Civil servant proves that Balkan action productions should be left as a dream and nothing else

I was weary starting this one. Predrag Antonijević is a fairly contraversional Serbian director, known best for creating and directing the acclaimed procedural drama series Ubice mog oca (pronounced Ubitze mog ottza) My father's killers)) which I haven't seen despite it being on my list for quite a while, a stepping stone in modern Serbian television, starting the trend of thrillers and crime dramas which they had quite mastered since then (with some shinning examples including gems like Besa (known internationally as Besa: Blood Oath) and Crna svadab (pronunced Tzrna svadba (The Black Wedding)). However, he is also known to get very political in recent years, particulary with his 2021 feature film Dara from Jasenovac (Dara iz Jasenovca (Dara ez Jasenovtza)) about the war crimes against Serbs, Croats, Jews and Romani happening at the Jasnovac concentration camp during the 1940s and comitted by the political/military extremist group Ustaša (Ustasha). That film was famous for overexaggerating the amounts of death and violence in the camps, as well as blatantly making up certain elements presenting them as factual. Many historians and film critics (including myself and the people who actually work at the Jasenovac Memorial Park) labeled the film as anti-Croat and anti-Catholic propaganda piece, agreeing that, whilst there is no denying that the horrible events of murder, rape, torture and exploitation did occur in it and many other concentration, work and reeducation camps across the Balkan penninsula (Croatia in particular) the film doesn't portray them in a realistic nor accurate manner and, as mentioned before, makes up certain events and statistics presenting them as factual.

Why am I talking about a director's personal politics? What does this have to do with a review? Well, you see, Antonijević managed to sneak in some in here as well, albeit related to different topics. But even if we exclude the many obvious pushings of political messages within this show, it's just not a well executed piece of media objectively. I love a good espionage thriller as much as the next person (wheater it's a book, comic, movie or a show), but this is certainly not one of them (even if you had expectations as low as I did).

Let's take a look at why this is the way it is...

A little sidenot before we start, this show was incredibly succesful outside of Serbia too. Apart from Croatia it was also available on networks and streaming services in India, Brazil, Puerto Rico, Slovenia and the US.

(1) Hammering in of Political Messages

To paraphrase Star Wars: The propaganda is strong with this one.

Now, I'll be fully honest, I have no knowledge of Serbian politics nor international relations to full judge this show on an objective level. However, through a combo of my Serbian friends, aquaintances and random strangers from the internet I found out that this show is layered in propaganda.

From the very first episode we see that a major player in the storyline is Kosovo. If you weren't aware the relationships between Kosovo and Serbia are fairly heated, as Kosovo's official stauts is that of an autonomous region within Serbia itself, however, ever since the 90s and even prior there have been political confflicts between the two as Kosovo desired independence and, despite being acknoweledged as an independent state by a large number of countries, given that it's not a member of the UN, it's still not considered to be so in many of them either. The show plays off of this by having pro-independence Kosovians portrayed as antagonists (usually terrorists), whilst portraying the pro-autnomous region ones as the good guys. Not to mention that they are very much portrayed as backwoods violent thugs and gangsters or prostitutes.

Another fairly interesting aspect of the show is the glorification of the Serbian goverment as the we know what's best for you and we'll achieve it by any means neccesary type (apparently this is particularly obvious in the COVID themed season 3, but as this is a review of season 1, I won't be mentioning it as I haven't seen it given my If season 1 doesn't grab me, then the rest probably won't intrigue me either rule). This is interesting because, apparently, most Serbs dislike a lot of the political choices their goverment makes, so making a show that portrays them as the good guys feels like a very tactical move indeed.

Finally, as a Serb on the internet explained it to me, the show seems to have a victimisation complex, showing how everyone is against the country and that they must fight back. I did notice some hints of this, but given the fact that, as I said, I'm not well versed in the topic, I don't have a lot to say about it further than that.

Overall, it's pretty obvious that this show is a blatant propaganda piece and political tool disguised as an action drama and I would say a perfectly done one in that aspect.

(2) Objective Negatives

The writing of the show is very wooden. As I had expressed numerous times I believe for the writing to be the heart and soul of every product and is the ultimate criteria I base these reviews on. Unforunately this writing doesn't feel organic enough to be realistic, nor is it comic booky enough to create a disconnect from reality. It's sort off like teen-oriented projects whose writers have no clue how teen behave, except it's about an intelligence agency. And also, of course the show has to include meaningless who slept with who and why type of drama which annoys the everling life out of me, not just here, but in other pieces of media. You already have a tense and exciting storyline about espionage, assasinations and a galore of less than legal activities, how is that not engaging enough that you also feel the need to include a storyline about a love affair.

Another thing that irks me about it is the acting. There's no chemistry between the actors and thus I gained less interest in the already terriblly written characters. And these aren't community theatre rejects either, they're very popular actors who showed up in other movies and shows. I just feel like they were given poor direction as they can turn in a good performance if they try. But when your characters feel like stock blank slates upon which elements from a bajillion other pieces of media are projected, then you don't really have that much of a saying in the matter of the quality of your performance. When the performance do get some sort of character, it usually comes of to forced and hamfisted line delivery or seeming to over the top or imitative of other projects with this similar idea or style. However, a standout of the show is the very brief cameo of actor Mensur Safiqu as the Kosovian gangster Bogdani. I'm familiar with his work from his standout performance as Ljah Bajrami in the Serbian crime drama Besa, considered by many (including myself) as the greatest piece of Serbian television ever produced.

Finally, let's talk about the visuals. They're just boring and uncreative. Once in a while there's a cool shot, but it's still a shot that's been done many times and has been proven succesful time and time again. It doesn't really make that show inventive or even interesting. Imitatation is the sincerest form of flattery, as they say. The one exception would be the design of the opening credits, but we'll talk about them later.

Overall, yeah, this isn't a very well made show, even on a proffesional level.

(3) Ok, Let's Hear Some Positives

Finally, let's give credit where credit is due.

The visuals in the opening credits are amazing. If it's one thing Balkan shows know how to do, it's to hype you up with a great looking title sequence. It does everything a good title sequence should do, introduces you to the world, themes and style of the show you're about to watch, it's aesthetically pleasing and is followed up by memorable music.

The music in the show is also generally good and hits the mood it goes for pretty well, I have zero complaints in that regard.

The action coreography in the show is incredible. It's not on the same level as franchises like Jason Bourne, James Bond or any of the other action giants, but as far as European productions go this is a standout as we rarely go for this type of content.

So, in the end, would I reccomend it?

Well, not particularly. Apart from drowning in political propaganda and delivering outright harmful messages and damaging stereotypes, the show has very few positives outside of it, and, quite frankly, none of them play into the overall quality of the show. It's sad, but it's a fact. But if you're into action shows, it wouldn't hurt you if you give it a try. Who knows, you might actually enjoy it.

Trailers: