directing is fairly decent, 'though not great.