Whatever story this show wants to convey is harmed by its camera work, editing and under par characters. Especially its jittery camera handling and fast edits make this one an unpleasant sit.
Years ago, this sort of movie-making became a hype and while the rest of the world has moved on, some Dutch filmmakers seem stuck in it.
Good movie making is like any profession the skill of selecting the right tools for the right job: one picks the right shots and uses the right editing for the scene. It is bad when you toss the camera all over the place and cut scenes down to one second shots as if you are showing a roller-coaster from a first person view while all you are showing is two characters casually talking. Stop trying to be cool. Stop trying to be the next Michael Bay.
What is also most in evidence is that the two main characters are caricatures. Fokker is the Gung-ho guy who likes to live the life: fast cars and women. Plesman is his opposite: the conscientious serious guy who tries to make his dream come through. With Plesman not only having to deal with all the challenges involved in starting up a new business but also reigning in Fokker.
The last straw that made me decide to stop watching was the obligatory sex scene. I got the feeling that about every sex scene in Dutch movies and series are more akin to rape than anything else. As if they are incapable to make such a scene anything else but unfeeling sex. And bang there it was, right in the middle of the first episode.
This series is tripe and it probably does no justice to the real people. The makers would have been better if they didn't use historical persons, but just based their stories on them. In this way they could make up the story as they see fit instead of distorting the historical ones.
Maybe a tell-tale sign for the quality of the series is that they went out of their way to advertise the CGI airplanes, buildings, cars and streets. Granted, it looks impressive, but probably hides the shortcomings in other areas.
Years ago, this sort of movie-making became a hype and while the rest of the world has moved on, some Dutch filmmakers seem stuck in it.
Good movie making is like any profession the skill of selecting the right tools for the right job: one picks the right shots and uses the right editing for the scene. It is bad when you toss the camera all over the place and cut scenes down to one second shots as if you are showing a roller-coaster from a first person view while all you are showing is two characters casually talking. Stop trying to be cool. Stop trying to be the next Michael Bay.
What is also most in evidence is that the two main characters are caricatures. Fokker is the Gung-ho guy who likes to live the life: fast cars and women. Plesman is his opposite: the conscientious serious guy who tries to make his dream come through. With Plesman not only having to deal with all the challenges involved in starting up a new business but also reigning in Fokker.
The last straw that made me decide to stop watching was the obligatory sex scene. I got the feeling that about every sex scene in Dutch movies and series are more akin to rape than anything else. As if they are incapable to make such a scene anything else but unfeeling sex. And bang there it was, right in the middle of the first episode.
This series is tripe and it probably does no justice to the real people. The makers would have been better if they didn't use historical persons, but just based their stories on them. In this way they could make up the story as they see fit instead of distorting the historical ones.
Maybe a tell-tale sign for the quality of the series is that they went out of their way to advertise the CGI airplanes, buildings, cars and streets. Granted, it looks impressive, but probably hides the shortcomings in other areas.